bernievictoriahh

Thank you for your reply. I am so glad that I have found somebody else who has this problem. I was starting to think that I was the only one. My family have plastered pictures of me at school (which i was forced in to getting take when i was younger) all over the house, and it makes me so unbelievably on edge. The only recent (ish) event where I had my photo takes was my dad's wedding, where I was forced in to being a bridesmaid and posing for pictures. I was not very happy about that at all, and look like the furthest away from happy that I could possibly be. After talking to a few people, it seems that personal space seems to be quite ASD related, and is probably just another reason why i should go try and get diagnosed. I can totally sympathise with the situation with your neighbour, we have a neighbour who is very similar, and occasionally i will have to go round to borrow sugar or milk, as my mum can't do it herself (she is a stroke patient) and he ALWAYS puts his hand on my back when showing me out of the house D: As a small child, I never had so much of an issue with this, because I didn't socialise much with other children, and when i did, they were family friends that I was used to and knew me well. I wonder, I've heard that strong emotional attachment to certain items can also be an indicator. When i was younger, I had a teddy bear that I would not leave the house without. This carried on up until teh age of about 10. I took him to school, to the bath and to the dinner table. I remember throwing myself at the floor and screaming once, because he wasn't where i'd left him. I wonder if there's any connection between this and my possible ASD. Thanks for your reply.

Thank you for your reply. I do feel as though an official diagnosis would help, because it's really hard to get accurate information about ASD and such where i live, if you have no diagnosis. But at the same time, I worry about seeking diagnosis because, if they were to turn round and say that I had no autistic tendencies or wasn't on the spectrum, then it's mean i'd most likely be forced to put certain issues that I've had down to other mental health issues. Even so, I think I would like to see somebody about it, I just really don't know where to start. Being 16, I think that I would most likely be refered to CAMHS, because I am under 18, but I believe they consult with families? I don't really want to get my family involved right now. If I am old enough to see my GP by myself, surely I am old enough to seek diagnosis too? I really don't know. Any help on this would be appreciated. Thanks for the reply. You're probably right, it probably in rooted in some sort of fear of a bad result, u just don't know what. I guess the same applies to this as the post above; how would I go about getting the right support? the local PCT here are hardly helpful. I went to my GP once, because of my rapid mood swings and anxiety, and she said to me: call CAMHS. you can find their number on the internet. that was it. Wow, that must be a horrible phobia to have. A lot of spray on lotion comes out in cream form, right? Is it more expensive to have to buy spray ons rather than lotions? Thanks a lot for everyone's replies.

Hi everyone, just a quick post to ask about freak outs and phobias. For those of you that have not read my post in the welcome area, I am a 16 year old girl with no recognised diagnosis, but i have been quoted as "having likely autistic tendencies" by our ASD specialist at the college. I am currently wondering on whether or not to seek diagnosis. (Can anybody tell me how to go about this?) Anyway, the reason I was posting was that I have a few little freak outs and phobias, and I am unsure as to whether they could possibly be related to these "tendencies" that I have. The first is my extreme dislike of cameras. A lot of people say that they do not like having their photo taken, but if I have to have my photo taken and I do not know in advance, I totally freak out. I become very stressed, restless and start pacing. I start to feel nautious and start sweating. This makes events quite difficult and often isolates me from my peers when I don't want to join in with their photo taking. Does anyone else share this? The second one is strangers touching me. It really weirds me out. Like, when people put their hand on your shoulder to get past, or shakes your hand when they meet you. I always feel as though the contact lasts too long, and it makes me feel really awkward. Which sort of fits in with the third one, which is being alone with people that I don't know well, for example in elevators. If i am going up in an elevator, and somebody else gets in, I have to get out, and then re call the lift in hopes that it is empty :/ is this normal? Any thoughts on these would be great. Thanks a lot for your help.

Hi, I just thought I'd come and say hello to everybody and just say a bit about me :/ I'm 16 years old and from Milton Keynes, England. I originally developed an interest in autism as I volunteer at a youth group for teenagers with disabilities, and a lot of our attendees are autistic. Since then, i've done a lot of awareness raising at my college, and questions have been raised as to whether i could be on the spectrum myself, due to quite high scores on the Autism Quotient and a very low score on the Empathy Quotient. (I took both as part of a ASD training session). I've yet to seek any sort of diagnosis, and am unsure whether I want to or not. That's me i guess.