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Terrified of being diagnosed

Jan65

I'm 58 years old and I have been in touch with Lexxic, a neurodiversity organisation who test people for dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, ADHD and autism.  They want to test me for dyslexia, dyspraxia and autism.  I'm terrified of being diagnosed with autism in case I'm misunderstood, misjudged or face stigma.  If I get a diagnosis, I want to be treated with dignity and respect like any other human being.  Even if I am different in some way or have problems or difficulties with certain things, I want to be seen as a whole person.  To me I'm a human being first and having any of these neurodiversity conditions would come second to that.

Parents

  • Hi Jan65, I am 50 year old autistic woman and I can you probably see from my posts, I do struggle on a day to day basis with the knowledge of being autistic. 

    I have not really come out to my family or friends, and I think this is hard to do now that I am the age I am. 

    I think the reason I have not come out is because of my fear of the stigma and how I would be treated. So despite being diagnosed, it hasn't had the same consequences as if I had come out as autistic.

    The thing that has been helpful for me is that it explains so much about the problems I've had over my life and therefore I can come to terms with how my life is. I've become more accepting of how things have turned out.

    Whether you decide to continue down your diagnosis route or not, I wish you well for the future. 

    And leave you with this quote:

    The privilege of being oneself is a gift many taken for granted, but for an autistic person, being allowed to be oneself is the greatest and rarest gift of all

    [NB the original quotation refers to 'someone with AS']

    The quotation is taken from Alyssa Aleksanian's Chapter entitled 'Opening the Umbrella':

    Beardon, L. and Worton, D. (Eds) (2017). Bittersweet on the Autism Spectrum. London: Jessica Kingsley.

Reply

  • Hi Jan65, I am 50 year old autistic woman and I can you probably see from my posts, I do struggle on a day to day basis with the knowledge of being autistic. 

    I have not really come out to my family or friends, and I think this is hard to do now that I am the age I am. 

    I think the reason I have not come out is because of my fear of the stigma and how I would be treated. So despite being diagnosed, it hasn't had the same consequences as if I had come out as autistic.

    The thing that has been helpful for me is that it explains so much about the problems I've had over my life and therefore I can come to terms with how my life is. I've become more accepting of how things have turned out.

    Whether you decide to continue down your diagnosis route or not, I wish you well for the future. 

    And leave you with this quote:

    The privilege of being oneself is a gift many taken for granted, but for an autistic person, being allowed to be oneself is the greatest and rarest gift of all

    [NB the original quotation refers to 'someone with AS']

    The quotation is taken from Alyssa Aleksanian's Chapter entitled 'Opening the Umbrella':

    Beardon, L. and Worton, D. (Eds) (2017). Bittersweet on the Autism Spectrum. London: Jessica Kingsley.

Children