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Autism and medicine - is it worth pursuing diagnosis or will it be a barrier?

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Hi guys! This is my first contribution the community, and a question has probably been asked before, but here goes...

In less than a month's time, I'll be submitting my ucas application to 4 universities, to study medicine. As a volunteer for a medical charity's youth programme, I've been given autism awareness training - when the trainer spoke about features of ASDs, how young people with autism might view the word differently from other people, I was shocked. I thought all of what she spoke about was normal, or if not normal then just one of my funny idiosyncracies. I went home, did some research and discovered that I meet many of the traits I read about and had the same difficulties. Now I'm debating whether a diagnosis is a good thing - I really don't like the idea of self - diagnosing, but I genuinely think I have it - confirmation I think would just be a trigger for looking at things differently and a way of explaining what has always been my "oddness".

Medicine is a career where empathy, teamwork, communication etc are essential, so the big question is will seeking diagnosis affect my chances? Admittedly nothing will happen until after applications have gone, but I'm still concerned that future employers may look at something like that, and, true to the stereotypes, doubt my competence and fitness to practice.

Any advice, comments or thoughts are welcome, and thank you all for your help.

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  • NAS18906 said:

    @Vimes, I hope the hat is tasty! Phrases like that can flummox some people with ASD but I think we'll cope. Seriously though, I had to look up the meaning of empathy as I hadn't really got it straight in my mind - it is common for us to have good vocabulary but sometimes to be wide of the mark when using particular words. When we struggle for understanding what a word means can be a particular issue. I would guess that we struggled with the word because we really don't have much use or meaning attached to empathy as we don't really "get it". I think this discussion has helped me distinguish it from sympathy - I never really understood that there was a difference.

    I don't think that psychotherapy should be ruled out completely but it might be harder work than for other people. I had some sessions with a counsellor around the time I was diagnosed and found it useful to get things off my chest. You have to expect to talk at cross purposes from time to time but that doesn't mean that the effort is wasted.

    lol, I had chips with my hat:)

    I'm recently diagnosed myself after some conflicts at work, I'm a software developer. 

    Even though I scored low on this EQ test I don't understand why, I don't think I lack empathy or sympathy. I'm sometimes called cold and unsympathetic but I don't know why.

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  • NAS18906 said:

    @Vimes, I hope the hat is tasty! Phrases like that can flummox some people with ASD but I think we'll cope. Seriously though, I had to look up the meaning of empathy as I hadn't really got it straight in my mind - it is common for us to have good vocabulary but sometimes to be wide of the mark when using particular words. When we struggle for understanding what a word means can be a particular issue. I would guess that we struggled with the word because we really don't have much use or meaning attached to empathy as we don't really "get it". I think this discussion has helped me distinguish it from sympathy - I never really understood that there was a difference.

    I don't think that psychotherapy should be ruled out completely but it might be harder work than for other people. I had some sessions with a counsellor around the time I was diagnosed and found it useful to get things off my chest. You have to expect to talk at cross purposes from time to time but that doesn't mean that the effort is wasted.

    lol, I had chips with my hat:)

    I'm recently diagnosed myself after some conflicts at work, I'm a software developer. 

    Even though I scored low on this EQ test I don't understand why, I don't think I lack empathy or sympathy. I'm sometimes called cold and unsympathetic but I don't know why.

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