Ok, what now?
winslow
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 1 Jul 2011
Age: 54
Gender: Male
Posts: 72
Location: Orange County, CA
I posted in this in my introduction thread (in Getting To Know Each Other forum) as a follow-up to my original introduction. I get the feeling I stand a better chance of getting some responses if I post it in this forum tho so here goes:
So I finally had my bi-monthly Dr. appt. I presented him with my report (Of course I made a report That's partly an Aspie need for perfection and thoroughness I suppose, but also because I can't keep track of everything I want to say in my, which has been the problem for so many years.) His response is that without professional testing (which he considers pointless at my age - 40) but taking into consideration the things he knows about me plus the info I presented him in the report, he would agree with AS. Also, right after my Dr. appt I spoke with a lifelong friend whose profession is mental health and addiction counseling and without batting an eyelash his response was "that totally makes sense, you have all the symptoms." So I suppose I have an unofficial professional diagnosis lol.
At this point I waver between sad and relieved and hopeful. My life keeps flashing before my eyes. So many situations where I was confused, or behaved oddly, or wondered why I wasn't upset/sad/mad about something everyone else was, etc are coming clear to me. I can finally let go of all these things that were wasting space in my brain and sucking up all my energy. I haven't laughed like I used to laugh in years, until this week. I feel such a freedom and relief from knowing this about myself.
The only negative I can come up with for all this is that I kind of have this feeling of "what now"? I was so consumed with trying to figure out what was wrong with me for so many years that having the answer leaves a hole. Kind of like my life's purpose was taken away, if that makes any sense. I suppose I could just enjoy the hole, it's nice to have an empty hole instead of always having to fill it with annoying chatter lol. I can use that brainpower in different/positive areas. Or I could sleep for a few days....lol. Thinking about all this the past few weeks has left me exhausted.....
So I am curious to know if any of you had the same "what now" feeling and/or what you did with your new found knowledge about yourself?? Therapy?? Reading?? Any comments or suggestions would be awesome. Thanks for taking the time to read this
The next step might be to relax a bit and recover from all the hard work?
The empty hole can be filled with creative things, making up more neologisms and/or laughing at others instead of yourself.
If the empty hole represents the gap between you and the NT part of the world, then I am not sure how it will fill or if that is even possible.
My next appointment with my psychologist (=first therapy session) is in a week and a half and I am still pondering whether I should make this graph I am thinking of or not.
Last time I was there was for the diagnosis tests and I handed in a diagram showing my confidence, physical wellbeing, activity and energy levels over the prior 2 weeks. Response was "oh thanks" and I have no clue if that is something they can use or not.
I had a good time drawing the graphs though and establishing logical connections between what happened in my life and how it affected me over time.
Personally I'm too scared to answer the question, "What now?" All I know is every day I get up, I try to do any action no matter how basic, correctly. Every day I try to achieve at least one thing I didn't yesterday. Beyond that, I don't know what to aim for. That's the way I operate.
I use chess as an excuse to feel accomplished, because every day I know something more about it that nobody else knows. If you have a special interest, try to focus on an original/obscure idea that an NT would never think of. Like Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, etc.
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my artwork and clothing designs: https://autistic.myshopify.com/collections
my chess videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/byakuugan86
my rap songs: https://soundcloud.com/user-768864903/t ... neutrality