Support while on waiting list

[MalteserLover]

What support do you wish you had while on the waiting list for an autism assessment?

[Cocoacupid]

while on the wait list I sometimes wished I could have someone to touch base with to check my mental health etc was in tact . All I got told was if my mental health was being made worse while on the waiting list to seek help through GP to get referred to mental health teaM and it said maybe they would look into the autism diagnosis anyway if it was relevant. Thankfully though

I actually had a good support network and to be told before I had assessment I most certainly was like people with Asperger’s who this occupational health dr told me as he said he worked with people like this up country before coming to Cornwall . I actually felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and that there was an underling cause for my severe anxiety 😥 and at times really bad depression. In my early twenties this psychiatrist said I had emotionally unstable personality disorder which I never believed I had and the amount of times I had assumptions made about me when I needed hospital treatment etc flipping awful. Hopefully that diagnosis will come

Off my notes as i nevwe related to the other people I had to do group therapy with which I hated so much that worsened me as I hated group therapy so I feel a lot more validated now and all my symptoms etc was to do with being neurodivergent and not a mental health issue. I really wish there was a lot more help to get girls and women diagnosed quicker as it is slightly difficult to see as women are more likely to mask symptoms . Ideally I would like to see more information for women and girls so they can get help and not get labeled an issue they don’t have which is unhelpful and unhealthy and is not to do with the personality of an individual being scrutinised for something which overlaps autism in girls . Some

People I do believe can have both but personally in my experience it was an extremely unhelpful diagnosis for myself . I still at times though get assumptions made of me because of what is written on paper in black and white . To be honest I want to take my oringinal mental health team to pals and make a complaint as now I’m haveing a really hard time coming of antidepressants and antipsychotics because I get withdrawal symptoms and to be honest those medications. That made me a zombie and a shell of a person as I was too sedated. Thankfully am on slightly different one s now but I was pretty sure those meds made me ill as my my body didn’t need them.

[JessFM in reply to Cocoacupid]

Oh Dear! I am now 29 (no offocial diagnosis but waiting for ADHD and Autism diagnosis)... I have a diagnosis of PTSD and depression. I also was thought to have EUPD (Emotionally unstable personality disorder or Borderlibe disorder or Bipolar... left in the dark basically but have been on various medications since the age of 18. For the last 2 years or so I have been told by my GP that I have tried all the medications there are. I too suffer with anxiety.

[Cocoacupid in reply to JessFM]

Im pretty sure I have ptsd from sexual assaults on numerous occasions. I try not to let them play over and over did get counselling for a while. I am so sorry you have suffered as well. I just think if professional s tea want to give a diagnosis but are unsure and I feel they put you in a box as they don’t actually know or see the signs of what is actually going on . I do feel this is very damaging to the I dividual especially when medication is involved xx

[Xtras]

Afterschool care with caregivers familiar with Autistic children. Our 1st grader has been kicked out of 2 places with no compassion for his condition.