How Long Was It Before You Were Diagnosed?

[mangosoda]

I first realized I may be autistic at 11, but I didn't really identify as such until I was 12/13. I started seeking diagnosis at 14, and got diagnosed a month before turning 16!

 

[Neri]

How did all you people manage to go through childhood without anybody noticing any weird behaviour and getting social services involved that forced your parents to get you assessed for something? Being diagnosed in childhood makes me feel like I'm severe or low-functioning, when I never have been severe or low-functioning.

I was super quiet, tried to be invisable. Hid in libraries at lunch time. Parents are both autistic and too self-and-other (than me) focused to notice how much I was struggling, until my dad put me in a adolescent mental hospital (private) when I was 15. This was in the 80's and psych people seemed they had zero knowledge of what a lot of women look like, who are on the spectrum. Trauma and abuse from my mother (mostly), meant I shut down from very early and just self harmed, hardly ate, was depressed and wished I didn't exist.

 

[Neri]

1. How long did it take you from when you first discovered you could be on the spectrum to the point you asked to be assessed? (For me, two years).
2. How long did you then wait from the date you were accepted for assessment to the time you were assessed and diagnosed? (For me four and a half years).

(I realize many of you may not have been assessed).

6 years. I went to my gp early after doing my research and finding out in was highly genetic, which was the clincher for me. My Dad and second oldest son are very obviously autistic. Son is officially diagnosed but still wasn't when I figured out I am.
My gp said "Why would you want to spend all that money to find out something you already know?"
I didn't have a good answer at the time so I dropped it.
I went private, online, for my assessment. It wasn't the most bona fide one, as it was a cheaper one from a psychologist rather than a more expensive but water-tight one from a psychiatrist. Good enough for me though. It was very quick, from applying, getting a loan to pay for and getting the assessment.
Oh, I forgot to mention, that was late last year, when I was still 50. I'm 51 now.

 

[Cryptid]

I was in my mid-fifties when I received my first official diagnosis.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I think it was two years before I was diagnosed after the school psychologist had written on an assessment on me that I exhibited signs of being autistic but then never suggested that I get tested which could have helped me sooner as this assessment was for IEP and for tutoring. After I was diagnosed, I accepted it rather quickly as it explained a lot of the issues I was having.

 

[Rachie]

I was referred in April 2022 and diagnosed in October 2022 on the NHS so it didn't take me that long the wait.

I was observed and tested in inpatient treatment for Anorexia in 2015 and they started to tailor my treatment with Autism basically since 2015 in hospital. I decided to go for tests after discharge from inpatient in February 2022 on summaries how the Autism affected me and I was being treated that way since 2015. The eating disorder units couldn’t make an official diagnosis. I wanted clarification by that point I left inpatient. I am 51 and had behavioural symptoms since childhood.

 

[Rachie]

Autism became a diagnosis in 1980 but Kanner discovered it I read in 1943, It was mainly boys and the most severe that I read was diagnosed. I was born in 1973.
Aspergers became a diagnosis in 1994 I don't know if it was children or adults who was diagnosed but I was 21 by then. I had treatment for anorexia in my 20s, but not my 30s.

I started looking up symptoms online for myself that struck out to me that I had since childhood in my late 30s in 2012. I was looking at my journal posts which I started in 2010 the other day. I ended up doing a self test for Autism in January 2014 which I scored positive for.

Although hypersensitivity was a symptom noted in the initial reports in both conditions, it is not to around 2015 that hypersensitivity was added to the DSM. I meet the requirements with the scores removed still. I don't know why it wasn't added sooner.

I didn't want to read much about Autism having not been officially diagnosed from 2015-2022 until I had been discharged from inpatient..

I have Anorexia and Autism.

I did the test and scored between 1 and 2's for Autism. Since being diagnosed I am wondering what I have been left to deal with now at home. I had sensory support for 12 weeks at home on the NHS for my hypersensitivity because those results was level 2. Some symptoms are now very obvious to me, It seems since diagnosis things have changed a bit. I am still figuring the interplay out between both conditions. To have some clarification for my history has been useful to me. The actual knowledge has its own stressors though for me as well.

Some family members think they are on the spectrum and some have said they have known that about me for sometimes.

 

[Rachie]

I just opened my report with my glasses on this time and saw more 2's than I even knew I had. I was surprised to say the least.

 

[Mr. Stevens]

1. How long did it take you from when you first discovered you could be on the spectrum to the point you asked to be assessed?

6-7 years.

2. How long did you then wait from the date you were accepted for assessment to the time you were assessed and diagnosed?

Three weeks, maybe. I don't think it was even a month.

 

[Neri]

I had anorexia too, and I was also born in 1973. I was diagnosed last year.
I don't have anorexia anymore. I used Cannabis extensively, to treat my undiagnosed Autism and my anorexia. I also had babies and I let myself eat to feed them when I was pregnant, but, I ended up with severe defiencies that caused psychosis. It turns out Cannabis is a perfect medicine to treat the sensory issues and a lot of the comorbs of autism for some of us.