Late diagnosed

Hello

I've just been diagnosed with Autism but told my family about a year ago I was going for it, got my adhd diagnosis April 2024. I don't know if it's just me but I feel my family have been so dismissive, to me this is life changing, I've had poor mental health my whole life with quite serious epsiodes that my famly know about and the person that has reacted the absolute worst is my own mother, people who reacted the best, my undiagnosed neurodivergent friends that Ive known since childhood.

I've had alot of comments like 'everyone has problems' 'everyone is a little bit ADHD' to purely just ignoring it, like one perosn I know said 'Ha! interesting" like am I going mad? I don't think, in fact I know if someone opened up to me and told me that I would see the enormatity of it. My Mum also won't acknowledge my comments about my daugher having it either. We just had an argument as I opened up and said she was upsetting me with her lack of interest and she flew off the handle and said everyone has problems and that why am I always so sensitive and I havent even asked how she is lately. Some people I've told and theyve simply not got back to me.

Is this a common occurance?

Parents
  • Congrats on your diagnosis and welcome! I had a similar experience, though my family eventually came around to it.

    For me, my family (my wife included) didn’t believe I had Autism and just thought it was really intense ADHD. Even when I got my diagnosis it still took my wife a few months for her to realize “Oh yeah, my husband is definitely Autistic.” I still have family members that dismiss it to certain extents, even though not only am I diagnosed now but also one of my daughters.

    Just the other day my mother tried to convince us that C (my daughter) having aversions to smells was linked to being infected by COVID years ago, instead of it being a trait of Autism. She also keeps forcing me to endure bonfires even though I have a HUGE aversion to smoke and she knows it lol.

    Overall though most of my family that knows is pretty supportive by now.

Reply
  • Congrats on your diagnosis and welcome! I had a similar experience, though my family eventually came around to it.

    For me, my family (my wife included) didn’t believe I had Autism and just thought it was really intense ADHD. Even when I got my diagnosis it still took my wife a few months for her to realize “Oh yeah, my husband is definitely Autistic.” I still have family members that dismiss it to certain extents, even though not only am I diagnosed now but also one of my daughters.

    Just the other day my mother tried to convince us that C (my daughter) having aversions to smells was linked to being infected by COVID years ago, instead of it being a trait of Autism. She also keeps forcing me to endure bonfires even though I have a HUGE aversion to smoke and she knows it lol.

    Overall though most of my family that knows is pretty supportive by now.

Children