Undiagnosed ASD on pathway to diagnosis Help?

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Hello my name is Danny. I live in Scotland with my wife and 3 children. I am undiagnosed for autism. my daughter is currently displaying similar symptoms to myself and is on the pathway to a diagnosis. I researched further myself and discovered that i have a lot of issues which i would like to address. I struggle with emotions and understand how others are feeling. I am awkward socially and find it difficult to make eye contact and express myself in a way that others will understand. I have severe anxiety which causes me to snort, possibly a stim. I struggle with sensory issues such as lights buzzing, loud noises and certain smells. I feel disconnected from my body and often miss thirst and hunger queues. Other symptoms include. Plan ahead excessively, lack of focus, forgetfulness, racing thoughts, ranting, pacing back and forth, struggle to make choices, switch from one activity to another, otherthinking and worrying about situations, vivid dreams/night terrors, mask in public, lack of self identity, easily overwhelmed. My aim is to get a better understanding of myself and hopefully relate to others out there who share similarities to me. Feel free to ask any questions. Thank you.

Hello Danny and welcome.

Do you have any specific questions, or topics you'd like help with?

Welcome to Wrong Planet.

I'm just looking for help to see if i'm on the spectrum and if anyone can relate to my issues as it would be extremely helpful to me.

A few things you said... We can't diagnose but I do see traits.

Do you get meltdowns or shutdowns? (Not everyone does but it is quite common to get one or the other or both. I am only asking out of interest).

I feel like i may have meltdowns as in a lot of situations i feel like i can't escape them and then i get severe anxiety which forms into anger so i have to go somewhere to calm down. And my mindset at these times are unbearable as i feel like i'm losing control cause i can't fight it. But for shutdowns i'm not 100%

I am kind of prone to getting partial and sometimes full shutdowns. I have not been assessed yet. It took me most of my life to find this out as I did not know what was the cause or what they were called until just over a year ago.

Sorry i also have shutdowns but at the same time as meltdowns as i struggle with what is actually happening at the time.

It is so difficult to get a diagnosis as many other conditions have similar syptoms. I am currently diagnosed with BPD with i heard gets mixed up with autism cause of it's traits. But i knows it more than that or i may have both.

See the bottom link below what I write. That is like I experience except I will be on the floor unable to move and I get my eyesight fade into black from the top down.

I know two people with that.

I have read about both conditions and I found out that a difference between the two is that someone on the spectrum will have their ups and downs several times a day and sometimes they can go from a high to a low within an hour, while bipolar they tend to go from a high to a low typically over a four day period, because the causes are chemically related with bipolar while with autism it is relating to how the electrical links in the frontal area of the brain connect.

Why it is important to get the right diagnosis is because bipolar can be corrected through coreecting the brain chemicals through medicating. Now if someone who is wrongly diagnosed has the same medication it can make their symptoms many times worse because they will then have both conditions to deal with!

Reading the link i can relate to partial sensory shutdowns. yeah i hear you. I tend to get ups and downs randomly all the time and they don't really have a time limit but this is why i struggle cause i have a sense of what is wrong but i dont. I literally feel like i don't exist in the real world. Its like looking through somebody else's eyes but not being in control i can't even place who i am. Its frustrating.

Welcome to WP! With or without a diagnosis you might find this to be an OK place to visit.

As far as a diagnosis...I know I am the wrong person to ask. I was 64 before I even considered whether or not  I  might be on the Spectrum. It turns out I am! After I got the first hint I started out researching autism on the Internet and discovered--to my surprise--a lot of what I found sounded like me. One thing I discovered that might interest you is:

      https://psychology-tools.com/test/autism-spectrum-quotient

It won't tell you whether or not you are on the Spectrum but it might give you a further indication.

P.S. I think eye contact is over-rated.

If you have the ups and down often throughout the day it is unlikely that it is bipolar, so you could do with going for an autism assessment.
I recall watching a Ted talk where a lady was wrongly diagnosed with bipolar where she went through around 30 years of difficulties due to unsuitable medication where when she was finally diagnosed with autism, and she came off the bipolar meds, her life rapidly improved just through coming off the medication.

If one has bipolar, taking the medication (Once the right dose has been worked out) should make a massive difference and give one a stabilizing effect so one is less likely to get the extremes of rhe highs and the lows. Obviously if the cause is autism then the bipolar medication will not fix this.

While I do not know a lot, I have seenor read quite a few stories online from people who were wrongly diagnosed and the issues it caused them.

And yes, it is possible to have both conditions, but in most cases I have heard it seems to be either one or the other.

I started looking into a few different related conditions before I found out what the shutdowns were, as I had hit burnout a few times (And I did not know what it was called either or how to even attempt to explain what I had been going through to doctors) so I was desperately needing help on the inside but not knowing which way to turn because I was not able to explain what I was going through.
I really wanted to be seen by a vet because I reasoned that vets assess animals without the animal needing to talk!

Thank you, i struggled to really find a site as most others were pretty basic not a lot of different topics, solely autism related but here has a lot so be nice to meet a lot of different people. Funny enough i actually did one of those not long ago and i scored i think over 90% i'm not sure, i'm very forgetful but i'll try again and see what happens. Haha yes it is, that made my day thanks.

You might also wish to try the RDOS.

https://rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php

It's a lot longer but will give you a really detailed summary.