So I’ve recently got a formal diagnosis of autism from a psychiatrist after an assessment and pre assessment questionnaires etc. I am 34 years old, at first I felt a sort of rounded feeling like “oh yes, all those things make sense now”, but now I’m questioning am I really autistic, did the psych get something wrong. I’m just overthinking on it and reflecting on it.
now I’m questioning am I really autistic, did the psych get something wrong.
The tests are pretty comprehensive and the professionals trained to spot where we "mask" and try to pretend we are normal.
If you really want to be sure then I would do 2 things.
1 - take some of the many free online autism tests and see if you reach the threshold for a diagnosis. They can't all be wrong.
2 - Look at the checklist of autistic traits here: https://thespectrum.org.au/autism-diagnosis/checklist-adults/
List which of these you exhibit and by the time you finish if you have more than a handful then you can pretty much map out your autistic profile there and then.
As Kev says, imposter syndrome is common for the recently diagnosed so take some time to process it.
I would recommend learning about it. A book like Autism For Dummies (2025) - ISBN 9781394301003 (paberback); ISBN 9781394301027 (ebook) is a great way to get bite sized bits of info and be able to look up the traits you identified from the checklist.
Once you have a reasonable understanding of all the confusing details then I would engage with a psychotherapist who understands autism well and take at least a half dozen sessions with them to work through what it means for you.
You will most likely learn a lot more about yourself in these sessions than you have done through most of your adult life and if this works well for you then continue if finances allow and dig a bit deeper. There is a lot of benefit from things like unpacking old traumas that actually has a lot of impact on your life now that you probably were not aware of.
That would be my approach anyway but I'm just some random off the internet so don't follow my advice without doing your own research of course 
now I’m questioning am I really autistic, did the psych get something wrong.
The tests are pretty comprehensive and the professionals trained to spot where we "mask" and try to pretend we are normal.
If you really want to be sure then I would do 2 things.
1 - take some of the many free online autism tests and see if you reach the threshold for a diagnosis. They can't all be wrong.
2 - Look at the checklist of autistic traits here: https://thespectrum.org.au/autism-diagnosis/checklist-adults/
List which of these you exhibit and by the time you finish if you have more than a handful then you can pretty much map out your autistic profile there and then.
As Kev says, imposter syndrome is common for the recently diagnosed so take some time to process it.
I would recommend learning about it. A book like Autism For Dummies (2025) - ISBN 9781394301003 (paberback); ISBN 9781394301027 (ebook) is a great way to get bite sized bits of info and be able to look up the traits you identified from the checklist.
Once you have a reasonable understanding of all the confusing details then I would engage with a psychotherapist who understands autism well and take at least a half dozen sessions with them to work through what it means for you.
You will most likely learn a lot more about yourself in these sessions than you have done through most of your adult life and if this works well for you then continue if finances allow and dig a bit deeper. There is a lot of benefit from things like unpacking old traumas that actually has a lot of impact on your life now that you probably were not aware of.
That would be my approach anyway but I'm just some random off the internet so don't follow my advice without doing your own research of course
