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Why Get Diagnosed?

Boggart

Hi,

I'm an adult (31), female, and I think I might have mild autism. I wanted a diagnosis, and the mental health team (with whom I'm involved for anxiety) gave me the AQ10 questionairre thingy, on which I scored 8/10, but when I took it back to my GP she said something like that they don't really have any facility to diagnose adults and it wasn't that important anyway- I should focus on my other health stuff. I have severe anxiety, complete agoraphobia (I don't leave the house at all except for tests / specialist appointments at the hospital), and emetophobia, and digestive problems for which I've had an intestinal bypass- that's what the specialist appointments etc are to do with. 

I like my GP a lot- she's been very kind to me helping with my physical health problems, and very understanding about the anxiety stuff. My previous GP was nothing like that, so I really appreciate her. I do not want to make her mad at me, or get her into any trouble at all, but I'm a bit disappointed I can't get diagnosed. 

I guess I'd just like some advice- what should I do? What would you do? Is there any way I can press this without making my GP dislike me? Or is it best to just drop it? Does getting diagnosed make any real difference to your life? Does it help with studying / benefits / would it affect the treatment I get for anxiety? I'm already signed off sick, and I don't know if I really need any support for the autistic traits- they've always just been part of my personality, but I'm not sure how much the anxiety is tangled up in it, or whether that matters at all for treatment purposes? I might be completely wrong, anyway- I might just be an oddball and not autistic at all! I have a lot of the traits, but certainly not all of them. I guess I just got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about it and I'd really really really like to know. 

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  • Former Member
    Former Member

    There is some useful stuff about the law and guidelines on this page www.autism.org.uk/.../the-process.aspx

    I think it might still be useful to discuss this with your MH contacts - they should be aware of the difficulty that you might have and they should be able to help you get the referral.

    A lot of people with autism struggle with pursuing diagnosis as, like you, we are often good at dropping stuff because things to be more trouble than they are worth. There are lots of threads on this forum started by people in your position who have been given the brush off by their GP.

    Just picking up on your mention of empathy. Empathy definitely is a problem for people with autism. We are really bad at understanding facial and non verbal signals that non-autistic people use to understand other peoples feelings. Empathy (identifying peoples feelings) is different from sympathy (feeling for other peoples situations) but if you can't do empathy then it's harder to develop sympathy so I think a lot of people with autism struggle with both empathy and sympathy.

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  • Former Member
    Former Member

    There is some useful stuff about the law and guidelines on this page www.autism.org.uk/.../the-process.aspx

    I think it might still be useful to discuss this with your MH contacts - they should be aware of the difficulty that you might have and they should be able to help you get the referral.

    A lot of people with autism struggle with pursuing diagnosis as, like you, we are often good at dropping stuff because things to be more trouble than they are worth. There are lots of threads on this forum started by people in your position who have been given the brush off by their GP.

    Just picking up on your mention of empathy. Empathy definitely is a problem for people with autism. We are really bad at understanding facial and non verbal signals that non-autistic people use to understand other peoples feelings. Empathy (identifying peoples feelings) is different from sympathy (feeling for other peoples situations) but if you can't do empathy then it's harder to develop sympathy so I think a lot of people with autism struggle with both empathy and sympathy.

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