Published on 12, July, 2020
After a few days of lurking, I have now gathered my courage to speak... so hello!
I finally received my ASD diagnoses just two weeks ago, so I'm still coming to terms with it and I've still not reached a point, were I'm confident calling myself autistic (I still feel a bit like an imposter). So far, I've only told my partner, my mum, and my line manager at work.
The road to diagnosis has been long, though. Since my teens I've always looked for an explanation for my struggles and I've looked at the symptoms of every single mental illness twice, just to see if anything fit. I probably even looked at Asperger's a few times and dismissed it because I didn't feel it completely fit - I get very affected by certain emotions displayed by others and figured that didn't fit the whole "no empathy" thing. Then my counsellor told me that not everyone fit/show all symptoms the same way, so I went home and found anything and everything I could on how Asperger's/Autism is displayed (and missed) in girls/women... and then I knew!
I finally found the courage to go to my GP to get referred for ASD assessment after I asked my mum if she, looking back with the knowledge she has today, thought I may be autistic. She didn't even hesitate and gave me an instant "Yes". It's like I found the missing piece for this giant puzzle, and as I couldn't bear waiting 3 years (and had the money), I ended up going private. But I finally was told that yes, this is the piece of the puzzle and it's mine to keep!
Hello. Im in the same boat as you. I kept telling myself I couldn't have aspergers because of a few things. My empathy being one of them. Do you ever get overwhelmed by others emotions? I do quite often.
I do and I tend to take on the emotions, like if people are angry, I get angry; if they're sad, I get sad. It's a constant battle with my partner who has the occasional road rage. A 5 min drive can sometimes mean I'm in a crappy mood for the rest of the day.
Yeah I think there needs to be a new subset on the spectrum empathetic aspergers! I take on my wife's moods and emotions. Pretty tricky when she is depressed. But I've learnt to leave her to it and concentrate on my own happiness. Everyone's guilty of a little road rage now and again.