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Wondering

Golf23

I am just wondering how it has taken until I am 27 for a referral to be made to my works Autism Network for assistance and a buddy which will lead to getting the help I need to cope.

I think with this and knowing there is a support network will help me with going through the referral process and hopefully the diagnosis stages and get it formally diagnosed.

I just don't understand how my schools never picked up on any of the traits in me?

At school I was told I had low self-esteem and given counselling, then I was told I had anger issues and had counselling. I was never angry just frustrated with everything, I didn't understand so much and it confused and scared me, and I would get frustrated at homework and there was never any help at home. 

Then whilst at University an incident happened which lead to me having, what I now realise was a meltdown, in a Police Station, whilst on duty as a Special Constable and I was referred to the Force Psychiatrist and told I had to complete 3 sessions with them before being allowed back on shift, they treated it as Trauma related to the incident, and they informed my University who gave me 12 weeks of counselling for Trauma as well.

Why is it that I am now looking back as I learn more about Autism and it all being obvious that there was more to it than all these people picked up on or said at the time?

  • in reply to Catlover
    Catlover said:
    The older you are, the less awareness there was.

    This is so true. Also, for those of us with less obvious traits that could be mistaken for other things, I guess it's easier to understand why we slipped under the radar. It came as a complete surprise to an ex-boyfriend from my past when I'd told him I was Autistic. It was only when he cast his mind back and thought long and hard that he was able to recollect occasions when my behaviour had stood out.

  • in reply to Catlover

    I was 69 last week, and i've always been very shy and struggled talking to people and making friends. It's really only the last 10yrs or so since i got a computer and did my own research for what my problem could be, that i learnt about autism. And now i ask myself that very same question that you posed............ Why didn't someone tell me, they must have known ?

  • in reply to JuniperFromGallifrey

    And radical solutions is mine Smiley

    Presenting things in half joking, half mocking, half serious way, wait it's 3 halves already :P is part of my charm, or so I like to discover/ think, 

    Well I find it worth an effort if reward is TheFuriousBlinkingResponse on their faces Smiley I can read that body language
    Here I get a comment every now and then

  • in reply to Mariusz

    Ooooh. THAT IS SO GOOD. 

    Mariusz said:
    After all objectivity is our domain, subjectivity theirs

    Gold. Star. You. 

  • The older you are, the less awareness there was. When I was at school I had selective mutism, but everyone just thought I was shy. I had a few meltdowns which were just ignored, as they were out of character for me, being so good and studious. Same with my teens.

    In my 20’s I had repeated bouts of depression, constant migraines, and was referred to occupational health because I appeared to be on drugs, with an expressionless face and monotone voice!

    In my 40’s I still had depression, and was diagnosed with social anxiety and generalised anxiety. They are enough pointers towards autism in my experience. 
    I didn’t realise until I was 47. I didn’t get myself diagnosed until 48. I’ll be 49 in 3 weeks.

  • I was labeled as 'difficult child' at 4, and it stuck. Convinient pincushion for everyone, no support from family to stand against it. Basically, they compare us to themselves, not to characterictics of someone with austism, or otherwise depicted individuum. After all objectivity is our domain, subjectivity theirs

  • Golf23 said:
    At school I was told I had low self-esteem and given counselling, then I was told I had anger issues and had counselling. I was never angry just frustrated with everything, I didn't understand so much and it confused and scared me, and I would get frustrated at homework and there was never any help at home.

    This was my experience. Only I'm near my late 40s and at 27 started a journey toward recovery from the trauma of all these unknown factors. I wouldn't even find out about the Autism Spectrum until I was about 40. Even still - left puzzled and told all the typical things therapists far behind the research would say, sending me toward self-help, as surely I seemed intelligent enough?

    Unfortunately, NeuroTypical wiring has been a sort of gatekeeper and their motives entirely different stuck at a cognitive bias. The research has actually been around for nearly a century. But a large part of it has been ignored or dismissed - some, like the anti-psychiatry movement, blatantly stating that society is the problem. A Psychoanalyst theorised that the Autistic-Analytic way of thinking would be the ideal way to actually help the Neurotic (Neurotypical) find a cure to their neurosis. (Schizoanalysis)

    It is frustrating. Things are only just now changing, but I'd suggest the current model of society hit a threshold for Autists at the point that LEDs became mandatory. In the past 5 years the sensory output is over a human limit and it's everywhere. Sirens are louder and Americanised (thanks to media), tones have gone digital so their piercing rather than a stack of harmonics. Schools aren't properly ventilated, chemical scents are over powering. NT behaviour has changed drastically with consumerism. These shifts in society have created a chasm - or a distinct separation, like oil and water. When I was in school I recall a little more humanity from my teachers.