Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi I have just been diagnosed at 19 with autism and I have never felt such relief but I feel the reactions I have got from other people have confused me. My parents seemed to just say ‘oh okay’ and that was it no real conversation and then my mom spoke about how oh she could be autistic and so and so could be autistic which just felt quite invalidating. I felt so much relief finding out and felt very open about it but now I feel stupid. Has anyone got any advice or tips for post diagnosis thank you.
Congratulations on your diagnosis and welcome to the community!
I felt a huge sense of relief, too - and you are definitely not stupid! These early stages can involve a lot of emotional dysregulation, both in terms of your own reaction to your diagnosis and the process, and in terms of how other people may react.
The NAS has a revamped section within its "Advice and guidance" resources covering diagnosis, including what follows afterwards. There are too many useful articles for me to link to here without getting penalised by the forum filters. For example, though, there's this one, which relates directly to what you've just discussed:
Autistic adult and parent experiences of disclosing
The whole range of info can be reached via this main menu page - I'd definitely recommend having a look:
https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/diagnosis
You may also find this "autism welcome pack" useful (from an Australian charity):
https://reframingautism.org.au/service/welcome-pack/
As many of us here have reflected, our diagnoses have been a starting point rather than end point. Based on my own experience, my more general advice would be take your time, work through things at your own pace, take breaks from it - and don't hesitate to ask for more advice and support here!