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Referral Appointment (Clueless???)

BuddhaFish

Hey,

I'm currently self-diagnosed (found out about research into how females present differently than males about 18 months ago and basically all the symptoms clicked with me) but have recently made an appointment to try and get a referral.

  I literally have no idea what to ask/ say in my referral appointment. I'm a 19 year old girl and had no option other than to make an appointment with a male GP.

 Any help would be well appreciated!

Parents

  • That must be very disheartening BuddhaFish.  To me, the doc sounds poorly informed. Not all people on the autism spectrum talk the same way, and if he really knew so much about it, he'd know different people present in different ways. The female presentation can be very different to the male, for starters. Anxiety can be a standalone condition but it can also be a symptom of other conditions.

    You are entitled to another opinion. Personally, I'd choose a female GP for this, if at all possible, and ideally a younger one,  who will have studied medicine since aspergers has become more widely recognised.

    That said, if you do see an anxiety specialist, you can maybe talk to them a little bit about ASD. They might well have some experience of helping people with ASD cope with anxiety, and might ask a little bit about where you think any anxiety you do have is coming from.

    It takes me back to my attempts years ago to tell a GP I was suffering from depression. She was very old-fashioned, and told me it was just trendy for students to say they were depressed. So that was that. I believed I couldn't possibly have depression, and suffered it until I had a breakdown ten years later. These days, docs take it very seriously if you present with possible depression.

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  • That must be very disheartening BuddhaFish.  To me, the doc sounds poorly informed. Not all people on the autism spectrum talk the same way, and if he really knew so much about it, he'd know different people present in different ways. The female presentation can be very different to the male, for starters. Anxiety can be a standalone condition but it can also be a symptom of other conditions.

    You are entitled to another opinion. Personally, I'd choose a female GP for this, if at all possible, and ideally a younger one,  who will have studied medicine since aspergers has become more widely recognised.

    That said, if you do see an anxiety specialist, you can maybe talk to them a little bit about ASD. They might well have some experience of helping people with ASD cope with anxiety, and might ask a little bit about where you think any anxiety you do have is coming from.

    It takes me back to my attempts years ago to tell a GP I was suffering from depression. She was very old-fashioned, and told me it was just trendy for students to say they were depressed. So that was that. I believed I couldn't possibly have depression, and suffered it until I had a breakdown ten years later. These days, docs take it very seriously if you present with possible depression.

Children
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