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Extra value
Dec. 8th, 2025 10:15 amI am getting better far too slowly, but at least I am getting better. I'm certainly going to be in a fit state to be recorded this afternoon; the OU is putting together a video to encourage people to do the module I'm currently on, so they asked for volunteers from among the students currently doing the module, and I volunteered. So I'm going to be filmed, remotely, at three o'clock today, and I get to yak about the module, which will be fun. I think I'm probably not so pale now that they'll actually need to post-process me. (I'm pale by default, but obviously these last few days I've been pretty much paper white.)
So I rang the surgery again this morning to ask them for advice on preventing any further episodes of this sort, because it has been pretty unpleasant. (I think whatever happens I'll continue to sleep with my feet raised; it's not just helping with the blood pressure, but I'm also sleeping better and not waking up in the middle of the night.) They said I needed to speak to a GP, which wasn't too surprising, and they were going to make me an appointment... until I reminded them that I already have one. It's booked for two weeks today.
Now that is exceedingly convenient. It means I don't have to wait 5 - 6 weeks to see a GP (they will see you the same day if it's urgent or potentially urgent, obviously, but this isn't). And it also makes me feel a lot better about having the appointment booked in the first place.
The reason I originally booked the appointment is that someone in my family insists on trying to diagnose me with autism, despite the facts that a) I clearly do not meet the clinical definition, which is a communication problem severe enough to cause difficulty in everyday life; b) I have never had the specific problem with non-literal expression that is the main characteristic of autistic communication problems; c) on scientific tests I come out as non-autistic; and d) the only other person who's ever said I was autistic was, bluntly, off their head at the time (they also randomly accused me of being a paedophile, so, y'know). And this person simply doesn't accept any of that, which I find not only frustrating but extremely hurtful. Not because "autistic" is a negative label (it isn't; I know a lot of great people who are on the autistic spectrum, plus there are things in life it makes easier as well as things it makes more difficult), but simply because it is, in my case, false. I would be equally annoyed if they went around trying to convince me I have blue eyes. I don't. They're green... well, somewhere between green and hazel, but more green. And I have particular problems with people sticking false labels on me because my parents stuck so many of them on me as a child; granted, almost all of those were negative, but the falseness was as much of a problem as the negativity. When you've believed that you are [X] for years because you've always been [X] by parental fiat, and then you find that's not even remotely true... you're annoyed. Relieved, of course, that you're not really [X] after all, but still annoyed that you've been made to believe a lie all this time.
So, I will accept no more lies. Consequently I booked this appointment around a month ago so that I could be formally diagnosed as non-autistic by an actual doctor, hence hopefully putting the whole thing to bed once and for all. I was a little anxious about booking it, as I didn't want to waste GP time; but the receptionist assured me that it was a perfectly valid thing to do in the circumstances, since I was clearly quite stressed about it.
It will take the doctor about five minutes to determine I'm not even remotely autistic, and then we can spend the rest of the appointment talking about my dratted blood pressure. And that all works out very nicely.
So I rang the surgery again this morning to ask them for advice on preventing any further episodes of this sort, because it has been pretty unpleasant. (I think whatever happens I'll continue to sleep with my feet raised; it's not just helping with the blood pressure, but I'm also sleeping better and not waking up in the middle of the night.) They said I needed to speak to a GP, which wasn't too surprising, and they were going to make me an appointment... until I reminded them that I already have one. It's booked for two weeks today.
Now that is exceedingly convenient. It means I don't have to wait 5 - 6 weeks to see a GP (they will see you the same day if it's urgent or potentially urgent, obviously, but this isn't). And it also makes me feel a lot better about having the appointment booked in the first place.
The reason I originally booked the appointment is that someone in my family insists on trying to diagnose me with autism, despite the facts that a) I clearly do not meet the clinical definition, which is a communication problem severe enough to cause difficulty in everyday life; b) I have never had the specific problem with non-literal expression that is the main characteristic of autistic communication problems; c) on scientific tests I come out as non-autistic; and d) the only other person who's ever said I was autistic was, bluntly, off their head at the time (they also randomly accused me of being a paedophile, so, y'know). And this person simply doesn't accept any of that, which I find not only frustrating but extremely hurtful. Not because "autistic" is a negative label (it isn't; I know a lot of great people who are on the autistic spectrum, plus there are things in life it makes easier as well as things it makes more difficult), but simply because it is, in my case, false. I would be equally annoyed if they went around trying to convince me I have blue eyes. I don't. They're green... well, somewhere between green and hazel, but more green. And I have particular problems with people sticking false labels on me because my parents stuck so many of them on me as a child; granted, almost all of those were negative, but the falseness was as much of a problem as the negativity. When you've believed that you are [X] for years because you've always been [X] by parental fiat, and then you find that's not even remotely true... you're annoyed. Relieved, of course, that you're not really [X] after all, but still annoyed that you've been made to believe a lie all this time.
So, I will accept no more lies. Consequently I booked this appointment around a month ago so that I could be formally diagnosed as non-autistic by an actual doctor, hence hopefully putting the whole thing to bed once and for all. I was a little anxious about booking it, as I didn't want to waste GP time; but the receptionist assured me that it was a perfectly valid thing to do in the circumstances, since I was clearly quite stressed about it.
It will take the doctor about five minutes to determine I'm not even remotely autistic, and then we can spend the rest of the appointment talking about my dratted blood pressure. And that all works out very nicely.
