Misdiagnosed?
Hello. I am 29M and I am worried I have been misdiagnosed autistic. I want to know if members of the community have experienced autism in this way.
I will be seeking professional second opinion, however, I cannot afford another private consultation and I have had difficulties getting past my GP. I am having a difficult time and don’t know if approaching my problems as autistic is correct.
My problems feel like they are related to emotional regulation.
I was diagnosed in 2024 by a private psychiatrist in the UK. I went through the assessment on their recommendation as I experience extreme emotional dysregulation (and always have) and traditional treatments for anxiety such as SSRI/CBT etc were not helping. It was their suggestion and I never considered myself autistic.
Most prevailing / debilitating symptoms include:* *
- Cognitive shut down where I go completely mute. I would need to type out messages to my wife in my phone to talk to her. I might talk in gibberish, or make no sense. Broken words, repeating sounds, irregular and repetitive movement like thumping legs together.
- Meltdown-like experiences where I might spike with anger, break something, hit myself, then get overwhelmed and cry. Sitting on floor unable to move. This can go on for an hour or more. Then feeling totally drained.
- Intense looping thoughts or behaviours. For example, I have recently become obsessed with DIY but not in an enjoyable way. I feel a compulsion to do it. I think about it all the time. I am constantly planning what I need to do. Working on a task and forgetting to eat, knowing that I feel awful while doing it but I can’t stop. This doesn’t feel like a “special interest” because it doesn’t make me happy - more like something I am becoming obsessed with to distract myself?
More traditional symptoms I have include:
- Struggling with eye contact when overwhelmed
- Needing to cover eyes from light when overwhelmed
- Social anxieties and difficulties in big groups
- Need for routine, for example, I must go to the gym a certain number of times a week or I get upset. Safety foods. Wearing certain clothes, like same pair of shoes every day of the year.
My question is these all feel related to internal EMOTION dysfunction. Can anyone with autism relate, or is another mental health condition being missed that has autism-adjacent symptoms?
Many thanks