When you were diagnosed, did it bring you relief or more anxiety?

For me, it came as no surprise. l was kind of depressed by it (don't mind the pun ), but it relieved me that l was getting the proper help l needed to get better. Though, in the beginning, l was fighting the system every way. l kept thinking they were doing nothing to help me.

After l stopped hating the medical system and learned to love it, it was all easy street for me (for the most part).

I always thought having a label would help, but it didn't. It just made it seem like an excuse for my behaviour, rather than a reason. And that's exactly what i wanted to avoid.

That, and that it makes it sound like something is "wrong" with you rather than that you are just different.

I agree with Rob and FONEternal. I think diagnosis could be helpful to proffessionals to compare somebody with people who hold the same symptoms but it just causes problems if the diagnosed person holds onto the lable.

You said it well. Especially since there's no exact cure for mental illnesses or any estimate of when it'll end, it just makes me feel like l'll be stuck with it forever, so why bother?

My diagnose came as a shock to me since I had a whole list of other things I thought I was going to be diagnosed with and the one thing I never expected I had I was diagnosed with. At first I was against it and wouldn't even take my medication, but since accepting it I've been better.

It wasn't a relief but it wasn't a shock either. Basically "oh, i see" and i continued being a failure.

I feel that way too.Even though I was put on medication that has been helping me I still feel like a failure. Stuff that I want to do I'm too scared to do and nothing significant has really changed. I'm still a shut in. Just a shut in on medication now.

Not to be mean Enigmatic Affliction, but have you ever considered searching for therapy or a diagnosis again? i'm just saying because there might be another problem (Depression or Avoidant personality, of which the former i know i have and the latter i suspect) within you that the original diagnoser didn't find or that developed after your first diagnosis when everyone though that was all .

I'm currently in therapy now and I don't really trust what the doctors tell me because I was diagnosed with selective mutism at a very young age and now my new doctor tells me that I may have been misdiagnosed as a child, so I actually have schizophrenic tendencies. I don't know what to believe. I am on medication for anxiety and it does help being around people, but it's hard actually getting myself to do something. Like I could go out and see a movie and I would be fine once I got there, but actually convincing myself to go out in public and do it is the hard part. It's not that I'm being lazy, it's just it's my pessimistic and paranoid way of thinking that makes things hard.

At first it was a relief, I finally understood why I am so different.
But after a while it made me doubt myself in every way. For instance: when I was in my mid 20’s I went to NYC by myself (my second time there). I knew next to nothing about ASDs at the time, and I saw no reason why I shouldn’t be able to make it. Now, I hardly see myself as able to go to the grocery store. I doubt my ability to do anything now, no matter how well I knew how to before my dx. I have heard other people being treated poorly after disclosing their dx - it also happened to me once but for the most part I have received support and understanding – but it seems I am doing an excellent job of treating myself worse without the judgement of others.
I hope there is a phase 3 because this is getting tedious.

Yeah, I have a similar problem. Hard to get that sense of normalcy back and doing normal things. Doesn't have anything to do with a dx though in my case.

You, of all people, shouldn't doubt yourself. You're probably one of the best people in the universe - of all time.

*smirks*

No pressure is implied in that statement, at all.

Thank you though, you're very sweet.

It’s so frustrating and grinding, hey?
It’s not like I suddenly became sick and lost the ability to do things, I haven’t changed in any way, yet the knowledge has now made me lose confidence in myself.
I also hate how it makes me more stressed the few times I actually talk to people. I’ve obviously never been good at it, and I’ve always been unable to make eye contact and have always been lost for things to say. But post-dx I am so fricking aware of it, that I am so tense and uncomfortable whenever I talk to anyone outside my immediate family. I never used to feel like that in general.

I have to second Jezebel's view, you're pretty cool, KoiKoi

Yeah, frustrating and limiting, is how I've put it before. Getting the confidence, especially when you have these kind of problems, it's a difficult riddle. I'm pretty similar to you in how I interact with people in general. I don't have any great answers, unfortunately.



Thank you Skilpadde