"Aspergers Service"

About a year ago after a conversation with my parents, I went to my GP and asked about the possibility that I was in some way autistic, after realising I have many of the symptoms of Aspergers. I was told there was no service for autistic adults in Nottingham- but was then referred to the Aspergers Service at Highbury Hospital. I had to wait until September to be seen (which I was okay with) and when I went a lady collected some information and then told me the wait for m assessment would be six months. I was stunned at the wait but there was little I could do about it so I said nothing.

I was formally diagnosed with Aspergers in Feburary (after a suicide attempt triggered the crisis team to speak to the Aspergers Service) and handed a booklet which I was told would help me to understand the condition better. I was also advised not to read up too much about the condition on the internet because 'there is a lot of crap out there'. I was then told I would be invited to a series of workshops where I would meet newly diagnosed individuals and gain somee coping strategies. Both myself and my parents were led to believe that the workshops would happen within a few weeks.

They did not. I was told I would not be seen till June and when I expressed frustration with that, I was then told it would be April, although they thought it was best if I was left to 'sit with' my condition for a while. The booklet I was handed turned out to be more for people who suspected they had Aspergers rather than for those who were recently diagnosed. And the workshops turned out to be just the one. I was sat in a stuffy room for two hours and talked at and down to by staff who were supposed to be supportive. I was handed a bunch of papers and told that this was everything I needed to know and that I would recieve no further help from the Aspergers Service.

I have trouble with my short term memory and I have trouble taking in information. Being handed a booklet and some papers and being subjected to two hours of a barrage of information has not helped in the slightest. I am still nonplussed about my condition and I still don't have any coping strategies. I know that the Aspergers Team is swamped, but that doesn't excuse the fact that I have been handed this diagnosis, given the bare minimum of assistance and then cut loose. I am not happy.

Being told you have a condition and then simply given bits of paper is not good enough. I expected support- not a two hour lecture in a stuffy, hot room. How does that help anybody? There needs to be something else, something more... anything other than the treatment (or lack of) I recieved.