To be more explicit than the title, trigger warning for self harm and suicidal ideation.
I am posting this hoping that it is allowed as I would sincerely appreciate your perspectives.
I am recently diagnosed autistic man with a long history of severe mental health issues. This includes a lifetime of self harming behaviour and suicidal ideation. With my recent diagnosis, my doctor suggested that the self harm behaviour in particular might be connected to my autism. It is very habitual and feels very routine. It is constant, not just linked to periods of intense depression. In fact, I feel very agitated if my routine is disrupted.
My doctor actually suggested that I reach out here to see if anyone has experienced something similar and what, if anything, has been helpful to escape the routine. It made a certain amount of sense to me that the highly routine nature of it might be related to my autism, as it was partly this that made the mental team refer me for an autism assessment in the first place.
