getting diagnosed with autism at 23 was the best thing that had happened to me in many many years and sure would have been nice if it was something I could have considered on my own
Also damn I wonder if there are race or gender disparities in autism diagnosis. Probably Not Fortunately
When I was a little kid my mama told me a few times that the doctor said I had autism but that I grew out of it. Went through my whole childhood being the weird kid at school who was really really good at like two subjects but shit at everything else. Then one night at like 30 I was walking to work and it clicked like "wait, I don't think you 'grow out' of autism..."
After the initial shock passed, I'm a lot happier knowing why I'm so fucking weird and suck at social situations.
Not autism, but ADHD. Teachers in grade school wanted to test me, mom never let it happen and I kinda wonder if I would have done better in school with adderall.
hello yes welcome to the technically but not really undiagnosed autism club
my guardian said they thought an autism diagnosis would make people think less of me and cause me to have fewer opportunities in the future. :shrug-outta-hecks:
my guardian said they thought an autism diagnosis would make people think less of me and cause me to have fewer opportunities in the future.
I mean honestly, maybe...
People who get diagnosed later in life seem to express having more varied/robust social connections than I do; though that may also be a function of severity. Or other factors IDK. :shrug-outta-hecks:
my school wouldn't give me speech therapy in elementary school because my grades were good so now I have a permanent weird manner of speech that makes everyone think I'm foreign in my hometown
I'm not mad about my accent nowadays but I get mad thinking back to that situation
I mean self diagnosis can be unhelpful at times. This is coming from someone that has waited years for access to healthcare, diagnosis, etc and did try self diagnose. You can consider it yourself, but diagnosing yourself is where it can get dodgy. If you do try diagnose yourself, medical professionals, if/when you do eventually see them, are less likely to take your problems seriously and more likely to throw you in the hypochondriac box. It's unfortunate, but I've experienced this. So if you are planning to self diagnose (I don't suggest doing so), don't bring it up to your doctor.
You probably aren't wrong but even if you are, you still deserve to find community around whatever shared experience brought you to this conclusion.
This right here is why these online "communities" on twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, etc, are some of the worst spaces for people with chronic illnesses, conditions and neurodiverse people to hang out in. There is no "shared experience" one can verify here. They turn into depression treadmills of unverifiable internet strangers bringing each other down instead of helping others. Filled with people indulging their unhealthy behaviours, such as coming up with terms no medical professional would endorse like FP (favourite person) to describe/romanticise unhealthy attachments to others for example (Online BPD communities do this a ton). Also advising people to see quack doctors like chiropractors, "just try weed bro", etc. (More common in physical chronic illness communities). Unfortunately you cannot substitute real community with anonymous randoms on the internet.
Again, this is coming from someone who is chronically ill.
“just try weed bro”, etc. (More common in physical chronic illness communities)
This is the truth. Once I saw a post on /r/migraine that said something like "I've tried everything, including cannabis, and nothing helps" and half the replies were just "have you tried cannabis tho?"
I’ve tried everything, including cannabis, and nothing helps” and half the replies were just “have you tried cannabis tho?”
Have you tried doing cannabis, ON WEED
Weed is the new magic treatment for zoomers and millenials. Even though smoking it is unhealthy (because smoking anything is unhealthy, do edibles if you can, vapourise for harm reduction if edibles don't work) and in terms of neuropathic pain, it can only help for central neuropathic pain, it cannot help for peripheral neuropathy. At least from what we know as of now.
I’m pretty sure it’s all being astroturfed by guys who got in early as soon as they could open stores in California
I mean smoking joints is fun, I used to do it, but I was under no delusion that it was healthy.
Yeah smoking in public is inconsiderate for sure. Or in a shared living space/ventilation
Wait but my buddy said vaping feels less healthy, surely she can't be wrong ?!
Lmao.
