What was it that made you want to get the diagnosis in the first place?
Well because I’d got that many labels shoved on me. I wanted the correct label.
What other labels?
Well, I’ve had, I’ve had ‘stupid’ ‘thick’ ‘weirdo’ probably. I’ve had all sorts, so I just wanted, if they were going to call me weirdo, then obviously I wanted the correct label to go with it, you know. And actually the person who took me there, and actually the person who actually did my report for the college, she actually was confirm… she actually also was confirmed that she has Asperger's as well. So I think she got, she told me when she came out that she’d got hers, but she’d got, because she’d actually read on a few things, and she actually thought that she might be a contender for Asperger's. So she went and saw her diagnosis, I think she might have gone and got hers privately. So I think hers might have been a lot easier and a lot quicker, because I had to use the National Health, it took a hell of a lot of a longer process and, and trying to cajole the GPs isn’t very easy. Trying to make a GP understand that you have to speak to somebody that knows what they’re talking about. You can’t send me to somebody that doesn’t know. And…
So, it is very hard and I think in my day, there was no chance of seeking an answer, and I think maybe I could be one of the lucky ones at my age that I have found an answer. There’s probably a lot of people my age and older that perhaps may not never ever find an answer, because GPs are just not aware of the autistic spectrum and, because they just know nothing about it; they’re not aware, maybe they might be in children, but as for adult, I think, as far as GPs are concerned today. I think what they were expecting with me, was just to live with it and just get on with it, because, there’s nothing you can do about it. Because I think they virtually say, “Well you’ve lived with it up till now, you can live with it a bit longer, but these children can’t they have, they do have that sort of priority.” And I’m thinking well maybe yes, maybe no, but, I do think, no matter what age you are, I do think you deserve an answer and shouldn’t be allowed to go through the rest of your life, having to live, just live with it, and get on with it.
