Gettting a diagnosis

I'm twice your age at 32 and this is also my fear! I've got my initial assessment next week. I think you should write down all things that make you think you are autistic and then see how big the list grows. I found this has helped me to feel I've got a bit more integrity because I've gathered the "evidence". 

Thank you! How big do you think the list should be before I should address it?

Thank you! How big do you think the list should be before I should address it?

I'm sorry for the delayed response. For some reason my forum notifications started going to my spam email so I didn't see I was getting replies! 

I dont know about the size of the list. I think that is probably personal to each person! I seem to keep adding to my list.

In terms of high school I missed loads of it. I hated the chaos in corridors and the fast pace of the changeover. I'm someone that gets very anxious about being late, but I also wouldn't have wanted to be singled out as being able to leave early to get to my next class so I'm not sure what the solution would be. I just ended up making excuses to stay off school a lot. 

For me, I definitely became more socially withdrawn at secondary school and by mid secondary school it became very overwhelming as everyone is in such tight-knit groups and I felt very isolated from that, also relationships take up a big part of secondary school life which I was just lost in. It took me a long time to properly make friends and I did not (and still dont) have a very big social life- this was much harder than primary as parents no longer organised 'play-dates' and I never knew if people even wanted to hang out with me. I think you become accustomed to saying and doing appropriate things but it was often so overwhelming I would go home and stay in my room away from my family for hours just to be alone and recharge. This is an issue I am facing even more so in college. I dont see why you shouldnt get an assessment, I think if I had noticed earlier it would have saved me a lot of worry and concern of how different and isolated I feel. I hope this was helpful (if a bit long), but I am not diagnosed so dont take my word as 100%!

Hi both. Thank you for your posts. I am a parent of a 10 year old with exactly the same fears. We both think she might be autistic but are worried we will seem as though we're making a fuss I we seek as assessment. She has a lot of traits but masks very well, especially at school. It seems to me that things can get a lot worse for autistic girls when they go to secondary school, so feel this might be a good time to get an assessment. Can I ask what your experience was of moving to secondary?