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Doubting pre-diagnosis

NAS77108

I'm 20 and have recently began trying to get an ASD diagnosis. Did anyone else doubt that they were autistic sometimes before they were diagnosed? I feel sometimes like I'm a fraud because I don't have all the signs of autism and have to remind myself it's a spectrum. 

  • Hi matie,. Mine is very recent, I had a advocate help me, but a couple of weeks before the diagnosis I had a meltdown telling them I’m not autistic I’m a victim of domestic abuse.. I was diagnosed with ASD a few weeks later and it took about 18months 

  • When you say you 'doubt', what you mean is you don't know. 

    Of course you don't; that's why you have a diagnosis. 

    As you say, it's a spectrum. No one has "all the signs".  I haven't.  

    If you feel different in some way, well, you may be autistic; or there may be a different explanation, or a complex pattern of several explanations. 

    But if a specialist says you are not autistic, that doesn't make you a fraud. 

    You are still you, and you're getting to know yourself at the age of 20.  The brain is not fully formed until around 25 so you are still in your formative years.  

    Try to go with the flow a bit.  If you're autistic, OK, good to know.  If you aren't, you'll probably seek other explanations for your feelings.

    All those of us who have been diagnosed have experienced uncertainty beforehand.  It can be hard, but don't view it as a test that you have to pass.  

    I didn't get a diagnosis until my 60s and yet now, with hindsight, it's obvious. If I'd known in my early 20s I'd have made some different decisions and a few things would have been a lot less challenging.  But I didn't.  So you have time on your side.   

    Best wishes and good luck to you.  

  • I'm 57 and ...Yes. And the doubts are pretty normal, especially if you've been masking - not consciously, but over compensating with intellectual skills, all your life. NT's do it differently, you know. Shock to me that they "read" stuff.

    ' How could I possibly be autistic?', I thought. I was great at Drama at school. I am a linguist. I am a trainer of very sensitive subjects. I have mates. That stuff requires EQ.

    Yeah, it does. That, or compassion linked to the intellectual ability to think through an emotion, a situation, a mind set. But that is hard work. NTs have a short cut. Who knew? Not me! Lol.

    Feeling like a "fraud" at this stage is pretty normal. Try Purple Ella on 'Imposter syndrome'

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