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Is it worth me seeking a formal diagnosis?

NAS85297

Hey everyone

I'm a 17 yr old who will be 18 relatively soon. Looking at the resources about autism, I've come to the conclusion that I am quite probably autistic. Once I came to this conclusion, I decided to inform my parents for advice on what the next steps I should take are. They had a very negative reaction to this and discouraged me to pursue it any further. They insist that I cannot have it, but their reasoning doesn't make sense.

I don't think what I have negatively affects my progress at school / in exams but I do believe it to cause some trouble getting round to preparing for exams. I will be in university in some time, but I have no clue whether I will need additional support.

I made the decision to pursue a formal diagnosis myself once I am 18 without doing a lot of research into what this would mean for me, and this is what I had in mind for a while. However recently, I have done some more looking into it and found some awful reports about the treatment of diagnosed autistic people (i.e. migration, legal and medical autonomy, adoption, etc) and I am no longer sure whether it is worth seeking this diagnosis without much certainty to whether it will assist me in life in getting support I may need. It feels like it would've been more worth it had I figured this out earlier, but now I am afraid of the downsides.

Based on the limited info I've given, do you think it is worth continuing to pursue a diagnosis? I'm sorry if this whole post is vague or not what this forum is for. I just need some other perspectives.

Parents

  • At age 52 myself and having had my own diagnosis in 2021 just after Covid, having been encouraged by family back home in Ireland since 2019 to have it here in the U.K. where I’ve lived for just over 20 years, given that you are age 18 soon, it reminds me of my own teenage years in the 1980’s when I had thought I was gay and first came out in an Ireland that was much more Catholic than it is now and it strikes me that being gay and being autistic are similar in many respects, in terms of the challenges faced and indeed, many LGBT’s are autistic as I’ve read online - it does concern me that after my diagnosis, most of the post-diagnostic support available appears to be geared towards children rather than adults and I do recommend the directory on this website as a starting point for your search for support - I suspect that your parents are somewhat aware of this apparent lack of adult post-diagnostic support and are therefore reluctant to put you into a similar position to myself 

Reply

  • At age 52 myself and having had my own diagnosis in 2021 just after Covid, having been encouraged by family back home in Ireland since 2019 to have it here in the U.K. where I’ve lived for just over 20 years, given that you are age 18 soon, it reminds me of my own teenage years in the 1980’s when I had thought I was gay and first came out in an Ireland that was much more Catholic than it is now and it strikes me that being gay and being autistic are similar in many respects, in terms of the challenges faced and indeed, many LGBT’s are autistic as I’ve read online - it does concern me that after my diagnosis, most of the post-diagnostic support available appears to be geared towards children rather than adults and I do recommend the directory on this website as a starting point for your search for support - I suspect that your parents are somewhat aware of this apparent lack of adult post-diagnostic support and are therefore reluctant to put you into a similar position to myself 

Children
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