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
I have quite few conditions and I was diagnosed (probably misdiagnosed) few times. So my issues could relate to these other conditions. But one thing has never changed: my inability to follow and participate in social chit chat. Doesn’t matter how I was, in depressive state or in better shape. It’s persistent my whole life. I could and can not follow and take part in it. Stimming is also a thing that I’ve been doing since I ever remember, even before I was traumatised. Same about my sensory sensitivities. You can take tests, they will give you some insight. For me the best was RAADS because it has a lot of detailed questions and options for answers about the childhood and current situation. I remember as a child I used to understand absolutely everything literally. In my language there is a proverb “to turn a needle into a fork” - to exaggerate. I spent long time trying to understand how you could make fork out of a needle. There is not enough metal in one needle, you would need 100 needles to have enough metal to pour the fork. Only as a teenager I started understanding that there is some different meaning in it. But even now when I see proverbs I have never heard before, I get confused and the first thing I get is the literal picture of it. Like wearing a heart on your sleeve. I know it’s not supposed to mean that you have a picture of a heart on your sleeve but this is what came first to my mind. Only then I googled the real meaning