Um hi... (Insert real title here)

[Meowmeister]

Hi I'm on here to engage with others sharing similar experiences. It feels sort of awkward just to put myself out there but I'll get straight to the point. I feel my intro fits best in this section of the forums. So far, I have been diagnosed with ADHD, OCD, social anxiety, depression, and PTSD. I'm also dyslexic and have hyperacusis. I was loosely diagnosed with atypical autism, was undiagnosed, and am pursuing proper thorough diagnosis. The reason I was undiagnosed was due to diagnostic overshadowing (my physical disability was assumed to be the cause) and because of misconceptions about subtle presentations of autism. I finally feel comfortable to consider myself autistic, with some mild reservation, because I was able to take a personality test which uses an autistic differential calculation supplementally. I scored above threshold, and my formal diagnostic assessment is upcoming (by a diagnostician who actually understands autism in women) so I'm quite confident I'll be diagnosed with level1 autism. Anyway, that was my intro ramble, but hi!

 

[DaisyRose]

Hello, it’s nice to meet you! Before I got a diagnosis, I was online taking tests to see if I was on the spectrum as well. I was happy to get a diagnosis last year. I hope you have a fun time here.

 

[tree]

 

[VictorR]

Welcome!

 

[Neri]

Hi, yep I did a lot of online tests yesrs before my official diagnosis. Which I got a week ago, at 50.
I'm new here too. Female, mother, also with a diagnosis of ptsd, complex ptsd to be exact.
Also ADHD.
Welcome! I hope you find some good support here.

 

[leehart]

Welcome, quite a few autistic people have OCD and actually all those conditions you mentioned! I am recently diagnosed autistic myself, not diagnosed with any of the others but no question I have them, was aware of that before I realised I am autistic.

I hope joining here helps you as you move forwards with a dx, good luck with that and well done finding someone who understands female autism presentation, so many suck at that! I am male but ironically in many ways I present more along the female side - can mask well and read people well etc (thank you trauma….i guess!). It can be easy missed so I hope you get it all sorted when you have your assessment

 

[Neri]

Welcome, quite a few autistic people have OCD and actually all those conditions you mentioned! I am recently diagnosed autistic myself, not diagnosed with any of the others but no question I have them, was aware of that before I realised I am autistic.

I hope joining here helps you as you move forwards with a dx, good luck with that and well done finding someone who understands female autism presentation, so many suck at that! I am male but ironically in many ways I present more along the female side - can mask well and read people well etc (thank you trauma….i guess!). It can be easy missed so I hope you get it all sorted when you have your assessment

My youngest son is like that. "High masker", has studied human behaviour a lot and can read people well. It has its advantages and its disadvantages, being able to mask well.

 

[Rodafina]

Hello and welcome to the forum, @Meowmeister. Hope you enjoy your time here. Let us know if you need any help figuring out the forum.

 

[Nitro]

 

[leehart]

My youngest son is like that. "High masker", has studied human behaviour a lot and can read people well. It has its advantages and its disadvantages, being able to mask well.

I was speaking to someone from a local autism charity, she mentioned she is almost empathic, she can go into a room and quickly get a read of how people are feeling, picking up on cues others don’t. what she said was interesting, this can cause trouble because sometimes she picked up cues of emotions people had not processed yet so if she asked they became very defensive which confused her because she could see the emotion. I get into that sometimes and it’s very annoying. I either read too well or too poorly, and even if I read too well if it’s negative I’ll generally assume it’s because if something I’ve done and then obsess and be anxious. Even reading well doesn’t solve the communication issues.

 

[Neri]

I was speaking to someone from a local autism charity, she mentioned she is almost empathic, she can go into a room and quickly get a read of how people are feeling, picking up on cues others don’t. what she said was interesting, this can cause trouble because sometimes she picked up cues of emotions people had not processed yet so if she asked they became very defensive which confused her because she could see the emotion. I get into that sometimes and it’s very annoying. I either read too well or too poorly, and even if I read too well if it’s negative I’ll generally assume it’s because if something I’ve done and then obsess and be anxious. Even reading well doesn’t solve the communication issues.

I can relate a bit. The picking up on emotions. But I'm not socially confident enough to ask people those sort of probing questions.

Sometimes I find that random people, like on a bus or something, open up to me and share really vulnerable and hard stuff with me, though.

 

[Alexej]

Hi @Meowmeister
welcome to the Forums

Do make yourself at home, hang out a bit and get to know us all

 

[Meowmeister]

Thank you all for being so welcoming! Re: The discussion about empathy, I have a complicated relationship with it myself. Even when I identify others' feelings correctly, I still reflect it back to them in the form of a question because I'm not confident in my perceptions LOL. I work in the mental health field. I've heard it said that the combo of ADHD, OCD, and social anxiety is basically autism! I'm glad to meet a mix of folks here who are long diagnosed and still in the diagnosis process.