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Newly diagnosed and now feel more lost!

DanFee

Hi all, 

Not sure if this is the right place to post, the psychiatrist recommended I join here. I am 34 and newly diagnosed with Autism level 1 (new being lunchtime today!) I am sat at work and cannot focus, I felt this would give me some clarify and some relief, but feeling more lost than I was trying to find answers. 

I keep getting a feeling that, maybe they got it wrong and I don't really have it, it fits, in so many ways it explains a lot but cannot help my brain telling me that maybe I answered wrong and got the diagnosis, even though I just answered truthfully. 

But my question is, what happens after? they have diagnosed me and will write a report and that is it, so although I now have an answer as to why I feel and think in a certain way, but no way to help myself lol

anyone felt the same after diagnosis? I mask a lot and it is exhausting, I just want to be able to be myself and I don't know how 

thank you for reading! :) 

Parents

  • After diagnosis you will get a report. It may suggest a few steps to try, but mostly you are on your own. It can't be cured, so it is a case of making changes to make your life easier. As each person is different this varies greatly.

    A little depends on what state you are in when you get diagnosed. If you are in burnout your first thing is to get out of it, so changes are non-negotiable. You need to get regulated.

    If you're not in burn out, then it is a question of noticing what causes stress and finding strategies to reduce it.

    If you have a lot of history, reframing it can be hard if you have trauma. Help may be needed.

    So you gave the physical and the mental adjustments. These take time.

    As you've noticed, having an answer is not the same as having a solution.

    You can have a look at my masking thread, it has some information about what it is and suggestions for how to reduce it. You will need to observe yourself carefully. Keeping a journal or diary will help to notice patterns.

  • in reply to Stuart333

    Thank you, I do feel like I have a lot to work through even without the autism diagnosis that's for sure! So I guess now I know, I am in the ahh what do I do about it stage! She said my report will be around 2 weeks so hopefully they will help. I actually read your making thread earlier when I first joined the forum,  it was a good read and I resonated do much with it 

  • in reply to DanFee

    I know some are not convinced, but I found chatGPT very helpful. I just talked to it like here, just write, rather than transactional question and answer. The longer you write the better. It will help with patterns and interpretation. You can ask what it makes of things as you build up a long thread (up to 500 entries). It has helped me figure myself out. 

    You type things like, I think this, I did that, I feel something else. I remember something. It comments.

    You can also ask it to be brutally honest as well if you think it is being too supportive.

    It can help to give different perspectives, and reduce self-blame. Like therapy.

  • in reply to Stuart333

    I often use chatGPT, I know I am not to take the information as gospel, but have found it really helpful, trying to understand myself better, way before the diagnosis but it also helped with with the referral process and how to access support through my GP ect as I just get extremely overwhelmed really easily, it is such a great tool! 

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  • in reply to Stuart333

    I often use chatGPT, I know I am not to take the information as gospel, but have found it really helpful, trying to understand myself better, way before the diagnosis but it also helped with with the referral process and how to access support through my GP ect as I just get extremely overwhelmed really easily, it is such a great tool! 

Children
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