Hello all!New to the group-parent of 14yr old girl very recently diagnosed with ASD.

Thank you for the welcome Sunflower.Life seemed to dramatically change when my daughter made the transition from primary to secondary school-too many difficulties to list but the way my daughter experiences the world and feels about herself  is way beyond the realm of 'normal teenage angst' . My daughter and I desperately need help and support. The past few years have been tough , the past year and most recent months have been incredibly tough going. It is early days in terms of receiving a diagnosis but I am very hopeful that this will lead to implementing strategies and approaches tailored to the specific needs of my daughter. It has taken a long time to reach the point of diagnosis but thankfully my daughter and I have not been dismissed and ignored by the health system-the 'battle' with the education system is likely to endure !It is disappointing (not entirely surprising )to hear that your GP 'is woefully uniformed about autism' but very encouraging to know that the diagnosis has led to very positive experiences too.

Welcome to the community, a sense of relief is exactly what I felt when I got my ASD diagnosis a few weeks ago. I am female and 59 - I wish I had been diagnosed at 14 like your daughter. I had lots of problems as a teenager but these were assumed to be normal teenage angst.

More needs to be done to ensure early recognition of autism in girls. My GP is woefully uniformed about autism and does not seem particularly interested in developing his knowledge.

I am glad for you and your daughter that you have this clarity so you can seek out the right kind of support if you need it. What has helped me more than anything is contact with other autistic people. This allows me to be be my true self without judgement and gives me a sense of belonging.