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Recently Diagnosed

Emz

Hi. I am a recently diagnosed 37 year old female. I’m a bit confused as to how I am expected to feel. My son is also autistic and everyone has been on board with helping him and supporting him however they can. But since people found out I was being assessed and since diagnosed, they seem to think I should feel different. Like a diagnosis will make me feel better about myself. Which wasn’t the purpose. I have spent years trying to figure out why I am different and now I know why. But I am getting a lot of ‘So do you feel better now?’. Was my diagnosis supposed to give me some sort of closure or elated feeling?

Just feeling a bit lost as to how my diagnosis was supposed to make me feel. I mean, I struggle with feelings and emotions anyway, but people are acting like it’s some life changing affirmation, when I have actually been living an autistic life for 37 years. They just didn’t know/accept it until my diagnosis.

Parents

  • I was diagnosed late at age 20. Diagnosis hasn’t really changed much for me mostly because as an adult, assistance with the issues we face is minimal and a bit of a post code lottery. It felt good to know I was right with my suspicions, but that’s it. Getting diagnosed made me feel just as sad as it did happy. The vast majority of support for autism is limited to childrens services, mostly because it’s so important to improving outcomes, but people like me who never got that support are sort of just expected to sink or swim. 

Reply

  • I was diagnosed late at age 20. Diagnosis hasn’t really changed much for me mostly because as an adult, assistance with the issues we face is minimal and a bit of a post code lottery. It felt good to know I was right with my suspicions, but that’s it. Getting diagnosed made me feel just as sad as it did happy. The vast majority of support for autism is limited to childrens services, mostly because it’s so important to improving outcomes, but people like me who never got that support are sort of just expected to sink or swim. 

Children
  • in reply to IronTusk
    IronTusk said:
    The vast majority of support for autism is limited to childrens services, mostly because it’s so important to improving outcomes

    Do you mean educational/vocational outcomes? God, I must be naive - I thought that autistic children received the majority of resources simply because it's the caring thing to do, and also because they're too young to help themselves very much.