Just diagnosed yesterday.

Hi,

Yesterday I was diagnosed with level 1 autism spectum.  I'm 45. Female.  And although the diagnosis doesn't suprise me - I had figured it out, and took myself for testing.   I find myself sad for my younger self, and frankly angry at all those folks who could, and perhaps should, have spotted something when I was a child. I have just one life, and I've spent 45 years feeling that I was somehow failing, when all I needed was someone to recognise neurodivergence. 

Anyone else feel this way?

Parents
  • I feel the same, it is so frustrating.

    But my one thought is some gratitude for being able to get diagnosed at all, but then also an element of sympathy for the Drs working in a system that is underfunded and where the research is really still developing enough to consider some of us as being on the spectrum. 

    I guess it was just underappreciated for a long time, but good that society is finally taking more interest in these research now

  • I wonder if the lack of research in the past was mainly because it was much easier to live with a neuro difference back then. Life is so fast and noisy now, communication is becoming harder and people increasingly less tolerant - which leads to more sensitivity, more blame and as a result, even less tolerance. Desmond Morris touches on this in the naked ape - how technology is moving faster than the human brain can adapt and what effect that has on mental health issues. 

    It seems to like society is going in ever decreasing circles on all fronts - climate, equality (all forms), politics in general etc. However, great leaps forward are also being made. The problem as I see it is that people really don't like being told that their opinions are wrong and the worse they're made to feel, the stronger they attach themselves to their opinions. Eventually, some lose all tolerance because they feel like they can't do or say anything right. It's a conundrum: at least, that's how I see it all anyway 

  • There's a generational aspect, perhaps. My parents & their own were very reluctant to 'bother the doctor' who was apparently permanently 'very busy'. I think modern folks aren't as deferential now, and maybe this is a factor in increased diagnoses numbers.

  • Personally, I like places with a lot of history and surrounding countryside

    Yep, me too - generally.

  • What do you prefer then given you consider yourself 'weird as hell'?

    Personally, I like places with a lot of history and surrounding countryside

  • Sorry - I don't understand what you are saying?

  • Oh God....Now my mind is working overtime to try and make it happen....

  • Personally - yes - but then I'm weird as hell on many, many fronts.  I've been to Milton Keynes quite a few times and it is my idea of "Normie Town" = not my cup of tea at all........however, if I were a Normie, then I think I would like it.....and that is what the surveys and statistics always tend to show.  People who live there, generally, think it is a great place to live.

Reply
  • Personally - yes - but then I'm weird as hell on many, many fronts.  I've been to Milton Keynes quite a few times and it is my idea of "Normie Town" = not my cup of tea at all........however, if I were a Normie, then I think I would like it.....and that is what the surveys and statistics always tend to show.  People who live there, generally, think it is a great place to live.

Children
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