Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi all, I’m a thirty something year old female. my wife has recently undergoing assessment for neurodiversity and asked me to help fill her the forms out and we noticed that while the ADHD side of things seem to be very like her, the autism questionnaires seem to relate more to me so I have approached my GP for a chat.
I have a long history of mental health issues - childhood OCD, health anxiety, depression and generalised anxiety. I was badly bullied at secondary school to the point of feeling suicidal by a group of friends who I guess we now refer to as “frenemies” and when younger (18) was in an abusive relationship.
I hve been lucky enough to study at uni, go on to get further higher education and have a great job, but I massively struggle with criticism (leads to a crushing depression), I get incredibly paranoid and anxious about things and massively sometimes struggle with social situations (have to have some alcohol etc to be able to cope which I know is maladaptive.) this is not exhaustive but they seem to be the traits that cause me the most distress.
my wife had a breakdown following our sons birth and was sectioned and in a mother and baby unit so I suspect I’m probably carrying some PTSD as well.
I’m really worried that the GP will put this all down to PTSD which while I agree needs addressing (on sertraline and went through IAPT counselling when everything was happening) I think I have definetly noticed my neurodiversity has come out a lot more since all of this happened.
has anyone A) had an occurrence of PTSD which has led to ND traits coming out? And B) can anyone offer any advice how to approach my GP during my appointment? I did send them a rather long email explaining my reasons/situation for them to triage me.
I don’t expect a diagnosis will change much for me, but I think it would help me understand myself more and be a better parent for my son. Especially if my wife is diagnosed as well.
thanks for listening x
It's a tricky one, because of what you have been through. It could just be anxiety and PTSD. If you think you have autism, then the best thing is to approach your doctor with why you think you might be autistic. Do the AQ50, and take it with you. And then think about what struggles you have, because they will need a justification to refer you. It's not the GP's job to diagnose you, so all you need to do is show that there is reason to suspect autism.
Paper. Thank you for this. Yes I also agree - tricky as other conditions involved.
Had a long chat with my Mum this week about it all and she agrees that she initially held back from talking more about my childhood initially as she did not want to influence me in any way but has informed me of several other incidences in my childhood which perhaps showed more ND traits than she had realised following me approaching her to ask what her thoughts were.
I think I probably learnt to mask more in early adulthood etc but the potential PTSD/traumatic events have made me regress in a way to a place where I felt safer (childhood) and perhaps my brain has partially rewired itself due to this and some ND traits have come back up to the surface that my brain had tried to bury. ️