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HouseCat38
2,065 M Hopeful Heart 2
PathStep 39 Compassion hearts71 Forum posts3 Forum upvotes6 Current upvotes6 Age GroupAdult Last activeFebruary, 2022 Member sinceMarch 30, 2017
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Looking For Advice
Autism Support / by HouseCat38
Last post
 February 15th, 2022
...See more Hi. I'm hoping I can get a little advice from people with autism. I strongly suspect that I have autism, but I haven't been diagnosed or tested yet. A little explanation. This might be a bit involved, but I'll try to keep it concise. I've struggled with mental health issues for most of my life (anxiety, depression, etc.), and I've never quite been fully functional. I easily get overwhelmed and can't seem to handle too much. In college, I tried to force myself to adapt, and put myself into a sink or swim situation, but I ended up having a mental breakdown that took me two years to recover from. During that time I learned about Highly Sensitive People (HSP/SPS), and I thought, “Oh, that's what I am!” However, in recent years, I've suspected that I have some degree of autism, but I thought that it probably wasn't too significant. Recently, though, I've been considering that perhaps I'm more affected by it than I've realized. The more I learn about it, the more things fall into place. I've mentioned wanting to get tested to my care provider and two therapists, but nothing ever came of it. (Plus, I don't think there are any places near where I live that test adults for autism.) At this point, though, I'm not sure how important an official diagnosis is since I'm convinced I'm on the spectrum. I'm more concerned with what I can do about it. I know autism is not something you “cure,” but I need to be able to cope and function for the rest of my life. Basically, I'm wondering what steps I can take. I hope this doesn't sound too weird, but I'm worried about getting the “wrong” kind of support. (That is, that autism is something that needs to be “corrected.” Even professionals can be misinformed.) So, I'm hoping that others with autism can help steer me in the right direction. Thanks for any advice.
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