Hi, I'm Sarah and I received my autism diagnosis last week. It's been a huge relief, like everything about me finally makes sense. I'm also feeling a bit lost though. Very few people in my life seem to understand just how significant this whole process has been for me, and everyone seems to want to tell me how they think I should be feeling. The overall attitude seems to be "you don't need a label, just get on with everything as normal" which is so frustrating because it completely minimises the day to day struggles I have.
I'm at uni at the moment and the only outlet I have is weekly counselling, which has been really helpful but there's so much pressure to miss sessions when they clash with other things (I had to miss three weeks of counselling before Christmas due to a really intense workload and ended up severely burnt out). I've also had a massively stressful couple of months because I've had to move into new accommodation and I really struggle with change. But I received no emotional support with that, despite explaining my difficulties to staff. To be honest, disability support at uni hasn't been great either and I keep having study skills sessions cancelled at the last minute.
I just struggle with people telling me to take time to process things, but then they'll turn around and say "as long as it's not too much time". I had a support plan put in place that clearly states I need to take breaks due to sensory overload, but this is usually ignored and I'm made to feel like needing a break is an inconvenience to everyone around me. It's like people never mean what they say.
So the diagnosis has been amazing for my own understanding and acceptance of myself, but I wish other people were as understanding.
