• Replies 9 replies
  • Subscribers 10 subscribers
  • Views 1503 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Newly diagnosed and struggling

maehart

To start I don't usually post online anywhere but I am really struggling, in need of advice or just some reassurance I don't know. I am 24, F, diagnosed two months ago. I have struggled with my mental health forever (anxiety, depression etc) but my life is getting smaller and smaller and I am so scared I'm not going to get out of this. I have so much anxiety  all the time, I barely leave my room let alone my house. I feel nauseous and can't eat properly. I work 2days a week that sometimes i cannot mange without getting overwhelmed and leaving work early, I am in the process for applying to PIP but am very worried about what my future looks like with the current direction its going. I see friends maybe once  a month, the rest of the time I don't even really message anyone I can go days without talking to anyone. I am incredibly lonely and just feel myself regressing so much. I used to have a pretty full life, work full time spend my weekends with friends, go on holiday. I am so scared of people and feel I am constantly in trouble, having to explain justify and apologise for my actions (or lack thereof) to everyone in my life. I just feel so uncomfortable all the time.

Parents

  • Welcome to our community. Glad to have you with us. I’m also newly diagnosed, 63, and have only been using this forum for a few days. Like you, I have been struggling with depression and anxiety since adolescence and I have little contact with other people, partly due to exhaustion. I was pleased to be diagnosed autistic as it explains many of my past struggles and mistakes. Non of us, autistic or not, are free from things we regret in the past and I have been living with a dark cloud of shame for some things I have done in childhood, and also just a general feeling of not living up to other people’s expectations. I am currently working on self esteem and shame using my old CBT handouts because I am now more in touch with the ‘why’ I behave a certain way and know it is due to autism. I know it in my head but I can’t quite seem to feel it in my heart. I have many regrets over not being diagnosed as a child and wishing my parents had known so that they might have understood my behaviour. I was recommended the following book by my autism assessor and I found it affirming and really helpful. It has chapters written by autistic women followed by autism professionals’ accounts, a format which works really well. It focuses on the positives of being autistic, without denying the challenges. You might like to look at the sample ebook and see if you think it is for you.

    Spectrum Women: Walking to the Beat of Autism

    by Barb Cook , Michelle Garnett, et al. 
Reply

  • Welcome to our community. Glad to have you with us. I’m also newly diagnosed, 63, and have only been using this forum for a few days. Like you, I have been struggling with depression and anxiety since adolescence and I have little contact with other people, partly due to exhaustion. I was pleased to be diagnosed autistic as it explains many of my past struggles and mistakes. Non of us, autistic or not, are free from things we regret in the past and I have been living with a dark cloud of shame for some things I have done in childhood, and also just a general feeling of not living up to other people’s expectations. I am currently working on self esteem and shame using my old CBT handouts because I am now more in touch with the ‘why’ I behave a certain way and know it is due to autism. I know it in my head but I can’t quite seem to feel it in my heart. I have many regrets over not being diagnosed as a child and wishing my parents had known so that they might have understood my behaviour. I was recommended the following book by my autism assessor and I found it affirming and really helpful. It has chapters written by autistic women followed by autism professionals’ accounts, a format which works really well. It focuses on the positives of being autistic, without denying the challenges. You might like to look at the sample ebook and see if you think it is for you.

    Spectrum Women: Walking to the Beat of Autism

    by Barb Cook , Michelle Garnett, et al. 
Children
No Data