Still Complicated

After my autism diagnosis I was fortunate enough to be given two follow up appointments with the assessor, mainly, I think, to discuss how I felt about being diagnosed autistic once I’d had a little time to process it, and also to discuss the report and finalise paperwork and so on.

The first of those appointments was in April 2017, and I know that by that stage I’d already learnt quite a lot more than I’d known in February. Having a formal diagnosis finally gave me the confidence I needed to start interacting with other autistic people, and I was starting to discover that some of these people were more like me and some less like me. I slowly started to try to work out where I fitted into the autistic community and what role, if any, I might play in it in the future.

There were things that were obvious from the off. I’m not a computers sort of autistic, nor a gamer, nor do I seek particular solace in nature. Neither am I a hyperempath, nor particularly introverted, nor what most people would regard as shy! I can sometimes be quite extroverted, I have to work hard to try to interpret the feelings of others so as to try not to cause offence, I like engines and machines and cars and trucks and planes (and yes, trains too), but even syncing my phone to the computer or trying to do anything new with this blog can reduce me to tears.

But there were other things too. And, as we started to unpick all the features of me that were clearly related to me being autistic, we started to notice that there were quite a few things that weren’t explained by autism. And as I read more about neurodiversity in general and started to interact with people who were neurodivergent in many different ways and not necessarily autistic, something else started to emerge as a possible contender for consideration.

It was as though somebody had laid a whole load of objects on a table, each object representing a trait (this trait might be a “skill” or it might be a “difficulty”). As I’ve steadily been diagnosed with different conditions over the decades, these objects have been removed from the table and put into a bag labelled with the name of that diagnosis. When I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression a couple of decades back a few objects were removed from the table, put into a bag, and taken off to be given an antidepressant pill and some CBT. But there were still rather a lot of things there. The bipolar disorder diagnosis nearly a decade ago removed quite a lot more objects from the table and quite a lot more of my life was explained, but again there were still an awful lot of my “eccentric” traits left behind.

Then autism arrived. And a HUGE number of objects were put into a brand new bag with “autism” written on it. I took the bag and started to work through the contents and to try to deal with them as appropriate (e.g. there was an object that told me fluorescent lights made me ill, so I wore sunglasses and I now ask people to turn off lights when I can). Learning to understand all these traits, sticking them all together in the “autism bag” was revelatory and changed my life massively.

However, there were still things on the table. And once the autism traits had all been removed, it was clear that there was another outstanding diagnosis that would explain quite a lot more of my behaviour as both a child and during adulthood. It seemed unlikely that I really was a highly spontaneous autistic who just randomly did things out of routine sometimes or that the times when I missed details and struggled with mundane repetitive tasks were down to autism – and these traits were having a significant and often detrimental effect on my life. Chatting to other autistics online it became obvious that the mixture of traits I had were the same as those who were identified or diagnosed as being autistic but ALSO having ADHD.

I mentioned this to the autism assessor at my first follow up in April. She said that she was unable to diagnose ADHD because it fell outside her remit. She was absolutely totally certain that ADHD was not an alternative to the autism diagnosis because she was so totally certain that I was autistic, but she didn’t rule out ADHD as an additional condition that would be worth exploring elsewhere.

So we made an appointment with my GP, which, owing to terribly long waiting lists and difficulty booking appointments, entailed a 6-week wait. We used the precious GP appointment to briefly outline the results of the autism assessment and to broach the idea of ADHD. My GP referred us back to the mental health services, who were the people who were the ones to do ADHD assessments. And we settled down to wait, again.

Forms arrived a month or so later. I was away at the time so we didn’t manage to complete them straight away, however, eventually, in September, we completed Formageddon Round 3 – another set of questionnaires for me, a set for my spouse, and a set for my mother. I might write the process up in more detail at some point, but not today.

And so, at the start of October, I was given an appointment at the mental health services for what we believed would be a relatively straightforward ADHD assessment.

It turned out a bit differently from what we expected. I’m not going to go into details right now, because my head is still doing a lot of processing, but suffice to say, things changed from what we were expecting (the time and personnel of the appointment were both changed just beforehand). It turned out that I was seeing my old psychiatrist from many years back, and, of course (though I already knew this) it was in the mental health centre I’d left many years ago and had been to rather a lot at a not very happy time of my life.

The triggering effect of being back in the place, with the person, coupled with the fact that I was, on this occasion, again deemed “too complicated” (warning for picture of self-injury if you click the link), was nearly disastrous. This time, however, unlike the occasion in November 2016, my spouse spotted the signs and suggested I take a break. I spent most of the appointment outside, rocking on the pavement and communing with a pot plant with a small white flower.

When I went back in for the last few minutes of the appointment my spouse had clearly explained a lot, and my autism report, which my GP had sent with the referral, had finally been read. It had also become obvious that there was something of a vacuum as far as finding anybody who understood both neurodiversity and mental health issues, and the ways in which they interacted, well enough to give me (an autistic person with bipolar disorder) an ADHD assessment. My psychiatrist, however, did think that there was someone who could be asked to help and that it was worth a try.

I’m not sure I was wildly optimistic at this stage. It seemed like the process of finding people who could actually work out what was going on in my head and help me put the objects from the table into bags and then deal with the contents of those bags, was just an uphill struggle. I pondered whether to just give up and go home and drink stronger drink, but in the end I was curious enough to wait to see what happened next.

A Silly Tale

My Executive is not functioning
Their suit is creased,
They cannot find their papers
And their briefcase
Is full of ash.

The ash is from my burnout
And it spills all over the office
In great clouds,
Covering everything
In a fine dust
That will take some time
To clean up.

