Newly diagnosed adult - very confused!

Morning all,

I was diagnosed with ASD on Friday and am completely reeling.

I am thirty-four years old and female. I have been treated for depression and anxiety since I was 18. In September I suffered a nervous breakdown. My husband suffers from ADHD and had been pushing me to be assessed for a while, and following the breakdown I agreed, because quite frankly I was non-functional and something had to change.

In November (I live in Oldham which finally has provision for this sort of thing on the NHS) I was diagnosed with ADHD (Hyperactive type). The curve ball was that my assessor asked me to see her colleague as well to be assessed for ASD.

I was surprised, but thinking nothing would come of it, didn't read up on it. As such, when I was told yesterday that I had do also have ASD I was knocked sideways. The assessor said that I'm very high functioning and mask well due to high intelligence but she was confident in her diagnosis. She said I have the variant that they used to refer to as Asperger's Syndrome.

I'm so confused and a bit in denial still. I mean, I'm empathic to a fault. I would say highly talkative, but I know that's a female symptom for hyperactive ADHD.

I'm starting the long process now of untangling the two to find a way forward.