Hello from Mr Confused

I'm going to try this out, I don't normally post online - hello! My daughter was diagnosed as autistic last year, so naturally I wanted to research all I could to learn how to support her. The problem I found though was that the more I read/learned about it, the more I started to relate to everything myself - spotting traits and things I have or currently do, experiences in my life that could be explained by autism, and so on. I've now felt very confused about who I think I am for months.

I'm in my 40's and spent a lot of my recent years using therapy to improve my mental health, trying to be positive minded and push through certain things I need to feel happy but find really uncomfortable (basically socialising). I just thought I was introverted, shy and socially anxious and settled on that, but these new ideas have me questioning my whole identity - was it always something else? And if it was, have I been wasting my life so far trying to be "normal" like everyone else only to discover that it was never going to happen?

I could get a more formal diagnosis I suppose, but it is time consuming and potentially expensive. I'm also a little apprehensive of the outcome - I could get an answer I don't want to hear, yet I also don't like the idea of never knowing (paradoxical, I know). Has anyone ever just decided that they are autistic and settled for that? I'd be interested to know.