In the meantime
My constant hand flapping
Is spreading the ash still further
And it reflects the light
Coming in from the windows
And makes stimmy patterns
In the air.

When the ash settles on the desk
I like to run my fingers through it
And make circles in it
And then wash my hands
Because it feels a bit weird
On my skin.
Sand is nicer to play with.

My Words keep going AWOL
But they never leave a forwarding address
They just disappear.
I think they go off for a holiday
Sometimes.
Or perhaps they’re just down the pub
Enjoying a few pints
And a pie and chips.

Maybe that’s why my Diagnosis
Was so late.
It was sitting in the pub
For 45 years
Eating pies and drinking beer
And because it has such
Severe
Time agnosia
It didn’t realise that it had missed
The last train.

Although it finds trains
Rather stressful anyway.
And leaving the pub
Would have meant change,
Doing something different.
So maybe
It just gave in to
The inertia.

And, of course
Because everybody has such poor
Communication skills
Nobody was able to tell anybody
Where it was.

And night after night
My Executive got home
And ate the same takeaway for dinner
Every night.
Because even before the burnout
They couldn’t function very well
And needed their friend Routine
Who liked to have the same thing
Every night for dinner anyway.
And keeping Routine happy
Was always good.

Mask bullied my Executive
And tried to make them function properly
And told Routine to stop being so stupid.

Mask was an annoying tit.
Irritating and itchy,
No matter how many labels I cut out of it.
It looked good though
Everybody told me so.

But it got too warm.
Overheated.
It kept trying to keep the Words
At home
But they kept slipping out
The back door
And vanishing.

Then things started to melt
At the edges
Senses went a bit haywire
And there were explosions
And people started to notice.

My Executive stopped coming home some nights
And stayed at the office
To keep cool
And avoid the bullying.
Routine gave up eating
And sat in the corner
Rocking hard and hitting themself and tearing their skin.

And then when the Words got home
After a night on the town
They told me that my Diagnosis
Had been seen in the pub
And that closing time
Was fast approaching.
Last orders had been declared.

When my Executive
Returned from the office the next evening
They found Routine crying in the garden,
Clutching a fidget cube and a furry tangle.
My Words explained what had happened
By typing into an iThing.

Mask had got too hot.
Way too hot.
Melting down had increased
No time to cool.
Mask had cracked in the heat and would no longer stay on.

Sparks, flames, and total burnout.
Explosions so loud that ear defenders were needed.
Piles of smouldering ash everywhere,
Which my Executive tried to put into their briefcase,
Though they didn’t help with functioning
And eventually made a mess in the office.

But just as all seemed lost,
My Diagnosis finally got back from the pub
With an official Report
(And a kebab).

Mask should never have been worn for that long
Masks when worn for long periods
Can overheat
And are a burnout risk.
Safety procedures had not been followed.

Report said that
Routine needed care and love,
My Words should be allowed to come and go as they liked.
My Executive needed an assistant to function
(And would also have to sweep up the burnout ash,
Which could take a while).

Diagnosis explained that communication was hard
For everybody
And that Report had said so.

And everybody finally understood
What had been going on
And jumped up and down to celebrate.

Diagnosis was a bit drunk by now
So they went on the Internet
And ordered loads of spinners and toys and pretty lights
And everybody settled down
Under their weighted blankets
To recover from the events.

And they ate kebabs every night for months.
Because they always ate kebabs.
Because Routine liked them.

The Magic Spot

You know those hanging sculptures?

The ones in spacious modern art galleries?

They’re made of all sorts of bits and pieces, hanging from the ceiling.

When you walk in to the gallery

All you see is a load of stuff,

Suspended on a bunch of wires.

Nothing makes any sense

And you wonder what crazy person decided to hang all their junk up from the ceiling and call it art.

But you walk around the room.

And you can see that the stuff is actually somewhat organised

And forms a picture.

Of sorts.

You stand and look at it for a while and you are about to move away and leave the room, because the picture really isn’t that good.

It’s all out of focus. Bits randomly appearing where they shouldn’t be. Gaps where you might expect to see continuity.

Then somebody says something to you,

Points to the outline of a pair of feet on the floor, previously unseen.

You place your feet over the outlines.

And you look at the junk, hanging from the ceiling…

Except that it is no longer just junk.

It is no longer a picture out of focus.

It is clear.

And beautiful.

And it makes sense.

Each individual thing, contributing to the whole. Each tiny piece of junk is supposed to be there. Nothing is out of place any more.

Because you are viewing it from the correct spot.

And it’s a beautiful piece of art.

Now imagine that you have spent forty-five years in that room, looking at the stuff that forms your life and trying to make sense of it.

And then you stand on that magic spot.

And you finally see the picture in focus.

And your entire life makes sense.

And you get a little bit of hope that it might even, one day, be a tiny bit beautiful…

You need time for your feet to recover from standing in the gallery for so long. You are exhausted.

You need to get used to seeing the picture clearly because the detail is overwhelming, and seeing it like this for the first time is new and unfamiliar.

And you need to show everybody else how they should look at the picture.

Because they won’t all understand what you mean straight away.

And maybe some never will.

But now you understand.

Your life makes sense.

Now you know where you need to stand, you can safely move around the room again, examining each individual piece, hanging from its wire.

You can analyse how each item fits, and you can see why it is there.

You move your feet away from the marks on the floor.

And you see that they are no longer outlines of feet. They are now words.

You bend down to take a closer look.

And you read the words that are written on the magic spot, the words that give you the information you need to make sense of your life.

They simply say:

You are autistic.