Is it worth it anymore?

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well I just scheduled my first screening with a doctor and it now has me wondering if this is all even valid.

I am a 23 year old adult male who has a full time job in a customer service environment and I talk to people regularly because I have to for my job

I am mostly indepent living on my own with 1 roommate in a house I work 40+ hours a week some weeks and don't need support most of the time only occasionally when im having a stressful day.

I also have friends I have kept and maintained since middle school (granted we are all losers in our own ways so finding them wasnt hard and they often joke I have ASD and am weird)

Mostly all of my previous and current coworkers have enjoyed being around me and think positively about me, probably mostly from a work standpoint but still

and I feel like I could keep going, basically im just stuck sitting here wondering if I actually am even autistic. My brain hasnt been able to shake the thought that I am for well over a year now and now that im almost there to getting assessed I am stuck second guessing if its even plausible or if I was a fool to even consider it a possibility. *sigh*

Did anyone else have these kinds of thoughts pre assessment? its not even the price thats making me 2nd guess it too im just really unsure if its the right move now even though I couldn't stop thinking about it and even now I guess I can't stop still

I feel like it would be "worth it" if:

1. You want a sort of "closure," knowing that you're autistic. By the way, it's not a total tragedy if you turn out to be autistic. And you're not obligated at all to "disclose" this diagnosis should you obtain it.

2. You could get accommodations based on your diagnosis.

I hope afterwards you decide getting an Adult Autism Assessment was a good thing to do. I know I'm glad I got one.

The best diagnosis is a correct diagnosis. And if they declare you are not Autistic then you know to look elsewhere for an answer.

And if the diagnosis is Autism Spectrum Disorder then I hope you are pleased by the increased self-awareness. I was!

If you are asking could you be so successful and still be autistic? The answer is yes.

Knowing one is autistic is helpful to get accommodations and to help you figure your own work-arounds.

Oh! If your answer to blazingstar's question is "Yes!" then I agree. Not only have some Autistics been successful, some Autistics have been very successful!

And if you are just concerned with could you possibly have gone 23 years without realizing you are Autistic? Oh, yes! I went 64 years without any suspicion at all that I was Autistic! If someone had suggested it I would have dismissed it. Now I know better; I had an assessment and was diagnosed as Autism Spectrum Disorder, Level 1 (Mi ld). And, despite being Autistic, I believe I've been reasonably successful...though, admittedly, not this successful!

I didn't doubt it would be worth my getting diagnosed, mostly because I had workplace issues that seemed strongly to do with unrecognised ASD needs. But that doesn't seem to be your problem, though employers are often fond of change, which might expose hidden ASD-related vulnerabilities. I was relatively comfortable at work for many years (and what discomfort I did feel was readily explained by the nature of the world of work, which has its dark side to say the least), but once or twice they stuck their oar in and rendered my position much more difficult.

You're doing OK socially (my social success has often been quite good but I also have something of a history of failure with friends, acquaintances, and relationships with the opposite sex, so I tend to view my social abilities as precarious). Again, changes can happen. There's a night-and-day difference between my social performance with the right people and the wrong people, and often who you get is in the lap of the gods.

If the money isn't a problem, I don't suppose it can do a lot of harm. One of the other reasons I went for the DX was that I wanted to understand myself better, and it did help with that. It didn't provide any direct solutions to anything apart from putting pressure on my employer to take my disability into account (and sadly the adjustments I got were pretty blunt ones such as backing off to a degree on the kind of work I'd complained about and expecting rather less of me, they didn't try to understand my condition in any detail or help me to fly higher).

There was no financial help and no therapies offered apart from sedatives and antidepressants if things should happen to get too stressful or depressing (which they didn't), so again no interest in looking into any details. But the new self-knowledge gave me a set of possible traits to look at and to ponder where I was with those, and I think that gave me a bit of a renaissance. But it also took a hit on my self-confidence because my self-image now had an element of being mentally disabled, of being part of a group who carry a certain stigma.

I don't regret getting the DX at all but I think it might have been more useful if I'd been younger.

You might do well to keep it private so that you can decide for yourself who you're going to tell. But I think I'd go for it if I were you.

A good point has already been made that you'd need a competent diagnostician who will get the correct result.