u/DanceOnTheLine

I went to the GP today to ask for a referral for an autism diagnostic assessment and have been sent some provider options. I’m looking to hear from others about their experiences to help inform my decision such as what the process was like, whether you felt rushed/listened to and general positives and negatives. Obviously I will not take any one review as gospel but I need to choose and don’t know where to start…

List of providers (in order of wait time):
- Health Harmonie Minds
- Insight Diagnostics
- Atrom Mindcare
- Dr J and Colleagues
- Sinclair Strong
- Harley Street Mental Health
- KT Healthcare
- The Aspen Clinic
- Psychiatry UK
- Skylight Psychiatry
- The Owl Centre Limited
- RTN Mental Health
- Psicon
- Problem Shared
- Oakdale Group
- Clinical Partners
- The Retreat Clinic

Thank you :)

I have always been a better written communicator than verbal. My job mainly involves writing but I also have to contribute to quite a lot of meetings. For some of these meetings I can do a lot of prep work and write down prompts. However, in other meetings, I get asked follow up questions and sometimes colleagues will ring me out of the blue. in these scenarios I do not have a ‘script’ and it all just goes to shit.

I try explaining something but it just ends up a confusing mess. I panic and get instant brain fog and my brain can’t think clearly enough to clearly communicate what I mean. It’s so frustrating because I know my area of work very well but it is really not coming across that way in meetings at all. I can see on people’s faces that they have no idea what I’m trying to say. I’m just really tired of it.

I just wanted to say thank you to the people who contribute to this sub. Probably like many of you, I rarely feel that true sense of belonging or shared experience with those around me. Not *truly* on that deeper level anyway. But I instantly felt at home here and that’s been so comforting following a very recent diagnosis. Sadly I’ve never really shared in the experience of ‘sisterhood’ but it does feel like there’s a sense of that here, and that’s really fucking nice. You’re all bloody wonderful.

I was speaking with my therapist about issues I have making friends. She said that hobbies can be a good way to access communities and make new friends. I explained to her that whilst this is a good idea on the surface, I don’t like others sharing my special interest (ETA - I understand hobbies and special interests are not the same).

I am into metal and know extensive lore of my favourite bands. I would like to go to gigs with others but if they started giving their opinions on things surrounding the band or interpreted the lyricism in a different way to me it would deeply bother me. I’ve tried joining fan communities online and I can’t stand it. I’m aware that sounds quite self-important and pompous. I don’t think that my opinion is the only valid opinion, but at the same time hearing others differing thoughts on it makes me want to rip my face off. I think it’s because it feels like such a core part of my identity that any debate or dislike of the thing almost feels like a personal attack? Does anyone else feel like this?

I also explained to her that sometimes I have so much passion for my special interest that I have to stop engaging with it for a while as it gets too much. I’ve cried plenty of times at the intensity of my love for these bands and their music and it can get extremely overwhelming and I cannot bear to think about it and need a break. Am I alone in this?

Any thoughts welcome but please do be kind, I am very new to understanding autism (including my own - diagnosed at 29) so I might be missing something obvious here.