I’m so glad to hear that you’ve finally been taken seriously. It looks like this is the start of a new chapter for you too!

I hope that all goes well for you.
Keep in touch.

Best wishes,

James

I’m going to delete my blog and start up under a new online identity. I feel that as my story is just as much about my relationships with other people as it is about my neurology, I have to safeguard their privacy.

Good luck!

James

I’m trying again next week. I hate doing it but I think I’ll have to hand over a piece of paper. I feel like such a fool doing it.

I really empathise with you here.

The first thing I did when I started to tell my GP about my Asperger’s was to say, “I am going to find this difficult to talk about. I have trouble expressing emotions in words.”
This made her pay instant attention, and she was then ultra careful to make it clear to me that she was listening, and to ask for confirmation that she was understanding me.
I think that by setting the scene before trying to explain anything really helped on this occasion.

I would guess that most GPs don’t have a lot of knowledge about ASDs – and if they don’t, then they are unlikely to know about the sensory issues.

I don’t know what your trip to the GP was regarding. To be fair to them though, they aren’t mind readers, and they are used to 99.something percent of people that they see being neurotypical, and thus generally able to express what they mean with relative ease. I would guess your GP assumed you were normal, and then couldn’t empathise too well with your lack of apparent openness. Time to get a different GP?

One of the things I find myself doing all the time is using metaphors or analogies. I’ve been musing why this is – and will be writing about it later – but I think it is because I expect people not to understand me. I know my experience of the world is unusual, and so I try to explain it using metaphor.

Sorry if this reply was a bit rambly and unfocussed. I hope you understand what I’m trying to say.

James

Every time I mention sensory stuff they just look at me sceptically.

Congratulations that you too have started out on the path of diagnosis. Do keep in touch and let us all know how it goes.

Thanks for the kind thoughts, they are very much appreciated.

There seems to be some consensus that setting the wheels in motion with the GP is the hardest part of the process. Here’s hoping that it is for both of us.

James

Thank you for your inspiring comments.

It is truly wonderful and very humbling to hear that others find what I write on this blog to be helpful and interesting. It really helps give me energy to continue writing.

It’s interesting that you state that you shouldn’t go for a diagnosis until such time as you have a good reason to do so. This too was my stance until quite recently. Indeed my introduction page on the blog still states that I don’t need a doctor to tell me what I already know.

But that no longer holds for me – I’ve clearly reached a point where I feel an inevitability about diagnosis. I still don’t have that good tangible reason as such to seek out a diagnosis, other than it feel like the right time, and that I feel like I need to stop fighting and make peace with the world.

As eaucoin mentioned above, I perhaps also need to start telling the truth. It will feel nice to remove a layer of untruth from my life.

Thanks again,

James

Thanks for the positive comments on this.

It’s true that a huge amount of anxiety that has been building up for weeks has been lifted.

I’m sure my wife is immensely grateful for that too…

I think you are right – saying to a GP that I have AS was a huge hurdle, and perhaps the most difficult part of the process. I f I can do that, then I can cope with the rest of the process too!

Thank you.

It’s funny how it doesn’t seem like you are running from the truth, when you’ve acted your way through your whole life.

You are right though – somehow, embracing the whole diagnosis thing does feel like the start to a process of removing a whole layer of untruth from my life.

How quickly or smoothly that goes remains to be seen, of course, but it is a start…