I am 49 and have just been diagnosed with ASD and probable ADHD. I have my assessment for that next month.
I used the right to choose pathway, so I only waited 6 months from sending in my pre assessment forms to getting my assessment and diagnosis.
Mt father was schizophrenic and one of my grandsons is diagnosed autistic … my daughter (his mum) is now putting her referral request through as she has traits of ASD and ADHD too. Looks like there’s a genetic link for sure!
I’ve spent a lifetime feeling different, broken and less than - my diagnosis is so validating as when I went down the rabbit hole of researching ASD, everything just made so much sense (combined with ADHD) In addition to the ASD traits, I have executive functioning problems and as an artist I am unable to stick to one medium…. Always finding a new thing to spark my creativity and buying all the equipment .. before moving onto the next thing a few weeks/months later!
I do feel a bit disappointed that nobody (including myself) realised that all of my issues were related to ASD when I was younger. There were times that I am sure I would have sought support to do some of the things I gave up on due to having little self belief or paralysing anxiety.
The worst thing about diagnosis is the ignorance of others. I work part time and when I was talking to my manager about my diagnosis, the guy who owns the company overheard part of the conversation - more relating to ADHD. He then went on a massive aggressive rant about how it was all a load of nonsense and that I was a perfectly normal person and he was sick of everyone ‘growing into’ the crap that was ADHD and being labelled when there nothing wrong with them! As you can imagine, that was extremely upsetting and I’d never felt so invalidated in my life! I did get an apology after I’d stormed off back to my office, crying and unable to speak (and after swearing at him for him grabbing my shoulder to try and stop me)
Thank you for sharing your experience. There’s so many people who are openly voicing their opinions about autism and ADHD being ‘made up’ or ‘attention seeking’ at the moment. Why can’t they realise that awareness is changing and this is really helping people? It’s not hurting them so why do they feel the need to comment?
Thank you for sharing your experience. There’s so many people who are openly voicing their opinions about autism and ADHD being ‘made up’ or ‘attention seeking’ at the moment. Why can’t they realise that awareness is changing and this is really helping people? It’s not hurting them so why do they feel the need to comment?
