Published on 12, July, 2020
After a 2 year wait I was recently diagnosed, and it is taking some time to adjust to it, such a mixturte of different feelngs, relief, regret, avoidance, disbelief, but mainly just relief. It wasn't just that I was weird all my life, there was a recogniseable, distinct, pervasive difficulty and there always has been. It wasn't that I didn't try hard enough, it wasn't that I was lazy, or just didn't want to mix with people or do a 'normal' job, but there are other more positive things too...the synaesthesia type experiences I have had, sensitivities to energies, my being drawn to workshops and groups where I could learn to make eye contact, to hug and enjoy physical contact, and many many more things I can now begin to place as to why I did this or why I was interested in that, or why I would have my own version of a meltdown. Thank you to the community for existing and hi to everyone. I look forward to learning and understanding more/
Thank you, I got talking to someone else on a different thread and they pointed me in the same direction,. I did th AQ10 and Aq50 questionnaires and scored high on both so will probably go down that route.
Go to your GP (doctor), ask to do a screening questionairre - explain that you have some concerns and would like to know if the diagnosis might be relevant for you. If the findings of this are sgnificant they should refer you for an adult assessment - the wait can be a long one, mine was 2 years. It is possible but expensive to go privately. Hope this helps.
Hi Timetraveller, I am new on here and wonder how you go about getting a diagnosis as an adult, I am 50 and have managed throughout life but always job flitting and never really reaching the potential I showed early on. I have a 19 year old son with ASD/ADHD and the older he gets the more similar we become. Even he has noticed and often comments that we are the same person just a generation or two apart. I have often wondered if my mannerisms and personality are shaped by autism but have no idea where to go to get that kind of advice, with my son we started at the health visitor and ended up at CAMHS. But where do you start as an adult. Sorry if I ramble, I write like I think so it tends to be all over the place.
Thanks for sharing this - very interesting article.
DuckBread said:I also think that empathy works both ways.
Indeed, this is certainly true, and has been written about and studied as the "double empathy problem" - here's a link to an article about it here on the NAS site (Googling that term will reveal many other good articles about it).
I also think that empathy works both ways. It's interesting that neurotypical people say that autistic people struggle with empathy, but are very rarely able to empathise with how we feel, or imagine how it feels to be in our world. I do think you're right in that we're extra sensitive in many ways.
why would you do that to yourself?
I’m logged in on my mobile rather than my laptop atm so can’t see the ‘hints and tips’ bit, I’ll have a look at it later!
Sorry Kitsune I don’t understand the Hints & tips bit very much at this time.
To Timetraveller, welcome...I’m new too & diagnosed a year & a bit ago. Though I’m dyslexic & I can’t understand this websight very well.
i get you totally..I too did ESP & spiritual group stuff, but still felt weird or distant from others. Thank goodness for my diagnoses....been a tough year processing it all.
But like you i’m extra sensitive, telepathic, empathetic, have visual/spatial synaesthia to music, see stuff around me when I’m over stimulated like really vivid colours...etc etc etc.
Good to know too about melt downs...I’m also getting to understand ‘looping’ too. I do this too much. It’s suppose to be not healthy & effects the immune system....no wonder I get crappy days.
Biggest bug bear is I have no filters to sound so I hear everything at once...or get overwhelmed with sound & it becomes unbearable. Also can read peoples emotions to much too... which can be also be tiring & upsetting at times...so I spend most of my time alone...that’s sort of ok. Of course there are upside to this as well...better to not go on & on...as I do.
Really big time relived folks...yay! That we share so many likes....whew! Happy days. Thanks you are all brilliant
Oh wow! congratulations on getting your diagnosis! It must be a relief to finally discover why you are the way you are?
What is interesting about being 'sensitive' is that it connects with the autism thing of empathy - I was told that autistic ppl are empathic in a feeling sense, but not necessarily in a cognitive sense, that they find the aspect of creating a perception of another's world more difficult. I think that for me, these sensitivities are something I have worked on, both in the psychic sense and the feeling sense with the trainings I have done, and believe now that it's something ppl with autism have an extra sensitivity to...
Hi, what amuses me about your post is that one of the main duties I have had at festivals is to lay out car park and campervan fields and get ppl to park in straight lines within a limited space, and now I know why I like doing it hehe
Hi, Timetraveller! Welcome to the group :) I'm 25 and I've been on the assessment waiting list for nearly a year now - I'm hoping they get in touch soon, as I'm finding the wait very difficult.
You mentioned that you're sensitive to energies and I can see a lot of people here saying similar things. It's interesting, because I've always been told I'm very perceptive, and I've often had 'gut feelings' that turned out to be absolutely right. My friend jokes that I'm a little bit psychic.
Hi
Was diagnosed at 45 last year, although I've always known
It's confusing at first, even though I have always known.
Your be fine and hopefully won't take long to come to terms, with what you have probably suspected for many years.
Were not less, in many ways we are superior, that's my belief.
All the best
oh and his parking has returned to normal now since his being back out of hospital.
So a bit like when I notice people’s ‘negative energy’? and it drives me insane lol.
Or nottice really subtle differences in things that make others think i’m Crazy?
For example i noticed s neighbour was parking his car not quite as straight as he normally does. It was only subtle, it wasn’t like he was parked really badly. But it wasn’t quite right, it wasn’t lined up in the usual way somehow. And I made a comment to the support workers, they said his parking looked the same as usual. But turns out he was ill and not many days after I noticed he’d been parking slightly off he was in hospital with a manic episode.
Thanks for the welcome everyone - what a confusing journey it has been and a surprising outcome with this diagnosis, very unexpected, though I did think there was something I couldn't explain. I have had problems for years understanding social interactions and actually doing them, but have learnt to 'pretend', even though I didn't actually realise this was what I was doing.
Yes similar. I just attended a weekend at a retreat that ironically enough involves a lot of spontaneous hugging - I held out from going there for years as I knew this was what went on, but 6 years ago persuaded myself to go, and it's been difficult and challenging each time but now I can do it. With some hugs, I can pick up a feeling from the person that isn't of me, it might be slightly to do with smell, but it's more an inner feeling, a bit like a vibration that I can feel.
interesting, i have sound (music) to visual/spatial synaesthia and time (think: calendars, weekdays) to visual/spatial, particularly in the form of geometric shapes. As i chlid I'd told my parents I could see music, particular different chord formations for each key signature, and i was told off for being hypochondriac and attention-seeking.