Published on 12, July, 2020
I’m 53 and deep down have always known that my outlook is very different to others.
For as long as I can remember I’ve struggled with things that some find easy and even exciting, I have just developed strategies to cope with the demands of life, mainly ensuring I’m busy, I’m in control and things are on my terms. This obviously doesn’t always work and relationships have suffered.
I haven’t sought help or a diagnosis before as I always thought it was just me, but the more the world has changed and the more we are encouraged to accept and celebrate our differences the more I have realised I may not be on my own.
However, what will having a diagnosis change for me, I will still feel all the things I have felt for the last 40 plus years, the anxiety won’t go away when my husband suggests going somewhere different on holiday, I won’t suddenly be able to maintain friendships.
Just to answer your question, simply, and from my experience. It could be useful if you are a child or a young adult in an educational setting. On a professional level, having a diagnosis may be useful to be able to negotiate adaptations in the workplace (depending on your type of employment or employer) and/or you may find it useful as evidence to support a claim for welfare benefits. On a personal level, however, nothing changed for me, I still feel exactly the same as you did before having a diagnosis. You may or may not have an initial superficial interest (and advice and guidance) from the NHS Team that diagnose you—after all that is what they are paid for—but it will quickly evaporate within a few weeks. The bottom line is that no one cares whether you have a diagnosis or not, and if your life circumstances improve, it will have no connection to having or not having a diagnosis.