Diary of a non diagnosed 37 yr old man getting diagnosed

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Yes, worth starting straight away, you can also use it as a way to explore how your own problems relate to autism. Be a good way to prepare for the assessment.

I'm also in the uk (south west) awaiting a diagnosis, I plan on documenting my experience too but seeing as there's a 6 month waiting list I wont start just yet. So far, GP aside, it has been a positive start and I have been granted access to behavioral and anxiety therapy whilst I wait for my diagnosis.

I look forward to comparing our experiences and wish you luck, all the best.

So went for an initial meeting today at the mental health unit here in Essex . It went really well and I discovered that I find it incredibly difficult to control my emotions, never really thought about it. Talked about my whole life and the physciatric nurse said it is highly likely I will get to see the specialist aspergers team. But!! !! It's an 18 month wait, so for now I'll await my letter and see what happens. So far so good.
speak soon my other Worldly chums

Thanks for the update! Sorry about the long wait, though...

In the jargon, that difficulty is called "emotional dysregulation". However, it may be really important for you to consider that this is an effect, not a cause, of your past problems. When we are invalidated for long periods of our lives, enormous frustration builds up and that has a flow on effect in expression of emotion.

So the assumption should not be made that the cause of your problem is emotional dysregulation - that is putting the cart before the horse! I hope that this will not happen; though must warn you that there is a lot of ignorance surrounding Autistic Spectrum Disorders amongst "experts" and you need to do your own homework too, as you have started to do by taking the tests.

There are some professional writers that the majority of WP members place far more credence in than others; Tony Attwood is the one I have the most faith in and if you google "Tony Attwood Aspergers" lots of hits will come up, his books, articles, lectures and videos. He is very empathetic toward people on the spectrum and respectful.

There is a lot of bad and ignorant stuff about Aspergers on the net, so take a lot of it with a grain of salt; I am glad that you have come here to share your experience and your journey. Good luck for that journey!

Thank you people

Also im finding life hard at the moment and just want to have that tool, where i can think, right this situation has come about due to me thinking and acting differently, i cant change that, but possibly i can change the way i cope with the situation and understand myself. Thats all i want to do really is understand myself

Hi, Christian.

A very good project, that may be helpful to others, who deal with the same questions - and to you yourself, I hope.

Thank you all of you

Have you tried taking some online self tests yet? I personally like the RAADS-R and The Aspie Quiz best. The Aspie Quiz might be easier to score, but I like the answer choices on the RAADS-R. You could take a few different ones.

Keep in mind that false negatives are more common than false positives, and when answering questions to be very truthful and not use what you have come to know as the "correct" answer.

Oh, and what kind of plastic figures were these?

Welcome Christian.
It took me about the same amount of time to discover that I was on the spectrum.
I battle depression daily.
I am interested in following your story.

Hi Christian, i also posted a similar thing to this recently (but am a woman). I also live in essex, am 37 and I also went through (am still going through) the Jessie Tait designs (midwinter) obsession so I thought I'd reach out to you and say hi, and that, although i know you are looking for male perspectives, that you are not alone.

I was advised by a lovely person on this forum to read up on aspergers and think back to your childhood, writing down all the 'evidence' so you are prepared to explain to the doc. I am making a note now whenever something comes to memory and will present this notebook, in full glory in my terrible handwriting.
I hope your doc is clued up enough to try and find a specialist with autism in adults. I am hoping the same for myself. There is an essex based charity who can help, diagnosed or not: Autism anglia: http://www.autism-anglia.org.uk/

They spoke to me and i haven't even got my referral yet! Very nice understanding people, they will put your name down for a call from someone who can help with ..whatever you need help with, I presume. For me it's noise sensitivity and a heap of other things.
I wish you all the best, and good luck getting somewhere with the referral!

So now my daughter has been diagnosed with low functioning autism and finds life very tough, it's tough being around her too, today we are watching minions for the 16th time. She's a lovely child and has lots of positives as well, I love the way she doesn't conform.

Today my son got diagnosed with high functioning autism (aspergers), he's only 9 but I think he's quite happy about it as he always felt like a young nutty professor, it explains a lot, his first word was garden and he has always been top of the class at maths and English. I'm so happy for him in a way as I never had a diagnosis, if I did. It would of helped me I think.