Published on 12, July, 2020
Since graduating from college I've been strugglign to adapt to society, I've been unable to hold down a job and have been dealing with depression, mood swings and a whole host of mood swings. My wife pointed out to me a while back that I showed a lot of signs of autism, and rethinking about my childhood (I was always paranoid that people weren't telling me that there was something wrong with me. I wasn't like the other kids, I did well in school, but I didn't act like them, I didn't talk like them, and I didn't think like them), I couldn't read until I was in 4th grade, and the only solice outside of learning I ever took was video games. It was the world I understood best. My psychiatrist agrees that I might have autism but is telling me that a diagnosis would do nothing for me, and that kaiser, at least the one I go to, will only diagnos children and that they don't see a point to diagnosing adults because we should already have coping mechanisms. School was the only thing I ever understood. It made sense. I have a schedule, I attend, I learn at my own pace, I can leave and return, I gain knowledge, I grow in power, I move onto the next adventure. It was even easier to be social, I felt safe. It was an environment I knew. Anyways, I forgot what my point was. I guess I just wanted to be heard, realize I'm not crazy, that I do have this problem and that I can finally start finding resources to help me succeed.
That seems to be a common attitude of GPs at least but the NICE guidelines are quite clear really. Maybe have a look at the website of your local NAS, the one here has a page just on that very issue and they ask people to report to them if they got comments of that sort because it's wrong and they will get in touch with the GP to flag this up. Guess the same would apply to any other health professional. The NAS doesn't seem to do much for adults really but I think this one thing they really did. I had got that response from a GP who actually sits on the board that decides about the funding in each individual case and he told me I may well have AS but adults can't be diagnosed through the NHS. Then I got in touch with the NAS and suddenly it was possible after all. The argument about the coping mechanisms seems quite odd really, given the (current) problems you are listing there...