Hey everyone.
I'm Tara, 39 years old from West Midlands.
I've very recently started the referral process for a formal autism diagnosis.
I have suffered with mental health issues most of my life since I was a child.
I had 2 bouts of post natal depression and was told I had GAD. I've been on numerous types of SSRIs and been for counselling, CBT etc.
The reason I went for the referral was because since I have become perimenopausal, I am finding my symptoms of my thought processes/behaviours etc increasingly unbearable. I suspected initially I might have traits of ADHD but it was the mental health practitioner who said he felt it was more Autism and perhaps ADHD aswell.
This has been a huge shock to me, however, the more I educate myself, the more I am joining the dots and figuring myself out in a new light.
I feel somewhat distressed that my life up until this point could have been much different.
However I'm trying to be positive about it and reach out to others, not necessarily for validation but to make some new friends and to listen to other people's experiences too.