Just a quick intro post.
I was diagnosed through a work-sponsored scheme last August after prevaricating for five+ years because I didn't like the idea of being labelled or pigeon-holed, and because work up to that point had been pretty hostile to the idea. Needless to say it's a night and day transformation now - a whole lot more supportive.
Being fifty-something I don't feel that obtaining a diagnosis has changed how I feel about myself or my self-model, however it certainly has opened the door to new insights and opportunities for introspection.
A close family member was diagnosed officially a while back which did set the wheels of thought in motion. Several older family members would I feel certainly have been diagnosed themselves had the concepts and support been available.
I was very ill as a child - I didn't walk at all until two and a half, and not properly until six or seven. This caused knock on effects on my digestion that caused a one month+ stay in a major children's hospital plus as I recall significant physiotherapy. To this day I do not find stair steps or slopes at all easy to cope with. This as I understand it now is a deficit in proprioception - I literally don't know (much about) here my body is.
Plus of course on top of that there are a slew of challenges with social interaction etc. I find it a great deal easier to express myself using the written word than the spoken word - not that I don't like to try, but I find I am more easily understood in writing. Added to which I stim a lot (much less than when I was a child), prefer my own company, focus easily on tasks & find it difficult to adjust when interrupted etc. I can see a lot of sense in the emerging model of 'monotropism' as applied to autism.
I have several interests which I pursue to some depth and find a great deal of satisfaction and purpose in.
I've just recently equipped myself with three enamel badges: a great big yellow smiley face, a skull and crossbones, and a "I'm autistic, not rude" little blue badge. I had the opportunity to share these with my wider team at work in a DEI Listening Circle exercise & think what a fantastic thing to have happened!
I still don't like or appreciate being labelled though
I was diagnosed through a work-sponsored scheme last August after prevaricating for five+ years because I didn't like the idea of being labelled or pigeon-holed, and because work up to that point had been pretty hostile to the idea. Needless to say it's a night and day transformation now - a whole lot more supportive.
Being fifty-something I don't feel that obtaining a diagnosis has changed how I feel about myself or my self-model, however it certainly has opened the door to new insights and opportunities for introspection.
A close family member was diagnosed officially a while back which did set the wheels of thought in motion. Several older family members would I feel certainly have been diagnosed themselves had the concepts and support been available.
I was very ill as a child - I didn't walk at all until two and a half, and not properly until six or seven. This caused knock on effects on my digestion that caused a one month+ stay in a major children's hospital plus as I recall significant physiotherapy. To this day I do not find stair steps or slopes at all easy to cope with. This as I understand it now is a deficit in proprioception - I literally don't know (much about) here my body is.
Plus of course on top of that there are a slew of challenges with social interaction etc. I find it a great deal easier to express myself using the written word than the spoken word - not that I don't like to try, but I find I am more easily understood in writing. Added to which I stim a lot (much less than when I was a child), prefer my own company, focus easily on tasks & find it difficult to adjust when interrupted etc. I can see a lot of sense in the emerging model of 'monotropism' as applied to autism.
I have several interests which I pursue to some depth and find a great deal of satisfaction and purpose in.
I've just recently equipped myself with three enamel badges: a great big yellow smiley face, a skull and crossbones, and a "I'm autistic, not rude" little blue badge. I had the opportunity to share these with my wider team at work in a DEI Listening Circle exercise & think what a fantastic thing to have happened!
I still don't like or appreciate being labelled though
