Older prediagnosis struggling

I am yet to be diagnosed and really struggling with all the faux pas I've probably committed over the years. I have extreme social anxiety, but when actually committed to a conversation I open up far too much and living in a small community its just making me not want to go out at all. 

I've tried masking for years but truth is I just don't have the energy to mask or keep friendships going. I'm panicking a lot and feel at odds with the world. I feel too much! I feel like a fraud as I have no diagnosis, I feel like I will lose the plot if I'm diagnosed and be even worse if I remain undiagnosed. I am sick of hearing were all on the spectrum it just doesn't help me at all I don't understand the world or the people in it and want to hide away or be mute.

I don't have any answers no one takes me seriously so I don't feel like I can talk about it. 

  • I'm so confused sorry for rubbish reply times been ill with a bug still trying to get to grips with the site too. I'll try messaging you! Hope you are OK x

  • I feel likewise from time to time. I'm sure you are stronger than you think, sometimes you need help to bring out your strength. Trouble is often one can't find anyone close enough to help. Sites like this are quite useful. Also books and publications, especially ones about autism.

    For some people diagnosis helps - it's like a big weight off their shoulders. For others diagnosis actually makes them tighten up. Please consider carefully and then proceed with conviction the decision you come. Better days will come so stay strong.

  • I'd like that too, but I'm not sure how to do it, are there instructions somewhere? (I'm not the most computer literate of people.)

  • So many diagnoses are missed during childhood I don't think this is a valid point at all. I'm almost fourty! 

  • This is how I feel too, completely lost who I am and where I belong. If yould like to be support buddies please inbox me I'd like that very much. 

  • Thank you for your reply it's given me a lot of food for thought, I won't lie I am still a bit confused with it all but I think it's my brain that isn't quite ready to take on information that could change my perception yet again. Gosh hope this makes sense, apologies if not but yes at the moment with little support I seem to be randomly offending people or annoying them every so often so it's not surprising I have this social anxiety. Why I annoy or offend I have absolutely no idea which is quite frankly scary. 

    I'm trying my hardest to be authentic and self censor myself but it's so difficult with so many variables I can't account for. So I have decided to stay quiet, listen and try to show an interest in how other people are. Well it's my goal anyway lol

    I'm so cross this wasn't picked up sooner, it's only my insistence that they're doing this assessment. I've had people tell me I'm not autistic over the years yet now it seems so obvious that I am. Im scared of not having a diagnosis after all of these years struggling to get one. 

    Thank you so much for your message, I really needed to hear it as I'm so close to giving up a fair portion of the time and it's given me the drive to see this through. Thank you. 

  • Thank you I do need to get proactive yes I am very depressed at the moment

  • Thanks for your reply! Yes I just want to be taken seriously and understand my issues and I think a diagnosis would help me in that area. I just have to stop thinking of the past I think thank you for reaching out to me x

  • Thank you for your reply, I will assume you meant well, even though you've totally missed the point. I'm not sure why you assumed I'm only referring to recent changes in my behaviour and emotions, I've been almost 2 years weighing up my personal history and lifelong social difficulties before deciding to ask my GP for an assessment. If it turns out I don't have Asperger's syndrome, fair enough. But it wasn't a decision made lightly.

    Out of curiosity, do you have autism yourself? You come across as NT.

  • You cannot become autistic unless you have suffered a brain injury some how.. A lot ot people get some form of brain injury in the womb, have a genetic reason. being born or suffer some illness or catastrophy in life. Me being male I do not appreciate female problems personally,  There has been a change in your otherwise  normal life. If you were autistic as such this would surley affected you as a child when "Normality or not is most easily seen".,  

  • I've been referred for assessment, and I'm waiting to hear back from them. Meanwhile, I've had a preliminary assessment from the Wellbeing service, on account of persistent anxiety and recurring depression. Before that, I actually thought I was doing fairly well, but I just wanted to find out if I'm really autistic. But now I've had to think about my problems, they've come into sharper focus, and I feel a lot worse. Sometimes I wish I'd left things as they were, because I'm struggling to find the equilibrium I had. I didn't realise how detached I'd become from my emotions, and now I'm crying over the slightest thing. I suppose I'm looking for reassurance that this is part of the process, and it'll be worth it in the end. I'm not sure who I am any more.

  • Thats life. everybody does it.

    This is no more useful than the "everybody is on the spectrum" response that the OP has already said they're fed up with. As someone I very much respect on another forum often says; "autism isn't about the what, it's about the why."

    That a non-autistic person's social intuition sometimes fails is not surprising; intuition is a shortcut which enables fast social reactions, but this speed entails a certain amount of inaccuracy - which is sometimes regrettable, but easily accepted as just the kind of lapses experienced by most people from time to time.

    For many autistic people, that intuitive response is simply not there, and has to be compensated for with an awful lot of conscious analysis. Being stumped for answers to social brain-teasers isn't a matter of random errors for us; it is our default state, against which we are constantly battling. The surprise is not that we sometimes make the same kind of errors, but that our constant, fatiguing vigilance is often able to reduce them to a level which causes people to be casually dismissive of our inner struggle. It is this difference, the ever-present need for hyper-vigilance, and an inability to resolve the issues even with the benefit of hindsight, which leads to the kind of persistent social anxiety described by the OP.

    Simply comparing observable behaviours without considering the thought processes which cause them is one of the biggest problems with the understanding of autism, in my opinion. It is correct that there is no autistic behaviour which "everybody" doesn't also do "sometimes" - even the more extreme behaviours such as melt-downs and dissociation. However, there is a big difference between occasional lapses of intuition and the systemic errors of a developmental condition (which is where the expertise of a professional diagnostic team can be crucial.)

  • I think you are depresed, We all say embarring things I cringe at some of the things I said or did half a centuary ago. Thats life. everybody does it. With todays technology everybody losing the ability to communicate face to face, it will become more common the upside the Recipient of the comment will be just as affected and not take any notice., I have just had to think back to 72 years ago to what I said to my mother now dead about her new Hair do and still cringe at the offence I caused, and wish I had not said it.I said what any 7 year old boy would have said at a change in your mothers appearance not knowing a compliment was sought.

    Myadvice Think about what you like doing Make a list and chose and do it, until you getfed up. when you have found something else.

  • I struggled pre diagnosis too. It took a lot of stubborn effort and depression to get referred for assessment. I am over 60.

    Since being diagnosed this year I have been feeling a lot more empowered to help myself. I learn a lot just on this forum, so stick around. I have bought a specific book recommended by another person here, and quite honestly I feel positive that I can accept myself as whoever I am and work on behaviour/depression. We all find different ways of coping, but I found having a formal diagnosis both settled my mind and stopped other people saying “Oh no you’re not!”