I am 27F. I’ve been wondering if I am on the autistic spectrum for a while now as I feel alien, disconnected and weird during social interactions. I’ve never been taken seriously because people see me as socially gifted. So I took an online test, not as a way to diagnose myself, but to show proof to my actual therapist there might be something to explore. I scored 154 on 200.

Weirdly, she didn’t dismiss me like other professionals did. She just said it’s a great question to ask but as part of her training she did not study this so she can’t evaluate me for it, I’ll have to ask my psychiatrist.

Now I am terrified of getting a diagnosis, the little voice inside of my head tells me “what if I am creating a whole story in my head?”

  • 18107@aussie.zoneEnglish
    17·
    16 hours ago

    My diagnosis helped me to understand why I had difficulties with some things, how to work with/around it, and why I needed to put less pressure on myself.

    A diagnosis doesn’t make you different or worse, it gives you a language to describe yourself. You don’t need to use that language if you don’t want to, even after a diagnosis.

    The main discovery for me was autistic burnout. People often experience burnout when working too hard or getting stressed at work, but for someone with autism, just trying to survive in an environment built for neurotypical people can cause the same symptoms.
    The cure for burnout is the same, but an autistic person doesn’t have the option to stop participating in society. A diagnosis can (depending on where you live) assist with finding supports to help take care of overwhelming tasks.

    Autistic burnout is also relatively new to the medical field, so it is very often misdiagnosed as depression and anxiety. While some medication can help with the symptoms, only treating the root cause with fix it.
    I was diagnosed with depression, and nothing seemed to help. It was only when I realised that I needed to stop push so hard and actually rest that my symptoms improved.

    I still have bad days, but now I can recognize why (most of the time), and have strategies to slowly bring myself back to normal.