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Newly diagnosed Adult

NAS74954

Hi,

I am a 42 year old lady who a few weeks ago was diagnosed with autism. I also have an 18 year old son who is also autistic. 

After years of knowing that I was ‘different’ and also noticing that I see a lot of myself in my son I finally plucked up the courage to approach my GP for an assessment following a discussion with my support worker at uni who also happened to be an autism specialist.

The reason for my post is to ask any newly diagnosed adults how they told their nearest and dearest ? 

Ive always been very good at mirroring appropriate behaviours when in public and to people who know me they would say I’m a confident chatty person which couldn’t be further from the truth.

I’ve found trying to be someone I’m not very exhausting and stressful and this diagnoses has answered so many questions for me in my life especially when growing up.

I look at people with huge friendship groups in ore sometimes wishing that was me when in reality it’s the complete opposite of me and what I want. I don’t have any friends but this suits me perfectly as I prefer my own company more. 

any advice on telling my family would be greatly appreciated 

Parents

  • Take your time, there's no rush. Many people on the forum said this to me and i wish i wouldve waited.

    I wanted to tell them because i thought if i need any future help, i can approach them. However, I present similarly to you so it was a big shock to them and they only know the stereotypical presentations. If you are telling you parents, there might be the feeling from them that they have done something wrong in bringing you up. Or that there's something "wrong" with you. I haven't talked to my parents about it since I told them 6 months ago.

    Be clear about what you want from telling people. It's ok telling people but I have found, they don't know what to do with this information. 

Reply

  • Take your time, there's no rush. Many people on the forum said this to me and i wish i wouldve waited.

    I wanted to tell them because i thought if i need any future help, i can approach them. However, I present similarly to you so it was a big shock to them and they only know the stereotypical presentations. If you are telling you parents, there might be the feeling from them that they have done something wrong in bringing you up. Or that there's something "wrong" with you. I haven't talked to my parents about it since I told them 6 months ago.

    Be clear about what you want from telling people. It's ok telling people but I have found, they don't know what to do with this information. 

Children
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