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.
I was diagnosed with things like PND, anxiety, social anxiety, and depression in the past. I didn’t know I was autistic then, so I didn’t know that all the other traits I had weren’t my personality, aside from the issues I was experiencing at the time, which led them to their ideas on what was wrong. I’m pretty sure I was depressed once, but not the other times. I feel with hindsight those were burnouts.
I realised I was autistic during the time my teen was being assessed. I however found it to be a shock, and I tried to bury it for a year. I went private and got my diagnosis is March, not long before my 49th birthday.
Although I knew for a few years, seeing the diagnostic report was a shock. I had mixed emotions, but even these few months on, I feel so much better about myself.