Published on 12, July, 2020
I don't have a lot to say, it feels more appropriate to 'lurk' to begin with, and get a feel for how the conversations work. I've always found online conversations easier than real-world ones though, so I hope that won't take long. (What does "real" even mean??)
I'm a 60-year-old male, not formally diagnosed but likely to seek this soon. When I asked my GP some years back about this he said "It won't get any better..." or something very similar. Which was very offputting. A more sympathetic member of the practice did make a referral to Royal Bethlehem but they wrote to me sometime later saying they didn't have enough information to proceed, which I think means they wrote to the GP asking for backing and were rebuffed. But I don't really know.
I retired recently, at age 60, because I just don't have the energy for work anymore. My last job was okay and the people I worked closest with were supportive and nice, but after decades of "this" I have had enough. It won't be easy financially but I just don't care anymore about that: I'll only get one crack at life, I think, and time is definitely against me. But it's not too late to be happy, I think, so I will have another try but from another direction. This settling down, having kids, blah blah blah thing didn't really work for me. What does seem to work, a bit, is meditation, so after quite a long time of being too busy I have made time for it and try to sit quietly for a while every day.
I'm currently waiting to start CBT which I hope might be helpful. And having said I won't have a lot to say that's probably enough for now. Thanks for reading.
Abhaya_D,
Hello there.
I'm glad that your work experience had nice and supportive co workers, you lucked out there. :-). It's unfortunate about the attitude of the G.P, a more tactful way to express that could have been "life as an Autistic person can be more challenging but here are some resources to try."
I'm not sure if you've researched much on Autism but I found reading stuff by actual Autistic folks very enlightening. There's some total nonsense out there too.
I found CBT gave me different ways to fight my negative thoughts which can be helpful but can also feel fake. It's a good tool to use though and having someone to work through your mental mind map is helpful.
This forum really helps in different ways in that you may find others who have your experience of life, you may learn things you were unaware of and you will definitely see there are many loving, kind and intelligent folks here. :-)
Thank you. I am absolutely certain I will learn a lot from other members of the Forum. I am reading a couple of books at the moment. I am very prone to reading multiple books at the same time but have a rule not to read more than one novel (or biography) at a time as I forget who the characters are. The book is by Luke Bearden who seems to really know his stuff. He takes great pains to stress that no two people are alike, and this is just as true of autistic people. Bye for now and thanks again for the welcome.
There's some total nonsense out there too.
But we love talking about nonsense It's fascinating to find out why someone finds it interesting.