Published on 12, July, 2020
I ask because in the past I've sought support and the professionals always refer me to mental health, which in the beginning yes I wondered if I was mentally unwell but in that time my traits have never changed and they've given me several medications and it never once actually did anything.
So I think I can now safely say all my problems are autism related and as we all know this can't be treated!
I wish the doctors would take out more time to read up on autism rather than keep trying to dismiss it and treat it. I've been through almost 4 years of them trying to cure my autism and it's caused a great deal of trauma for me along the way.
I feel like I need some support with my autism but I don't know where to go or who to talk to......my doctors keep referring me to mental health and I don't want to go that route again.
You have just summed up my situation except I am with mental health at the moment (and I think it is a waste of all our times).
I keep being told to go out and socialise (I don't want to because at the moment 1 hour of being with people or shopping means several days of shutdown)
If only I could get ASC focused help.
"I keep being told to go out and socialise"
I have tried CBT twice and this is literally the message I was given both times. They couldn't comprehend why my anxiety was not decreasing with repeated exposure. I have given up on any form of practical therapy and my fiance & I are just trying to muddle through by ourselves.
(I was late-diagnosed at 35, so I missed out on receiving support as a child, which seems to be the only way to get any type of ongoing support with being autistic).
It's so frustrating isn't it.
I patiently try to explain the sensory overwhelm, the inability to focus on a single conversation in a noisy environment, the lack of any enjoyment, the days needed to recover afterwards.
The kind of anxiety we tend to experience in social situations usual has a very rational basis behind it. CBT will not help with that at all. Our thinking is not faulty, it is different.
They just don't get it at all. As soon as they start suggesting I attend a local 'knit 'n' natter' group I know I'm wasting my time