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Not able to get diagnosed/not taken seriously as a woman

octymph

Hi everyone,

I'm a current college student and I realised I had autism about a year ago and that's when everything suddenly seems to make sense. 

I'm not the type of person to convince myself on unnecessary things (which probably is an autistic trait as well) but no one around me seems to believe me on anything I said that's meant to be serious. 

And when I was finally brave enough to try to get a diagnosis, the [removed by mod] therapist basically read out the dsm-5 to me and told me I don't have autism because I don't "check the boxes". Did anyone else experience this?

To be frank with you I am so worried about getting comments that still doesn't believe me as I'm writing this down. 

Parents

  • Hello and welcome.

    If you have not already completed them, your GP ought to be able to arrange the autism screening questionnaires (one step before attending an assessment).  Alternatively, you could consider taking the screening questionnaires yourself online and then discuss the outcome with your GP - see the section about screening tools for the links:

    https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/diagnosis/before-diagnosis/deciding-whether-to-seek-an-autism-assessment#What%20are%20screening%20tools%20for%20autism?

    Women sometimes struggle to "fit" the stereotypical profile of what some people (or a particular Assessor) consider to be "an autistic person".  In reality, there is no such thing as a stereotypical autistic person.  We each have our own presentation / traits / challenges / strengths.

    I had trouble getting my autism assessed and diagnosed ... however, I got there eventually.  I don't think it is an uncommon issue for autistic women - even these days.

    In the meantime, you are welcome on the forum (you don't need a diagnosis).

    Please do ask questions / share those of the things you like / dislike etc. which you are OK about discussing here on the forum.

    I think you may well find some shared experiences and interests among some of us here.

    If there are some barriers / particular hassles to negotiate and navigate about college - someone here might have some practical suggestions of strategies / techniques with which you might choose to experiment to see if they might be of benefit to you too.

    (We cannot give formal advice on medical and legal topics - however, we can be resourceful about other topics and might know an idea for onward signpost suggestion if we are fresh out of lived experience ideas ourselves).

Reply

  • Hello and welcome.

    If you have not already completed them, your GP ought to be able to arrange the autism screening questionnaires (one step before attending an assessment).  Alternatively, you could consider taking the screening questionnaires yourself online and then discuss the outcome with your GP - see the section about screening tools for the links:

    https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/diagnosis/before-diagnosis/deciding-whether-to-seek-an-autism-assessment#What%20are%20screening%20tools%20for%20autism?

    Women sometimes struggle to "fit" the stereotypical profile of what some people (or a particular Assessor) consider to be "an autistic person".  In reality, there is no such thing as a stereotypical autistic person.  We each have our own presentation / traits / challenges / strengths.

    I had trouble getting my autism assessed and diagnosed ... however, I got there eventually.  I don't think it is an uncommon issue for autistic women - even these days.

    In the meantime, you are welcome on the forum (you don't need a diagnosis).

    Please do ask questions / share those of the things you like / dislike etc. which you are OK about discussing here on the forum.

    I think you may well find some shared experiences and interests among some of us here.

    If there are some barriers / particular hassles to negotiate and navigate about college - someone here might have some practical suggestions of strategies / techniques with which you might choose to experiment to see if they might be of benefit to you too.

    (We cannot give formal advice on medical and legal topics - however, we can be resourceful about other topics and might know an idea for onward signpost suggestion if we are fresh out of lived experience ideas ourselves).

Children
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