Hello, from Yet Another Late Diagnosed Autistic Person

Hello everyone,

My name is "Jeff", and I was late diagnosed in March 2024. I believe I've been experiencing 'burnout' for many years.

I'm also trying to get to grips with my identity. Questioning things that I've done or liked doing, and wondering if I really like them.

My long-term depression and anxiety might be confusing things for me, further.

Some stuff that I do, that may give you a better sense of me:

  • I listen to music: XTC.
  • I love Blake's 7 and The Prisoner.
  • I used to play a lot of board games.
  • I dabbled in astronomy.
  • I practice karate.
  • I have a season ticket for Tottenham Hotspur, but I've rarely attended games over the past couple of years.
  • I exercise regularly.

My feeling of mental exhaustion impacts all areas of my life, but doesn't appear to affect my physical energy.

I wonder if 'movement' is something that helps me.

All the best.

  • Spurs will be interesting next season with all those new teams to play Wink

    PS what style Karate? I'm a brown belt in Shotokai (well it's heavily based on that, it's an independent club)

  • I’m a lat3 diagnosed ASD and ADHD too at 58.i also have or3 ious diagnosis of chronic depression and generalised anxiety disorder.

    Love Blake’s 7 and a lot more retro TV. Love board games too but rarely get to have a group or struggle to attend a club. I’ve resorted to solo board games but I do want to share.

    movement helps me too. But fi4 me it’s dancing to music I love and walking in the countryside. Luckily I live in rural mid-Wales.

  • My feeling of mental exhaustion impacts all areas of my life, but doesn't appear to affect my physical energy.

    Hello Jeff. This resonated with me. My body feels like a "ghost ship" sometimes. The ship sails its known course, but it's like the crew has long gone. However, the ADHD need to move compels me forward. Sometimes, I wonder if it's a warped antidote to burnout.

    I hope you can find a sense of community here, and you're being kind to yourself on the way to peace.

  • Hi and welcome.

    Hope you enjoy chatting with us.

    Blush

  • Oh Agricola was the first game we got, it's brilliant, and Pandemic is great too though not played it as much. Co-op games are a lot of fun, I do prefer working together rather than against.  Race to the raft is brilliant, I think it started as a kick-starter. There's a rules about discussing things before each round, but then you have to stay silent during people's turns. You have 2 tokens per game that allow you say things to influence others if you really need to, but one is a cat token and you can only miaow to do this. Sky Team is tense but so satisfying when you land your plane safely, especially in the different conditions! 

    Wing Span is a bit of an obsession with the expansions for something I've played once or maybe twice, and I even got Finspan (unplayed though I read the rules), and Wyrmspan for my daughter, as she likes laying out and organising the cards and all the eggs and cubes instead of playing the game. 

    I think I've watched most Ghibli films, and have a few art of books. Grave of the fireflies is soul-wrenchingly sad, but necessary viewing. I watched it once and sobbed through the whole thing. It's one of the few I haven't got on dvd, as if I get it I feel I should watch it again which is difficult, but is the sort of thing everyone should see once and I will need to address the hole in the collection sometime. 

    The first one I saw was Princess Mononoke, a powerful introduction. I love listening to the sound tracks, but the music from that film can be a bit too intense to listen to during work! 

    I got boy and the heron last year, but I think I need to watch it again as it's pretty out there. 

  • Hi Jeff, welcome to the community.  I'm late realised, not diagnosed.  I have faint chances of getting any assessment. One of your intrest is also mine- astronomy. Maybe I'm into it from a bit different angle,  but I'm reading and enjoying Neil Tyson DeGrasse (I read his books in my first language,  which is not English). I can't day I fully understand the bosons, hadrons and leptons, but its fascinating how everything got created out of a hot soup of tiny particles. And I love Jupiter and Saturn recently enjoyed watching about the Saturn's moon Titan, where the water ice is so hard like granite, but under the surface might be pockets of warm water 20*C and there are flowing rivers of .ethane and ethane and raining gasoline. Once I wrote a sci fi story about future human colony on Titan, where they used energy from the sources of the moon and created the colony under a dome. I also love Jupiter's moons Io because of its volcanic activity, when being pulled by Jupiter and also the other three Galeyan moons Europa Ganymede and Callisto. And I'm very excited to see if we find any forms of life on Europa or Enceladus and also if we manage to bring the rock samples from Mars to earth and see, if there was any ancient life on young Mars. Sorry for infodumping. 

    I hope you like this place.

  • I didn't know about the FireFox browser theme, I'll take a look. I haven't seen all of the Studio Ghibli films but Spiritied Away is one of my favourites. Grave of The Fireflies is good but one of the most depressing films I have seen.

    I own Wingspan but I've never played it.I've heard good things about Sky Team but I heaven't heard of Race to The Raft. I'll check it out, based on your recommendation. I like co-operative games.

    My board gaming stopped a few year ago, when I was dealing with burnout and depression. In many ways, I'm still recovering. Some of my gaming is on Board Game Arena, to try and help me recover.

    Pandemic and Agricola, are two of my favourites games.

  • Hi and welcome to the latelings club, I was also treated for depression, I thought in the end that I couldn’t have just been depressed and anxious since childhood, once the ‘penny dropped’ it all of a sudden made sense.

    I was diagnosed last year at the age of 57, sorry about Tottenham Hotspur, at least they won’t be wasting money on metal polish.

  • Oh it's hard to pick favourites, but one I've cherished most is probably spirited away (I have a browser theme for firefox with Chihiro flying with Haku.) Howl's moving castle makes me feel like a child though, and Totoro, well who isn't in love with that, we even went to see the stage show in London!! I was so desperate to see it, I even managed to organise us a trip there for it, I just had to organise everything in detail so I felt comfortable.

    Boardgame, I think it's Wingspan, even though i've barely played it, I keep collecting the expansions so I get all the bird cards (another big interest). We've played a lot of them though, favourite 2 player co-op at the moment is Skyteam, where two of you have to land a plane! Race to the Raft is also a lot of co-op fun, trying to get a bunch of cats off a burning island and onto the aforementioned raft. 

  • Welcome Jeff!

    I’m sorry to hear that you are probably experiencing burnout. Having that on top of depression and anxiety sounds like a horrible mix. Interesting though that it doesn’t affect you physically as much, though! That’s good. I’d say keep up with the exercise, that is probably helping a lot!

  • Hello  ,

    Thank you Slight smile.

    And thanks for providing a link for Autistic Fatigue and Burnout.

  • Hello  ,

    Thank you :).

    What's your favourite board game and what's your favourity Studio Ghibli film?

  • Hiya Jeff ! Welcome to the late diagnosed club Slight smile

  • Hi Jeff, welcome to the community! 

    Yeah being diagnosed can through up a lot of questions and lead to you looking at your life with a different lens. Burnout is also tough, you need to take it easy on yourself to work through it and be more careful with your energy afterwards to prevent slipping back in. 

    I like board games too, though I don't always have a chance to play them with kids, but still seem to end up with more each year! 

    Hope you can feel be at home here! All the best!

  • Hi  , welcome to the online community! You’ll find many adults diagnosed later in life in this forum.

    I’m sorry you’ve been experiencing burnout. It might be useful for you to take a look at our page on autistic fatigue and burnout: https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/mental-health/autistic-fatigue

    I hope you find this a supportive place to ask questions, share experiences and take things at your own pace.

    Best wishes,

    Anna Mod