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After diagnosis - stage 1 worries

Apollo

Hello

i have just been diagnosed with high functioning ASD. I'm a female in my early thirties.  

The diagnosis was initially a massive relief to me, but I am paranoid that if I have to tell anyone, they will think I am lying.

Nobody would think (apart from me and my mum) or has suggested that I might have Aspergers. However lots of people think I'm a bit odd. I told the people I live with and they are older (one works in mental health), and they quizzed me quite a bit and said 'yes, but lots of people feel like that'. And 'but you understand irony...?'  

I was very anxious in the interview/assessment, and am now worried that maybe I was 'putting it on'. Maybe the assessment team got it wrong because I presented myselF differently than I do with other people. I was very honest in my answering of questions. But I was anxious and they ask questions that civilians don't ask. I'm worried maybe I'm a fraud.

Did anybody else have these feelings?

Thank you  

Parents

  • Hi Apollo,

    I am also in my early thirties and have been recently diagnosed, if that is of any help.

    To project; I think that this is probably an anxious time, however, if you have already researched what something like Aspergers means or involves, I think you should try to be comfortable with yourself:

    Although you now have a diagnosis, this has not changed who you are or how you act (and shouldn't, you've already lived thirty or so years without a diagnosis - so what has changed?).

    You should try to use this assessment to provide yourself with peace-of-mind, and allow you to realise effective ways to get what you want from life or improve your life in ways which you can be more comfortable with (i.e. there may now be a quantifiable reason for certain of your attitudes or actions, and so a mechanism (or at least some literature) to allow you to better understand yourself).

    Are you a fraud? Maybe, however I think it's probably unlikely that you'd have gotten as far as a diagnosis if there weren't at least some similarities. A face to face or telephone interview is also intended to prevent mis-diagnosis, and is much more difficult to cheat than something like a questionairre.

    As you've probably been told, ASD is a spectrum. As such; two different people with the same diagnosis (i.e. high functioning ASD) may not express exactly the same characteristics (although there are some which appear to be fairly standard).

    Regarding who to tell; generally it is not worth discussing with people who do not need to know. Conditions such as ASD are about as well understood by the general public (all the way to non-specialists, and, generally, those with the condition) as fibre-optic telecommunications (i.e. when discussed, most people will, as you have found, generally massively over-simplify a complex matter).

Reply

  • Hi Apollo,

    I am also in my early thirties and have been recently diagnosed, if that is of any help.

    To project; I think that this is probably an anxious time, however, if you have already researched what something like Aspergers means or involves, I think you should try to be comfortable with yourself:

    Although you now have a diagnosis, this has not changed who you are or how you act (and shouldn't, you've already lived thirty or so years without a diagnosis - so what has changed?).

    You should try to use this assessment to provide yourself with peace-of-mind, and allow you to realise effective ways to get what you want from life or improve your life in ways which you can be more comfortable with (i.e. there may now be a quantifiable reason for certain of your attitudes or actions, and so a mechanism (or at least some literature) to allow you to better understand yourself).

    Are you a fraud? Maybe, however I think it's probably unlikely that you'd have gotten as far as a diagnosis if there weren't at least some similarities. A face to face or telephone interview is also intended to prevent mis-diagnosis, and is much more difficult to cheat than something like a questionairre.

    As you've probably been told, ASD is a spectrum. As such; two different people with the same diagnosis (i.e. high functioning ASD) may not express exactly the same characteristics (although there are some which appear to be fairly standard).

    Regarding who to tell; generally it is not worth discussing with people who do not need to know. Conditions such as ASD are about as well understood by the general public (all the way to non-specialists, and, generally, those with the condition) as fibre-optic telecommunications (i.e. when discussed, most people will, as you have found, generally massively over-simplify a complex matter).

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