• Replies 3 replies
  • Subscribers 70 subscribers
  • Views 52 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Diagnosed yesterday

Claudias

Hello I’m Claudia. 

Im 32 and had my assessment yesterday with psychiatry UK and was diagnosed. 
I’m not entirely sure what I’m feeling at the moment, I’m struggling to talk about it with friends and family. I don’t know anyone that is autistic or has gone through this so if anyone has any advice I would be grateful. 

Thank you 

  • Hi, welcome to the community and I hope you find here support and like minded people. 

  • Hi Claudia - congratulations on your diagnosis and welcome to the community!

    Following a diagnosis, it can be common for us to experience a lot of emotional dysregulation, so please don't worry if you continue to experience this - it's normal!  Besides perhaps feeling some relief about now having an explanation for our past difficulties, this can also include working through a phase where we experience confusion, uncertainty, so-called "imposter syndrome", and/or (backward-focused) anger, frustration, grieving, and more. 

    As for many others, my diagnosis turned out to be the start of a new journey of learning and adapting, rather than a conclusion with instant solutions.

    The NAS has a great set of articles focused on "after diagnosis", including one covering how you might feel during the subsequent days / weeks / months. You might find them of interest and/or helpful:

    NAS - How you might feel after a diagnosis - includes perspectives from other autistics

    NAS - Other advice covering post-diagnosis including:

    • Talking about and disclosing your autism diagnosis
    • Emotional support for family members after a diagnosis
    • Formal support following an autism diagnosis
    • What can I do if formal support is not offered or is not enough

    Therapy (or counselling) is often recommended after a diagnosis, as a follow up action for your GP to arrange. If you prefer, depending on where you are in the UK, you may instead be able to self refer for talking therapy on the NHS.

    Whilst waiting for your report, you might find it helpful to borrow or buy this book, which includes discussion of various types of therapy and counselling, together with advice on choosing the right therapist or counsellor - all from an autistic person's viewpoint. Several of us here have found it very helpful:

    The Autistic Survival Guide to Therapy

    Finally, I'll just mention a couple of books that I and others have found helpful early on in our 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)

  • Hi Claudia. I never know if congratulations is the right thing to say or not, if it is congrats. I was diagnosed in Jan and I told my family and a lot of them don't speak about it with me at all. I can only suppose its because they don't want to say something wrong? Id still rather they said something than nothing. I think I have to allow for them to get used to the change as well as me. When you feel like you've been someone else for in my case 40yrs its a lot to unlearn just to be yourself. My parents did a part ADI-R part of my assessment so I had no choice but to tell them?! Every family is different. I hope you can use this forum as its really helped me over the past few weeks. I hope as and when you decide to speak to them it goes as well as it can. Joey (Mads is my cat)