Hello!

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Just a quick intro post.

I was diagnosed through a work-sponsored scheme last August after prevaricating for five+ years because I didn't like the idea of being labelled or pigeon-holed, and because work up to that point had been pretty hostile to the idea. Needless to say it's a night and day transformation now - a whole lot more supportive.

Being fifty-something I don't feel that obtaining a diagnosis has changed how I feel about myself or my self-model, however it certainly has opened the door to new insights and opportunities for introspection.

A close family member was diagnosed officially a while back which did set the wheels of thought in motion. Several older family members would I feel certainly have been diagnosed themselves had the concepts and support been available.

I was very ill as a child - I didn't walk at all until two and a half, and not properly until six or seven. This caused knock on effects on my digestion that caused a one month+ stay in a major children's hospital plus as I recall significant physiotherapy. To this day I do not find stair steps or slopes at all easy to cope with. This as I understand it now is a deficit in proprioception - I literally don't know (much about) here my body is.

Plus of course on top of that there are a slew of challenges with social interaction etc. I find it a great deal easier to express myself using the written word than the spoken word - not that I don't like to try, but I find I am more easily understood in writing. Added to which I stim a lot (much less than when I was a child), prefer my own company, focus easily on tasks & find it difficult to adjust when interrupted etc. I can see a lot of sense in the emerging model of 'monotropism' as applied to autism.

I have several interests which I pursue to some depth and find a great deal of satisfaction and purpose in.

I've just recently equipped myself with three enamel badges: a great big yellow smiley face, a skull and crossbones, and a "I'm autistic, not rude" little blue badge. I had the opportunity to share these with my wider team at work in a DEI Listening Circle exercise & think what a fantastic thing to have happened!

I still don't like or appreciate being labelled though

Welcome to WP! I hope you like it here.

And I agree that a really late diagnosis (mine was at age 64) is more about understanding than it is about doing anything.

However, I've been trying to get some use out of these:
 □ "HEALTHCARE TOOLKIT: Patient Centered Care Tools for Autistic Adults"
 □ "How Autism Can Affect Healthcare"
However, my medical providers typically don't seem too interested in them.

Maybe you'll have better luck.

Hello. Work sponsored assessment? Actually rare to find in the UK.

Welcome to Wrong Planet.

Not that rare any more, and one reason to stay with my current employers. New in the past year or two. Before then was much more lip service and I felt I had to watch it.

Thanks - I feel right at home already

I think it depends on what your provider already does. As usual, trying to go outside of the tramlines is an uphill struggle. I am having support on an ongoing basis with some social situations I may come across. I'd really like to access occupational therapy to reduce the impact of my proprioceptive deficits - getting to be more of an issue as I get older, not unexpectedly.

Oh and trying to find tailored advice for the occasional life question just leaves me feeling isolated.

welcome! glad you are with us!

Thank you. I am glad you are here.

I've just finished reading your blog featured article "Hidden Autism" - very relatable, and one of very few that mentions proprioception. Keep writing!

A few times I worked the company didn't officially know I was working for them.

Welcome to WP!

Welcome to Wrong Planet!