Don't worry folks inhaling stuff in your lungs is totally healthy and cool haha
Do what I did, realise I was probably autistic, and when I went to the neuropsych, say I was recommended by friends so they're not as suspicious :troll:
I dont participate in Internet communities other than this one so you could totally be right i guess
but plenty of people have no opportunity to get assessed for this and I think they should be allowed to understand themselves too
Yeah hexbear is generally more healthy because we have the "we are not a crisis service rule". But outside of that, it really is the wild west. Some spaces are good, some are really bad. I just found self diagnosis more harmful long term, both for physical and mental illness, because it hampered my interactions when I could finally afford to get treatment.
I'm sorry you had that experience, I wouldn't be surprised if it were relatively common. But I don't think it's a sufficient reason to throw out self-diagnosis entirely (not that I think that's what you're doing).
Also I'm sorry if my post made you mad or reminded you of bad memories, I posted this because I was pissed off but didn't really consider that this was a contentious issue.
Nah I'm not mad at all, just talking. No worries.
I appreciate the consideration though :anarchy-heart:
I avoid opening my mail, sometimes forever, and can avoid simple tasks for months or years while always knowing that they need to be done. I just assume I have ADD.
I'm trying to get diagnosed with ADHD, which I am 100% sure I have due to reading about ADHD Inattentive being a lightbulb moment and talking to others with it feels like finally being understood. Its really detrimental to my life, and I'm working through it with my therapist, but you have to go to a specialist to get "properly" diagnosed and that guy basically told me he won't give me the diagnoses because I also have depression and anxiety and also some major trans broken arm syndrome bullshit.
Why is it so hard to get the medication I need. I can barely fucking function as I am.
im in the same position except not trans, just pegged as drug seeking i guess
tumblr is back baby!!
ugh, i hate that reactionaries compare anything that's inclusive to marginalized people (such as autistic people) to something on tumblr.
Idk if the OP is reactionary - lots of people used to self ID as neurodivergent on Tumblr. (People got mad about it I guess)
I didn't look at their profile cause I don't really care but there's plenty of leftists who have particular issues that they haven't critically examined. I'm certainly guilty of this.
They may just be a reactionary asshole but not everyone with one or two bad takes is far right.
the only reason i didn't get diagnosed with autism is bc AFAB, so lol
A lot of places from what I hear literally will not investigate adults for ADHD or Autism.
If you're in your 30s all you missed was being labeled as ld, getting no help what so ever. Becoming disliked by the other kids as you get pulled out of class during tests and other subjects to get help, they all think you're getting the answers. Having drugs forced on you and in the 90s that means monthly blood draws to make sure the drugs aren't fucking you up. Your ld classes would of been in shared spaces with bd kids. Etc etc.
Ld =learning disability
Bd= behavioral disorder. The kids that do drugs at school and get in physical fights with their teachers
Idk about how the internet works but I've decided to self-id with autism and have a bunch of autistic friends and it's awesome
I never really claimed it but just assumed I was autistic for several years. I confirmed it by association when my kid got diagnosed recently. The whole time I was reading the evaluation for my kid I felt like it could have easily been one of me at the same age.
I don't really see how I'd benefit from a real diagnosis. Even if I'd gotten one as a kid I don't think it would've helped all that much given the time period. I'm a lot more hopeful for me kid since there's a lot more understanding and meaningful assistance for it these days.
I believe that this is a thing but I suspect that it's overblown by social media. I think many people will say this based on stereotypes received secondhand from some social media. I'm sure some of us have met these neurotypical people irl.
But I think when people talk about this stereotype in larger communities than this one they unknowingly reinforce neurotypical people's tendency to disrespect ND folks just in case they're faking it. Not saying you're doing this cause apparently it's not a dominant position in this community.
The only actual autistic person on earth is Sheldon cooper, everyone else is just faking it
Never got diagnosed as autistic as a child.
But when I was in secondary school the teachers suspected I was neurodivergent in some way and grouped me with a bunch of learning disability students (despite having consistently high grades).
The shit I went through as a result of that made me deeply reluctant to speak to any psychiatrists about it.
