Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi all,
I've literally just joined this site, as I've realised that I can read lots and lots of things about AS, but to really help me understand it and how I am with AS, I should speak to others who have the same experience.
Background: over the past few months, I've been having relationship therapy with my wife. Both of us are in our early 40s, and we have a 3 year old son. Quite early on in the therapy sessions (I think we're about 8 sessions in now), the therapist asked me about AS and if I had been diagnosed. I was mildly surprised at this (although my wife had joked about this in the past with me - saying I showed very autistic tendencies), but the therapist pointed me to a website called aspiestest, and I completed all the tests on the site (I think there are roughly ten there). The vast majoroty of results showed I was definitely not in the NT category and definitely displayed a lot of AS tendencies. I've since contacted my GP (took forever as they only allow phone appointments and it's hard to wait by the phone when you're working full-time and are in meetings most of the time!) and she immediately agreed - once she'd seen the test results - to refer me to an adult AS diagnosis team in the NHS, which she said would take around a month for them to contact me.
I guess I'm not really sure what questions I have, but I'm still attending the relationship therapy with my wife and I think it's becoming apparent that my AS (we're all pretty sure that I do have it, despite not yet having an official diagnosis) and I really, really want to understand diagnosis and how I can understand it in terms of myself, my marriage and life in general, as it appears there are large 'gaps' in terms of emotional responses (and shutting down in stressful/agrument situations), paying compliments (and taking them), making affirming statements, etc I just don't get - and I'd desperately like to be able to, not just for myself, but for all of those around me.
Hope this makes some sense - I'm quite anxious even writing this!
N
Hi Gaillimh,
Thank you for sharing this with the community. You may like to have a look at the following page which includes personal accounts, which may help:http://www.autism.org.uk/about/adult-life/stories.aspx
If you have any other questions, or wanted some advice, you may like to contact our Autism Helpline team. They can provide you with information and advice around the next steps after a diagnosis. You can call them on 0808 800 4104 (Monday to Thursday 10am to 4pm, Friday 9am to 3pm).Please note that the Helpline is experiencing a high volume of calls and it may take a couple of attempts before you get through to speak to an advisor.
I hope this helps,
ChloeMod:)
Hey Chloe,
That is really helpful - thanks very much, I'll make sure to contact the Helpline.