Published on 12, July, 2020
Well, I finally have a diagnosis after 33 years on this earth.
I feel vindicated. I feel relieved. This has been a long time coming. I’ve been living with the possibility that I might be autistic for several years now and to finally get the diagnosis is amazing. Growing up I always felt different to my peers in school. I could never put my finger on what was causing it. I’ve been through a lot since as an adult, some of it traumatic. Nonetheless, in spite of all this I kept trying my best to work through it until I could work through it no more and I had to know.
I know now what has been going on with me after 33 years. I finally have an answer. I am looking forward to what the future has in store for me. I know it won’t be easy there is still a lot that needs to be done before autism acceptance becomes action.
How did other people feel after finding out? I'd love to hear from others who have been diagnosed later in life.
Daniel
32 newly diagnosed. I felt understood after diagnosis, like I knew but but felt the opposite to ecstatic probably a bit more lost, I’d been masking for that long I have to learn who I really am. I have depression too so I don’t know if that’s why my reaction was not elated. I have my follow up next week
Congratulations :-)
I was 56 and yep! Felt pretty much the way you do. My only regret is that it took five and half decades to find out.
Ecstatic. It answered so many questions I had about my peculiar self.
Hello and welcome . I hope you find this community helpful and rewarding !
Congratulations on the diagnosis! Really happy for you and I hope you find it useful being a part of this community.
I know this is perhaps not the best of phrases to use but I'm just glad that I'm not going crazy! As you say I have an explanation for why I see the world differently and why my brain is different.
Yeah I feel there will still be challenges and barriers going forward. However, one thing I don't seem to be is a quitter. I haven't read that much or watched that much around autism. I don't think I can take too much of it currently. I will probably just do things in my own time.
Thank you. I have been around this forum posting occasionally now and again. While going through the process. Thank you I've had a few people say welcome to the club to me these last few days :) I also feel part of the neurodiversity community. So neurodivergent and autistic are two labels that I won't mind at all.
Yeah, during the 90's there was a suspicion that there was something different about me and it was looked into. I was close to being sent to a special school. Over the years I've experienced depression, anxiety and been diagnosed with social anxiety disorder.
I'm starting to be convinced now that I was mis-diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. I definitely did suffer depression but I now think I had depression as a result of being undiagnosed with autism. The social anxiety aspect I think was just a trait associated to being autistic.
Nonetheless, yes it's better late than never!
I felt relieved to have some kind of explanation for why my brain doesn't work how it should, but unfortunately any hopes I had that this diagnosis would kinda leave a trail of breadcrumbs that would lead me out of the desert were unrealistic. It's very much a case of read and hear as much as I can stomach and try to figure it out myself. I was diagnosed when I was 34.
I'm really glad your diagnosis has been so positive.Welcome to the forums and welcome to the "club". I got diag'd back in the 90s but becase it wasn't teh only thing going on with me I thought it was a misdiagnosis for years. Only just clicked into place late last year when someone mentioned you can infact be both autistic and have ADHD and that other half made the whole picture finally make sense. So the diagnosis hit me about 28 years late lol.