overthinking impact of my diagnosis

What school of therapist do you have?

I only ask, because recently completed a 16 week course of CBT for social anxiety. It didn't really work because it just concentrated on trying to treat the symptoms of anxiety without really getting to what was causing the anxiety - pretty sure it's ASD in my case, and it sounds likely in yours too.

I agree with you that in  this context I also believe that the diagnosis is important because it can explain everything. You cant ignore the diagnosis and focus on the anxiety and depression. That doesn't work, I have just tried it!! The ASD caused the anxiety and depression. Pretty poor empathy and lack of understanding / training from the therapist I would say. If this sounds like it might apply to you and your circumstances I would try and explain this to them, this kind of thing can improve understanding and the overall effectiveness of the client patient relationship.

In fact, I've had 3 separate courses of therapy during my life, and not one of them has ever picked up on the fact that I'm probably ASD. There were so many clues. I kept mentioning it to my latest one and kept getting brushed off. Until just before the last session when I had discovered a number of things that made me a lot more certain, and then finally she did listened and took it a lot more seriously. There seems to be a shocking lack of understanding and awareness of Autism even amongst good, trained, professional counsellors and therapists. Which all 3 were, apart from this. I find this very disappointing. I could have got to where I am so much earlier If there was greater awareness amongst these people.

I've not had my diagnosis yet, but I believe that getting one will certainly help with understanding the causes of difficulties a lot more readily.  For instance it seems that already I'm not loosing control of my moods anything like I used to, and recovering far quicker now. If it's just due to something like a routine being disrupted. Because all of that makes sense now and so I can get over these sort of things so much more quickly, and relegate them to minor and trivial incidents much more of the time.

The anxiety though is not so simple unfortunately. I watch a lot of Autism You Tube videos, and one of the themes on a recent one was kind of "you're not a rude jerk, although people will think you are". I think it's going to be all about being able to get more comfortable with, or at least understand and accept this dynamic a bit more, that may help with social anxiety.

I think this kind of difficulty is at the crux of the anxiety for me. People are misunderstanding difficulties as deliberate rudeness. And fearing that interactions are quite likely to 'go wrong' in some way due to ASD is exactly what is causing my anxiety, it would seem to me!

What school of therapist do you have?

I only ask, because recently completed a 16 week course of CBT for social anxiety. It didn't really work because it just concentrated on trying to treat the symptoms of anxiety without really getting to what was causing the anxiety - pretty sure it's ASD in my case, and it sounds likely in yours too.

I agree with you that in  this context I also believe that the diagnosis is important because it can explain everything. You cant ignore the diagnosis and focus on the anxiety and depression. That doesn't work, I have just tried it!! The ASD caused the anxiety and depression. Pretty poor empathy and lack of understanding / training from the therapist I would say. If this sounds like it might apply to you and your circumstances I would try and explain this to them, this kind of thing can improve understanding and the overall effectiveness of the client patient relationship.

In fact, I've had 3 separate courses of therapy during my life, and not one of them has ever picked up on the fact that I'm probably ASD. There were so many clues. I kept mentioning it to my latest one and kept getting brushed off. Until just before the last session when I had discovered a number of things that made me a lot more certain, and then finally she did listened and took it a lot more seriously. There seems to be a shocking lack of understanding and awareness of Autism even amongst good, trained, professional counsellors and therapists. Which all 3 were, apart from this. I find this very disappointing. I could have got to where I am so much earlier If there was greater awareness amongst these people.

I've not had my diagnosis yet, but I believe that getting one will certainly help with understanding the causes of difficulties a lot more readily.  For instance it seems that already I'm not loosing control of my moods anything like I used to, and recovering far quicker now. If it's just due to something like a routine being disrupted. Because all of that makes sense now and so I can get over these sort of things so much more quickly, and relegate them to minor and trivial incidents much more of the time.

The anxiety though is not so simple unfortunately. I watch a lot of Autism You Tube videos, and one of the themes on a recent one was kind of "you're not a rude jerk, although people will think you are". I think it's going to be all about being able to get more comfortable with, or at least understand and accept this dynamic a bit more, that may help with social anxiety.

I think this kind of difficulty is at the crux of the anxiety for me. People are misunderstanding difficulties as deliberate rudeness. And fearing that interactions are quite likely to 'go wrong' in some way due to ASD is exactly what is causing my anxiety, it would seem to me!