Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, I've been suffering from mental health problems for a while now and was searching for answers to why I was like this. I cam across the Autism website and decided to do some research and did two online autism tests. The results from both indicated that I am very likely autistic. My signs and symptoms match perfectly with the autistic spectrum disorder and a lot of my questions have been answered. So what now? do I go to my doctors for a diagnosis? I am on the list for CBT in November for the depression, but now I think they need to know what I have found out.
Welcome to the forum.
It's quite common for first suspicions of autism to come from questioning long-term mental health problems; that's how it was first identified in me.
In the first instance, your GP is usually the first point of contact, and they would then refer you to a specialist team who would do the assessment. There are two things that it's only fair to warn you about. Firstly many GPs don't understand autism very well, and may not see the connection; so use forums like this one to break down your difficulties a bit so that you can present a good case, and take your online test scores with you (some of those tests are used for official screening; they're scientifically tested to show that they are a good indication.) Secondly, waiting times for an NHS assessment can be very long, though this depends a lot on where you live.
Make sure to mention your suspicions when your CBT starts, even (or especially) if your GP has been a bit dismissive. Counsellors have better training in psychology than most GPs, so may be more supportive, and autism can change how CBT should be done so that it's most effective. In my case, the counsellor even offered to do a swap with a colleague who'd worked with autistic people before, and the autism-aware counsellor supported my case for assessment by writing to my GP.
And finally. Get active on communities like this one. Even the best professionals can't really grasp what living every day with autism is like (unless they're autistic too, of course!) This community is very supportive and a gold-mine of advice; there's a lot that you can discover that no professional could ever tell you!