[Charon92]

As the title says I have no formal diagnosis (parents never went through with it even though a teacher in primary school and another in secondary school mentioned that I should be tested.) I just wanted to know what it's actually like, if I might have aspergers and how I'd know without getting a formal diagnosis. I don't like doctors and find it difficult enough going on my own just to have checkups let alone something like this.

[Lunella]

Email the national autistic society. NAS

I went through the NAS - spoke to a really nice lady who wasn't judgmental at all and she told me exactly what I should do cause of the anxiety - I actually went to the place after they said I could pop in for a chat as it's local to me.

Basically you'll get a lot more respect off the NHS doctors and taken more seriously if you say the NAS referred you. Then you simply make an appointment with a GP but you ask them "Do you have a specific GP who deals with autism, or know who the best GP would be to see about that?" They will book you in and the GP will do an assessment test then refer you to hospital appointments with a specialist so they can test you and go through the past with you, like therapy kinda to get a better understanding to see where you could be at with autism. For me I had selective mutism in primary/high school and they kinda went off that and knew pretty easily from the experiences I told them about.

If you have money though you can just get the NAS to diagnose you, and they are far better than the NHS.

In my experience the doctors are much more kinder if you actually say you have really bad social anxiety, they will know how to deal with you in a better way if you just say you have strong bouts of social anxiety, there's nothing wrong with being scared.

But yeah - they were really nice with me and it was quite a fast process. Good luck and if you have any questions let me know.

(((hugs)))

[Charon92]

Thank you both so much. It'll probably take a little while for me to get anywhere (since phone calls are quite difficult) but being able to email will help immeasurably.

It's only ever been apparent through interactions with people and my interests. I've always been fascinated by any number of things. I would collect facts and figures and recite them to pretty much everyone who would listen or car licence plates. Whenever I'm uncomfortable I'll subconsciously fidget or fiddle with something and when I get started talking about something I like it's just a torrent of information. I still to this day do not understand peoples reactions to things I say or do. They seem logical and correct to me but most people seem to either get offended or annoyed.