So I mentioned last year on this site that I thought that I might be autistic. Well, over the course of the year I've become much more certain that I am, and am willing to tell other people so even though I don't have an official diagnosis yet.
I was referred to a counsellor at my school after having a meltdown due to being around too many people and the noise (although I didn't tell the school that that was what it was). I didn't suggest that I was autistic until this Thursday, even though I've had sessions with her since October (Initially it was just about social anxiety and panic attacks). We've gone through the criteria (an alternative set written by autistic people for autistic people), and she agreed that it really sounded like me, especially the hypersensitivity to noise.
However, I went to the GP on Friday to get a referral to CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health services). When I mentioned the autism thing, he didn't seem to agree with me, and said that they would have picked it up sooner through school grades and things since I'm 16 now. He seemed to have a very set idea of what autism is, and I didn't fit into it (being a relatively well-spoken, if shy, person who does fairly well at school), although he didn't outright dismiss what I was saying and did refer me in the end (but more for social anxiety I guess).

Since then, I've been more unsure about being autistic, so I haven't gone through with my plan on discussing this with my parents. I should get a phone call from CAMHS within the week, but I'm anxious about this whole thing now. It's silly, because I was just so sure about it all. Everything I read about the experiences of autistic people just really resonated with me, and there's a lot of things that are different about me which aren't explained by social anxiety alone, like hypersensitivity to sensory things, meltdowns/shutdowns, need for stimming behaviour and social communication problems (like not properly understanding facial expressions and the moods of others, and rarely making eye contact with others.)

I'm not sure what I want from this post, but is there anyone who can share their experiences of bringing up the possibility of being autistic and being dismissed, or of the process of getting a diagnosis? Thanks for reading.