• Replies 4 replies
  • Subscribers 79 subscribers
  • Views 1483 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Lost in the midst of diagnosis!

Squirt

Hi, 

I'm sorry if I've put this in the wrong place but this is my first post, so please redirect if warranted.

I'm 23 years old and was intially diagnosed with BPD when I was 18 but didn't really receive treatment. I returned to a personality disorder clinic in April and after a lengthy and quite traumatic assessment, I was told that I had either Asperger's or HFA.

What a shock that was!

They discharged me from their service with a list of a few websites and that was it. No indication of what to do next. Nada.

I'm waiting to see the secondary mental health team, why I don't know, at the end of AUGUST (!) and have booked in with my GP to get the ball rolling on what to do next. But is this the right thing to do? 

Since being told, my whole world has turned upside down. I feel lost, confused, angry and questioning everything I've done. It's affecting my work (a PhD in Biology) and my poor fiancé doesn't know how to help.

Is this normal? Have I made the right steps towards getting a diagnosis?

It seems outrageous to drop a bombshell like that on someone and then expect them to go away and process it all on their own?!
 

  • Hi and welcome to the forum

    It's important to realise that how you are is how you were born, and you are still the person you have always been.

    You also need to look at the positive side - you may not be able to see this now, but here is the address of a web page which outlines our strengths:

    theotherside.wordpress.com/.../

    All the best

    Pixie

  • Hi Squirt,

    It's completely understandable that you are feeling this way, given how you have been treated. Hopefully when you visit your GP they will have received communication from the personality disorder team, including the reason for your onward referral. You certainly have the right to ask, and to know what is being planned for you - it is about you, after all.

    Your fiance also has some options, such as reading about autism, joining this forum or calling a helpline to talk about understanding and coping with the information. Some areas do have groups for partners, but i don't know much about these or the areas in which they are located.

  • Hi Squirt,

    It's completely understandable that you are feeling this way, given how you have been treated. Hopefully when you visit your GP they will have received communication from the personality disorder team, including the reason for your onward referral. You certainly have the right to ask, and to know what is being planned for you - it is about you, after all.

    Your fiance also has some options, such as reading about autism, joining this forum or calling a helpline to talk about understanding and coping with the information. Some areas do have groups for partners, but i don't know much about these or the areas in which they are located.

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Hi Squirt,

    Welcome to the community.

    It is very common to arrive at a diagnosis of autism after a mistaken diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Mental health often works by trial and error and there isn't really a great deal to do about that. (There are reasons for that!)

    It is confusing for people to be treated the way that you have been treated. They don't really think these things through and they will struggle to imagine life from an autistic person's point of view. It is also a struggle to understand what is going on when you are under considerable stress - presumably you are struggling with things somehow?

    The GP is the starting point for this, the GP is responsible for your health and they have to commission all health investigations and interventions.

    Have you tried the free test at aspergerstest.net/.../ THis is a good starting point and hopefully it will confirm the direction that you have been sent in by the MH people.