Hi, I was misdiagnosed bipolar

If I could go private I would. Health is the best investment. That's what I feel about previous medications, I was only getting the poison effects 

Great, thanks. I'm not secretive in anything, for better or worse (an autism trait?), so 3 doesn't apply but I can certainly foresee needing to take more consideration with 1 and 2 

I believe the thinking is threefold:

1. It's a private medical diagnosis, so people may not want the world to know. You may want to consider who you tell, when and how, not have something searchable on the internet.
2. Technically it's a disability, so as a vulnerable person you may want to be protected
3. You may want to say things that are personal that you might not want everyone to know. You can speak more freely and exchange more information this way without NTs knowing it was you.

Thanks, it certainly clicks with me that there's poor representation in the media such that I didn't identity my autistic traits there. I make a list of five things I'm grateful for every morning. It's a routine I could not have lived without. I'll happily do the three

Thanks for the kind words. There must be some here with a similar experience to me. I'd love to hear from them. I'm keen and grateful to meet fellow autistics in general 

Welcome to the community, being misdiagnosed and over medicated is unfortunately a common experience here. In my case it was multiple times depression and tourette. There was also suspected epilepsy.  Meds never helped, only gave side effects. At age 35 i discovered, that the description of autism symptoms oddly fits me, later also suggested by my therapist, who I have therapy with. Also not diagnosed yet. I'm wondering, if maybe it's something else... but autism seems to fit best. It's bad, that the health services are not reliable. If I was going for diagnosis,  I would probably consider private. WIting 4+ years is too much for me.

I didn't know that, thanks. What's the purpose in masking, however? I'll change it anyway 

Wishing you luck in the future Andy, sounds like you’ve been to hell and back several times over. A positive is that you can now see more clearly hopefully and start to live life as you should! I’m sure there’s many more like yourself who’ve been through similar sadly, perhaps even some on this very forum. 

Anthropos said:

trying to stay positive with the right information and embrace a diagnosis that actually fits

It feels as though we should by saying "Welcome.Home!" to fellow neuro-kin after a long journey.

The main website has lots of information and we try to here bring it to life vis lived experience.

It is not all about learning things like an exam syllabus though - we have our own brand of humour and a ready excuse to enjoy some fun things too.

I think many later diagnosed people seem to find they grow into their Autistic identity and therefore most of us would likely admit to very much being a work in progress.

Thinking of positivity; we have a popular thread where people try to list 3 good things from their day.  It can be quite an insight on celebrating the small incremental steps to celebrate - which all contribute to progress:

 3 Good Things (again) 

One thing we try to highlight: each of us is unique (nobody really ticks all the boxes on standard descriptions around Autism and we each of us may also have additional attributes / presentation / traits unique to us personally).

Our representation in the popular media is super limited and often harks back to overworked stereotypes or tropes - so please don't worry if you catch yourself thinking "I am not like that".

By the way, this is a public forum, you are supposed to avoid your real name and picture, in case you were not aware.

Thanks Stuart, appreciated 

Good that you now know, but crap that it took so long.

Good luck with finding the real you.