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Ive just been diagnosed- what now?

Charlotte

Hi there everyone I'm Charlotte :) 

I'm 19 and a student at university and I've just been Diagnosed with Autism. This hasn't come as a surprise as my friends and I have suspected it for a while, but now that I've been diagnosed, I feel kind of stuck. 

I haven't told my parents, and I do intend to when I go back home but I am not sure how I explain why I didn't tell them or what made me do it. I tried before but you know when you can't quite formulate your words into a sentence that makes sense...... 

Ive been told to seek support from my university, but the thing is I feel that since I've gone through 19 years of my life plodding along without support, i'm not exactly sure what I need or what will help. I keep thinking back to secondary school and sixth form thinking about all the times I asked for help, didn't get it, and somehow carried on anyway- and I wonder how my school life would have gone if id received help earlier on- if it would be easier for me now. 

any advice? 

  • Hello! Im Fro (16)

    Do you think you would have an easier time telling your parents everything with writting a letter? I can write much better than I can talk, plus it would give you time to say what you want in just the right way (and you can do several drafts). If you want to tell them in person, you could read the letter when you see them, or just use it as a guideline if you get stuck in the conversation.

    Im not sure what sort of support your university is offering, but I would just try to think what things you have trouble with, or what things help you. Im not in uni so idk if they have fire drills but just an example: if you have high noise sensitivity, maybe they would tell you when a fire drill is schedualed, and let you leave outside early so you dont need to hear the loud sudden sounds of the alarm. If you are particualr about planning ahead, you could ask to know your assignments for each class before others do. Just anything that would help make uni less stressful for you, they would probably try to accomidate for. 

    I dont know if any of this is helpful or not, being a high school student in the US but I hope it was at least sorta helpful..?