Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi everyone!
I got my diagnosis a few weeks ago, and while it wasn't unexpected I am now struggling to come to terms with the 'label'.
I've been told I probably had autism since I was like 17/18, and it's taken years to finally get the assessment. During that time, I sort of disregarded possibly being autistic and tried to continue my usual life. When I got my diagnosis, everyone kept telling me that 'nothing will change' and 'I'm the same person I always have been'. However any relief I felt when I first got the diagnosis has now turned into loneliness and helplessness.
I am just hoping someone can provide some insight into their own experience with handling their diagnosis and hopefully tell me that I won't always feel this lonely and hopeless.
Thank you very much everyone! ️
Knowledge is better than ignorance, always. Knowing that you are autistic is useful. It means that what probably felt like a meaningless jumble of odd traits, problems and limitations, all totally specific to you, are not, they have an underlying cause. You are not a defective neurotypical, you are an autistic, trying to function in a society designed for the comfort of others, but which is profoundly uncomfortable to you. Certainly, you are not on your own, you have found this forum, which is full of people whose experience of life will have huge areas of overlap with your own. If anything you are less alone than you were before your diagnosis, there are all of us autists available.