G'day Folks,
This is kind of new for me, so apologies if I seem a bit lost. When I was in my early thirties, I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorder. Did some counselling but avoided the medication. Learnt how to manage it and spent years learning how to self reflect which in turn helped me to understand myself a little better, be aware of who I was and try and push myself to a better place of understanding. A year and a half ago, a situation at work pushed me to medication for the first time, I was sent to an occupational nurse who asked me if I'd ever been diagnosed with dyspraxia, didn't even know what it was. I started getting better and then in January I had a motorcycle accident, mild tap, uninjured. But two months after that, had another motorcycle accident, went over the bonnet of the car, broke my wrist and ended up with PTSD which I'm being treated for at the moment.
Early on in my treatment, I came across an article on adhd and noted a number of personality traits that I had in common. I had always thought there was something weird about me and thought that the depression and anxiety were the cause. But this seemed far closer to me. I took this to my counsellor who said she had wondered if I was on the Autism spectrum. As she was still getting to know me at the time, she wanted to get to know me better before bringing up the subject. Now we are coming close to the end of treatment, she has asked me if I wanted to pursue a diagnosis. I asked her opinion and she believes that I do have autism with attention deficit disorder traits. I'm almost 40 years old now so for it not to be picked up for so long, I must be quite low on the spectrum. But I'm struggling to understand what is a trait and what is 'normal' I know that I will be asked questions. I certainly don't want to be untruthful or inflate my symptoms in order to get diagnosed. But how do I know what things to talk about when I get assessed? Has anyone else gone through diagnosis in later life? How were you assessed? I feel like this explains so many struggles I've had, why I've always felt separated from everyone else and I guess I'm afraid of saying the wrong thing or not giving the best examples and being told I'm normal. Then I'd effectively be back in the dark, trying to figure myself out. A diagnosis could give me confidence at home and work to say this is where I struggle and here is the reason why. Sorry this is long and a bit pointless. I haven't told my family about it yet. Hoping I don't have to until I have a diagnosis either way. Just wondering if others have had this same anxiety about going through diagnosis?
