Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi. I was just officiially diagnosed yesterday and have mixed feelings...I don't know what to feel or think! My daughter was diagnosed 4 years ago so I read and read and read... and it's how I have ended up with my diagnosis. I feel so sad for my younger self and all of the anxiety I have suffered. I'm not sure what it means for my future. I'm after some positive thoughts and experiences from those of you in a similar position please. I also have diagnosed OCD and GAD.
Congratulations. I am in the same boat, and only found out a week ago, aged 39.
The big positive is that you now have a framework through which you can understand your past experiences. For me this has brought loads of mixed emotions but is so useful because now I understand why things happened the way they did. It also is useful knowing that this is not that rare a condition and there are lots of us out there. If this was super rare it would be incredibly lonely. Also, this Community exists and so far has been positive. Looking forward, the diagnosis should help with making plans for how to adjust things in your life to minimise the bad, and maximise the good. So things will change - you are the same person as you have been all your life, but you now have a toolkit to help you change things a bit for the better hopefully, and find a little bit of peace for the history that is you. This is how I am trying to approach things, following the advice of the diagnostic team - I just received their assessment report today.
Thanks for your support. Sounds like a good plan!
Accept and submit to how things must be.
There's minimal help - none for autism. All that counts is how you react inside. You can only understand as god's plan.