Recently diagnosed

Hello Sammy Joe and welcome.

Mental health services can be hard to navigate as an undiagnosed Autistic person - not least of which, because many clinicians are not confident in their knowledge around Autism - so it often feels as though the "Service User" (aka person seeking support) is a perpetual teacher: inducting each Clinician they encounter into to ways, reasonable adjustments needs of an Autistic person in general (and specifically: the particular Autistic person in the room with the said given Clinician) ...which is quite frankly disappointing, exhausting and frustrating.  It can make people feel unseen, unheard and invalidated.

Hopefully, from this community here; you will learn that you are not alone (masking can mean we often partially hide "in plain sight" in the real World).  If you deploy a fidget toy in a public place - look around to spot who can't take their gaze off it easily ...they might just be neuro-kin!  I try to keep a spare, new, pocket money (about £2 from The Works stationery shop) fidget toy in my bag - to give as a gift to a stranger like that person watching intently - sometimes a new friendship can be forged, other times it just stops them staring at me (I'll take either scenario as a win).

I would be upset if you felt misunderstood here - although, as members we are not clones of one other - so miscommunications can occur - often fixed soonest: by saying so!  (We can be a direct-speaking style community here).

The "after Autism diagnosis" phase as an adult can strike people as weird or wonderful - wherever you may be within that territory - there are highly likely to be a range of people here who "get it" and can speak from a place from further along their own discovery of what their Autism means in their lived experience.

Hello Sammy Joe and welcome.

Mental health services can be hard to navigate as an undiagnosed Autistic person - not least of which, because many clinicians are not confident in their knowledge around Autism - so it often feels as though the "Service User" (aka person seeking support) is a perpetual teacher: inducting each Clinician they encounter into to ways, reasonable adjustments needs of an Autistic person in general (and specifically: the particular Autistic person in the room with the said given Clinician) ...which is quite frankly disappointing, exhausting and frustrating.  It can make people feel unseen, unheard and invalidated.

Hopefully, from this community here; you will learn that you are not alone (masking can mean we often partially hide "in plain sight" in the real World).  If you deploy a fidget toy in a public place - look around to spot who can't take their gaze off it easily ...they might just be neuro-kin!  I try to keep a spare, new, pocket money (about £2 from The Works stationery shop) fidget toy in my bag - to give as a gift to a stranger like that person watching intently - sometimes a new friendship can be forged, other times it just stops them staring at me (I'll take either scenario as a win).

I would be upset if you felt misunderstood here - although, as members we are not clones of one other - so miscommunications can occur - often fixed soonest: by saying so!  (We can be a direct-speaking style community here).

The "after Autism diagnosis" phase as an adult can strike people as weird or wonderful - wherever you may be within that territory - there are highly likely to be a range of people here who "get it" and can speak from a place from further along their own discovery of what their Autism means in their lived experience.