Tomorrow morning is part 2 (of 2) of my diagnosis. I am 42 now. I am pretty sure myself that I am autistic, I have not found a better explanation for my life being the “shape” that it is.
I would be gutted if a professional decided that I do not belong here though. Fingers crossed that I have guessed right, and that the doc see me as I am, not just my mask.
Edit: just to follow up on this. I have just been diagnosed with Autism. I am extremely relieved. He was very casual about it, and very supportive. We also talked a lot about PDA, he said that describes a lot of my work and life challenges. I’m seeing him again in about 10 days where hopefully he can give me a bit of advice about what to do with this info. Thanks to all of you that commented.
I’m not an expert in this area at all, but i think that if you’ve done some research and think you are autistic, then you’re extremely likely to actually be autistic. If you check enough boxes on the list, then that’s pretty much it.
Thank you. This is my hope. I had previously decided (loosely) that I didn’t need a diagnosis, and that I would just muddle through. Can’t remember now exactly what triggered it, but a few weeks ago I decided this is worth pursuing. I have done a few questionnaires and it all points the same way. Soon, I can stop wondering!
It was definitely the case for me. I was looking up symptoms because I had a student that a other teacher said she thought might be autistic, so I wanted to see what the signs are. Reading through the list, I was like “Holy shit…it me!” My coworkers were floored that I didn’t know I was autistic because they had spotted it right away. I told my mom, and she said, “Yeah…you’re dad and I always thought you might be.”
So I got tested at age 46 and got the diagnosis. Easy peasy. I mean apart from having to wait a few years until the right combination of health insurance, mental state, covid safety, and diagnosticians came along so that I wouldn’t have to pay $1500 out of pocket.