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Morning all

Austin1922

Hello, I haven't been diagnosed with Autism but it was suggested to me by my wife a couple of weeks ago. I went to the gym and googled autism and empathy, there it described 90% what I was feeling and things made a bit more sense.

I visited the GP Yesterday and discussed it with him, he told me how long the diagnosis can take and gave me an assessment test to take along with an ADHD one (that had never crossed my mind) in the meantime he told me to crack on with all the things that help me deal with the problems I have.

I found this forum last week and immediately saw a couple of posts that I could relate too, so hopefully this place might sort me out a little too.

My main drama at the moment, well has always been is communicating with others about my feelings to immediate family.

Anyway that's enough now.

  • I hope you get your diagnosis eventually, it took me many years in the UK. Once diagnosed, so many past events of your life will make better sense.

  • Hi  . Welcome. Communication issues to immediate family (or closest ones) is a pilar problem for me. It wasn’t so bad before TBH. I think there is a natural tendency for every autistic trait to get worse as time passes by or as we get older. Everybody is different though so the speed of how things change varies from one person to another. I hope you get your assessment asap.

  • Hi and welcome to the community.

    I've also always had problems communicating feelings, I feel uncomfortable talking about how I feel and can get over emotional and shut down.

    I hope you find the forum useful.

  • Hi and welcome to the community! 

    It sounds like you have the referral process well in hand. If you live in England, you might just like to check whether your GP is intending to refer you for an assessment to be carried out by the NHS itself, or for a potentially much quicker one carried out by an approved private provider via Right to Choose (but still funded by the NHS). There's more information on that option here:

    NAS -  How to request an autism assessment

    Ahead of your assessment, you might find the advice here helpful, along with the other information - which covers all stages of the process - in the diagnosis hub:

    NAS - What can I do while waiting for an autism assessment?

    In terms of things that might help in the meantime, I'll just mention a couple of books that I and others have found helpful early on in our post-realisation or post-diagnosis journeys:

    Self-Care for Autistic People: 100+ Ways to Recharge, De-Stress, and Unmask!

    How to Be Autistic (free download currently available via this page)

  • in reply to Iain

    Cheers for all that info, 

    I took both assessments that the GP gave me yesterday and they both came back as showing significant traits.

    I'll take a look a the links you have provided.

  • Hello Austin, welcome to the site.

    Austin1922 said:
    I visited the GP Yesterday and discussed it with him, he told me how long the diagnosis can take

    There is an option for using a NHS path called the Right To Choose which is much faster than the default NHS process as the GP will put you forward to a private service at no cost to you. I think it only works in England and wait times vary a lot from region to region and even provider to provider, but it should significantly shorten your wait time.

    You can take an online test to see if you have the probability of a diagnosis. Just search on your search engine for "free online autism test" and there will be plenty to choose from - these are only an indication but most use the same test format as the assessment so are worth the time.

    For people starting out with a diagnosis I would recommend the book "Autism For Dummies (2025) - ISBN 9781394301003 (paberback); ISBN 9781394301027 (ebook)"

    It is an easy to navigate source material and is quite easy to understand and follow without the need to read huge sections of text in a particular sequence. Once you have picked out the bits that relate to your autistic traits then there are plenty of other books or resources that you can focus in on to use your time effectively.

    This site is a great resource too - check the Advice And Guidance link at the top of the page, but for a more personal resurce this forum has many years of the accumulated experiences of other autists to dig into.

    Austin1922 said:
    My main drama at the moment, well has always been is communicating with others about my feelings to immediate family.

    This is a problem for so many here, myself included. A good background article on it can be found here :https://www.simplypsychology.org/autism-emotional-processing.html

    For this, as with many other issues, a psychotherapist is a great resource to have as they can help you understand your issue, explore how it impacts you and help you develop ways to cope better with it. I spent a lot of time working through connecting with my emotions so I could understand, identify and embrace them and at the end it made me feel much less "alien" to those around me as I could identify my emotions more readily, be open to feeling the sadness, happiness, joy etc and also to see these in others to be able to respond appropriately.

    That is a lot to process to start with - let us know if there is anything you want to focus in on or just join in and be willing to learn as you go.