Received diagnosis of ASD today

Hi all,

At 54 years old, I self referred myself to my local NHS diagnostic service about 2.5 years ago; last week I had my 2nd online appointment and today received a diagnosis of ASD over the phone, with more information to follow in the post.

At the moment I feel exhausted, but relieved to finally feel able to begin to move forward and put some past life experiences in context - as a next step I am thinking of accessing some counselling via another local self referral service.

Has counselling worked for other people?

  • Thanks, yes autism experience for a possible counsellor would definitely help. 

    How does meditation help you?

  • i did 10 weeks of counselling and got nowhere --- my mind was way too stubborn, nothing changed   but you may be different and my suggestion would be to ask for a counsellor with autism experience. Also counsellors vary so things may happen for you, so give it a go if it is free.

    I am using meditation now ( 2/3 years into it ). Nothing happened until 2 years in ! ( at 30min per day + constant reading on how to do meditation  ) 

  • Fair comment - I also had some counselling for anxiety (about 25 years ago), which did some good at the time. Not sure it will work for this new diagnosis, but it might help to unpick the past with some guided support?

  • I was diagnosed last week and I'm very much still in the middle of everything and trying to reinterpret the past with the lens of the autistic spectrum. To that extent I can't share much about counselling but I did have counselling in the past for anxiety and it didn't work for me, but I might be interested in some counselling again, but I'm just not exactly sure how I feel about it.