Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
I am a 29 year old women and have been looking at the possibility that im autistic for a couple of years now. My niece was recently diagnosed with ADHD and autism and during that time my family and myself noticed a lot of similarities between my niece and how i was at the same age. As we researched autism in girls more the symptoms seems to familiar to me that i was surprised i has never been diagnosed when i was young; i have been diagnosed with OCD and general anxiety disorder and have been in and out of therapy since about 8 years old.
I have also taken a number of online autism test (unsure how accurate they are) and they have came up with a high likely hood that i am autistic. I guess i am just looking for advise on if i should pursue a diagnosis. Although i think i have a lot of the symptoms i am somewhat reluctant to seek this out because i would have thought if i was autistic it would have come up during my years in therapy? In autistic peoples experiences how often are you misdiagnosed or not diagnosed for whatever reasons?
I know that if i went through the process it would be quite stressful for me, however, after seeing how well my niece is now doing with the proper support and understanding i think it could be a good thing for me.
Please let me know if anyone has any experience of late diagnosis even after being in therapy and diagnosed with other things before.
Hi. My son was diagnosed with autism two years ago. At that point I started to think that I had similar traits. I'm antisocial and will leave social events after becoming upset. I cant read faces and people love to talk at me about the issues in their lives because i don't react.
I self referred to our local NHS neurodevelopnental service which handles assessments. Found forms fairly easy to fill in. I was accepted for assessment on the NHS with a 3.5 year wait. In the end I went private and was diagnosed with autism a few months later.
I think it's worth knowing. It explains alot of issues in life but there isn't any ongoing support and benefits seem impossible to claim. In my case I just wanted it on my records for when I'm older as I'm a disabled adult.
Thank you for your reply. Can i ask how you found the private route? Is your diagnosis accepted by your Gp? I been told some people who have been diagnosed privately that their Gp would only accept a NHS one and therefore wouldn't refer them for support.
it does run in the family apparently. so its a dead give away if one of your relatives is on the spectrum then all your family likely is, every single branch.