Congratulating someone for being diagnosed. Isn'this a bit

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Odd?

I first posted here in July asking if it was advisable to seek a formal diagnosis. I received a number of different opinions. Well, I decided to talk with a psychiatrist and see where that would take me. Fortunately this psychiatrist was very knowledgeable about autism and very receptive to what I had to say. So on August 11th he made a preliminary diagnosis of ASD level one. A few days ago after further evaluation he has now made a final and formal diagnosis of ASD Level one.

I will say that this does explain a lot about myself to me and I suppose I feel good about it. But, still considering ASD does mean Autism Spectrum DISORDER, is it not a peculiar thing to congratulate someone for?

Sometimes, I wish one could call ASD's "Autism Spectrum Differences." It's not necessarily a "disorder" in my opinion.

I guess people congratulate people because of the "journey" which people go through in the process of the diagnosis. Also, for some people, now they could obtain the services which they desire.

Above all, now people could "make sense" of their past frustrations. Now, there's a tangible reason why they underwent the frustrations.

In my opinion, congratulating someone for receiving an official diagnosis of AS is like congratulating someone for "coming out" about their sexuality - it puts a positive spin on what might otherwise be a worrisome situation.

Most of the people that i've seen here that was diagnosed lately in life seems to actually be wanting to be diagnosed, that's why a lot of times people say "congratulations" to them, i think.
It's usually cases of people that have struggled with the ASD symptoms during a good amount of time of their lives without know exactly what was wrong, so getting a diagnosis sometimes really is a reason to be happy.

And there is a difference between wanting a diagnosis because you need the explanation and understanding in order to finally be able to live better and wanting to be autistic because Sheldon is cool or because it's "mysterious" (it really isn't mysterious). It's okay to want a diagnosis. Often times a diagnosis isn't just wanted, it's needed even if the person doesn't recognize or admit their own need for it.

This

I was congratulated.
Hell, my mom started crying.
Felt pretty good after six years of uncertainty.

To me this is like congratulating someone for being diagnosed with down syndrome.

I mean... it's not like they didn't have AS BEFORE they were diagnosed. So I think that congratulating someone for a diagnosis isn't really saying, "Yay you have problems!" It's more saying, "Yay! you understand the problems that you've always had!"

I don't really like congratulating people on getting diagnosed. I, too, think it's a bit odd. I do, however, sometimes congratulate people on finally getting some answers because I know how important that can be.

I have congratulated adults for having completed an important step in a journey towards self-discovery and self-understanding. Other than that, there’s not much to celebrate.

As odd as that may sound, I would rather KNOW I had Down Syndrome than go on endlessly wondering if it was so. Knowing something is a fact, even if it's bad news, is preferable to living in a state of uncertainty.

Knowledge empowers you to take action.

Allow me to say that I am happy that I have a full diagnosis from a proper and autism knowledgeable psychiatrist. All my life I had a whole string of oddities that I never understood about myself. Some of them like making eye contact I did eventually acquire but not until my mid to late twenties and I did not get the custom down pat until about my mid thirties. Other things like a tendency to annoy people in whatever social setting I was in without a clue of what I had done or said wrong - I can still do that at times but I am better at playing the social game than I when I was a couple of decades younger than I am now. Of course strange stemming type behavior like talking to myself almost constantly and at times flapping my hands - I knew that I sometimes did it and occasionally someone would mention it to me or I would hear from someone that I was seen walking about somewhere talking to myself and flapping my hands - Well all these numerous oddities along with general unathletic clumsiness and poor hand writing - coupled with fixated interest and preoccupation to obsessive levels and general disinterest in almost everything else - all of a sudden when I was already 59 years old I had an explanation. Now at the age of 60 it is formal and official I suppose it is a liberating experience. I guess though the idea of congratulating someone for being diagnosed with a neurological condition still sounds a tad bit odd to me.

I was not congratulated, except by one or two people. My family did not believe me.

Still, I like to congratulate people because there are upsides to AS, and they went through a darned hard time to get that diagnosis.
Tina