Published on 12, July, 2020
Am I unusual in that I didn't studiously plan my pathway to an autism diagnosis? I had a basic idea as to what autism was, but not anything like the minutae that many seeking a diagnosis have. It was very much a case of WYSIWYG with me. I didn't write copious notes detailing why I might be/was autistic.
Since autism is a spectrum disorder, we are all quite different in terms of our strengths and weaknesses, what interests us, and how we reacted to first learning that we might be autistic. Whereas the traditional view of autism held that we were either mildly or severely autistic, the prevailing medical opinion seems to be that we're more like onions. Just as onions are layered, we each have varying degrees of autism for such areas as executive functioning (the ability to live one's own day to day life), sensory sensitivities, social skills etc.
In other words, there is no one size fits all approach to autism because we are all unusual as compared to those who are not autistic.