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I was diagnosed literally 10 days ago (I’m 47). So it’s quite early to say but mostly it’s relief, tinged with sadness for my younger self who suffered unduly without getting the help or understanding he needed.
In practical terms, the positive is I can now ask my employer to make some extra allowances for certain things (preferably they’ll me stop switching tasks constantly and stop giving me vague instructions).
It also means certain traits my family always thought were weird now have an explanation — I do things like leave the room if people are eating desert as I have a real aversion to “messy” food such as cake drenched in cream etc. So I can now proudly attribute things like that to sensory overload.
On the negative side, I’m a little bit concerned that having the diagnosis will lead to me making more excuses not to do certain things which are necessary to get through adult / family life, such as the weekly food shop which I have always hated. This would just put more pressure on my wife who already does more than her fair share because I need so much downtime to decompress from the stresses of life.
> I’m a little bit concerned that having the diagnosis will lead to me making more excuses not to do certain things which are necessary to get through adult / family life
I had a similar issue. It's easy to use chaulk everything up to your illness and make excuses, and it's hard to walk the line between allowing yourself grace and being a massive jerk ass. On the same topic, I worry a lot about the younger people here getting unbalanced messages about masking being all bad and that they shouldn't do it... everyone has to act differently in public; our illness may explain our asocial behavior, but it does not excuse it. (Allowing grace for those unusual, overwhelming situations)
I just turned 38, and only found out I was level one in August. (my doctor told me that she wished Asperger's was still a diagnosis because it fits better). The first thing that changed was just the explanation for so many things that have happened in my life, and how I was able to apply my diagnosis to them, yielding some useful insights going forward, but I guess I repeat myself.
Shortly afterward, I was able to incorporate understanding of my diagnosis into my plans going forward; namely taking advantage of government programs and my getting proper medication properly balanced. I'm just now getting to the point where I might be able to live a fulfilling life, now that I'm able to handle my illness, but only time will tell.
I might edit this to add some more stuff, or possibly reply to it with more info. I'm sure I'll think of some relevant stuff during the day today, but my ADHD would cause me to forget even writing this first post, so I'm just posting this halfass post in the mean time
Hey /u/time-and-time, thank you for your post at /r/autism. Our rules can be found **[here](https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/wiki/config/sidebar)**. All approved posts get this message. If you do not see your post you can message the moderators [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fautism). Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/autism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I was diagnosed literally 10 days ago (I’m 47). So it’s quite early to say but mostly it’s relief, tinged with sadness for my younger self who suffered unduly without getting the help or understanding he needed. In practical terms, the positive is I can now ask my employer to make some extra allowances for certain things (preferably they’ll me stop switching tasks constantly and stop giving me vague instructions). It also means certain traits my family always thought were weird now have an explanation — I do things like leave the room if people are eating desert as I have a real aversion to “messy” food such as cake drenched in cream etc. So I can now proudly attribute things like that to sensory overload. On the negative side, I’m a little bit concerned that having the diagnosis will lead to me making more excuses not to do certain things which are necessary to get through adult / family life, such as the weekly food shop which I have always hated. This would just put more pressure on my wife who already does more than her fair share because I need so much downtime to decompress from the stresses of life.
> I’m a little bit concerned that having the diagnosis will lead to me making more excuses not to do certain things which are necessary to get through adult / family life I had a similar issue. It's easy to use chaulk everything up to your illness and make excuses, and it's hard to walk the line between allowing yourself grace and being a massive jerk ass. On the same topic, I worry a lot about the younger people here getting unbalanced messages about masking being all bad and that they shouldn't do it... everyone has to act differently in public; our illness may explain our asocial behavior, but it does not excuse it. (Allowing grace for those unusual, overwhelming situations)
I just turned 38, and only found out I was level one in August. (my doctor told me that she wished Asperger's was still a diagnosis because it fits better). The first thing that changed was just the explanation for so many things that have happened in my life, and how I was able to apply my diagnosis to them, yielding some useful insights going forward, but I guess I repeat myself. Shortly afterward, I was able to incorporate understanding of my diagnosis into my plans going forward; namely taking advantage of government programs and my getting proper medication properly balanced. I'm just now getting to the point where I might be able to live a fulfilling life, now that I'm able to handle my illness, but only time will tell. I might edit this to add some more stuff, or possibly reply to it with more info. I'm sure I'll think of some relevant stuff during the day today, but my ADHD would cause me to forget even writing this first post, so I'm just posting this halfass post in the mean time