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Am i autistic?

Jay123
over 2 years ago

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.

Parents
  • over 2 years ago

    ah you had therapy? .... yeah i think therapist would have been able to recognise anything like that if you truly did open up enough to them and they truly did listen and do their job.... i think some of them have the ability to refer or diagnose too though dont they?

    as for NHS diagnosis.... its a mess.... dont count on one, they will refer you then you will forever be in a que, or be forgotten, you will never hear back from it after they so call refer you. your therapist can probably refer you faster if you bring it up with them and see what they think as they would have enough personal info about you and your life now to make a judgement and possibly refer you if they have such powers and they will refer you faster if they can as the NHS gps just generally dont care enough.

Reply
  • over 2 years ago

    ah you had therapy? .... yeah i think therapist would have been able to recognise anything like that if you truly did open up enough to them and they truly did listen and do their job.... i think some of them have the ability to refer or diagnose too though dont they?

    as for NHS diagnosis.... its a mess.... dont count on one, they will refer you then you will forever be in a que, or be forgotten, you will never hear back from it after they so call refer you. your therapist can probably refer you faster if you bring it up with them and see what they think as they would have enough personal info about you and your life now to make a judgement and possibly refer you if they have such powers and they will refer you faster if they can as the NHS gps just generally dont care enough.

Children
  • over 2 years ago in reply to Caelus

    Yes you would think that a therapist should recognise these things but they don't always. I am still surprised by this myself- I saw a lot of different therapist and even was inpatient for 8 weeks once and not one of them ever thought of autistm. It took a dietitian to pick up that I am autistic and to get me started on the diagnostic process. When I did mention that I  could be autistic to other medical professionals they agreed that it was likely... I am now 25 and in the process of being diagnosed (final part of assessment coming up this week actually!). At this point I have become quite accepting that I am autistic- after meeting other autistic people and realising that most of my friends are actually also autistic (I just hadn't known previously) it just makes so much sense and I really don't understand why noone picked up on it sooner. But I think many mental health professionals are maybe not aware of the female phenotype? 

    I was on the waiting list in Germany for diagnosis (and actually also in Luxembourg) but I have been moving a lot so I have ended up going privately (in UK) as I am not sure I will be long enough in any one country to ever make it to the end of the waiting list. I had a prediagnostic assessment with Sara Heath, which was great and I am now having the second part of the assessment this week- so hopefully that will all go smoothly and if I am diagnosed I hope that it will be accepted by the GP too. 

    I think it does really help to know if you are autistic- I've felt in the past like I was collecting diagnoses (depression, OCD, anxiety, eating disorders etc.) but none of them really fit and noone seemed able to help- It does help a lot to know I think so I hope you manage to get a referral and in the meantime I hope you meet lots of people on this forum- this is such a friendly community and it is very nice to meet people here and to share experiences. 

    Best, Ann