Benefits of a formal diagnosis?

I went down the formal diagnosis route purely to clear up all the misdiagnosis labels I'd collected. There was something really powerful about the psychiatrist clearly stating "you're autistic, this is your why" and how quickly other clinicians have stopped what felt like gaslighting me over my 'symptoms'.

I will say that the assessment report itself was not immediately helpful. I don't think the assessor entirely understood the extent of my masking and the fact that I've been misunderstanding myself for decades. For example, for 30 years I've sometimes referred to not liking supermarkets and other people have replied "me too" so I just assumed they had the same experience and just got on with it. Only recently discovering that they didn't mean they too had melt downs in their car everytime they came out! This complete lack of normal reference point in my head made the assessment somewhat flawed as I continued to misrepresent my own experiences based on what I'd assumed was 'normal'.The report still came back with a diagnosis and that led me to drop the imposter syndrome and do more research which has been more helpful than anything written in the report!

I went down the formal diagnosis route purely to clear up all the misdiagnosis labels I'd collected. There was something really powerful about the psychiatrist clearly stating "you're autistic, this is your why" and how quickly other clinicians have stopped what felt like gaslighting me over my 'symptoms'.

I will say that the assessment report itself was not immediately helpful. I don't think the assessor entirely understood the extent of my masking and the fact that I've been misunderstanding myself for decades. For example, for 30 years I've sometimes referred to not liking supermarkets and other people have replied "me too" so I just assumed they had the same experience and just got on with it. Only recently discovering that they didn't mean they too had melt downs in their car everytime they came out! This complete lack of normal reference point in my head made the assessment somewhat flawed as I continued to misrepresent my own experiences based on what I'd assumed was 'normal'.The report still came back with a diagnosis and that led me to drop the imposter syndrome and do more research which has been more helpful than anything written in the report!

You make a good point:

Knowing for sure gives you permission to go and investigate and know yourself better, without worrying you are mistaken and exaggerating normal behaviour. It allows you to really believe what you find.