Knowledge of your diagnosis. Does it help or hurt?

Post Reply New Topic

I have found that, so far yes. It has helped me understand some of the things I do or think. It has also help me explain it a bit better to those who don't understand. I am hoping it will help me in future relationships as well.

I clicked on yes.

If it wasn't for my diagnosis of autism, I never would have gotten SSI. So, I think it has helped me. It's also made it easier to understand my struggles I go through on a daily basis.

yes. I wouldn't understand why I do the things I do and I wouldn't know where to find others like me.

Not sure if it's just me, but your poll question is a bit confusing. You ask if it has helped OR hurt, and you can reply yes/no/unsure.
I think it'd be more clear if the choices were helped/didn't help/unsure.

For me, knowledge of my Dx was immensely helpful.

Knowledge of the official Dx was immensely helpful!

Knowing why I am the way that I am helped me develop my own work-arounds and become more socially effective at work and in my home. While people still think of me as eccentric, they no longer reject me outright (well ... most people don't).

Also, being able to understand why my parents and siblings treated me so badly while I was a child helped me to come to terms with a lot of the memories of that time, even though forgiveness is still a long way off.

As for the bullies at school; well, most of them are either dead, in prison, or on Skid Row, and in no position to do me any further harm.

As far as anything practical could be used court of law or I could hold in my hand (like money) not at all but with an asterisk as I am working on couple of things but am not optimistic about results. (vocational rehab seems, useless and 3 disability lawyers said nice you worked 20 years but we can't take your case because they were the wrong years so I am falling through the cracks still) But I can't give up on them, almost over, is not over. To society we mature adults autistics don't exist and apparently never will.

While the diagnosis added to no tangible things what it did add words can't really express but I will try. Prior to my diagnosis I was existing not living. The man known for his work ethic had given up unofficially "Autistic burnout". Now I am living if you see my posts engaged. I just feel level of self acceptance and relaxation that I did not know existed. I know who I am now nobody can ever take that away from me. Not society who want "team players" and "networkers" , not the anti-vaxers who ask "Where are the 50 something autistics?", not the DSM who said you are not official anymore, not the warrior parents and the the Aspie supremacists have hijacked the Aspergers term to mean only people with successful careers married because they they re not autistic (this is not against the vast majority of Aspies whom though a special kind of hell have earned there their successful marriages and careers)

Helps because I found out why. I was surprised myself at the same time it made sense.
Hurts because I also found out why I can't be like others, or even understand them to begin with.

I didn't knew what aspergers was first. I never got to ask my mom in fear. When I found out, I was in denial and desperate because I was huge ignorant back then. And I don't want the world to know because the bullying would get much worse then it was back then.

Then I got over it when I had enough with people. I stopped trying hard not to be myself. The knowledge itself really helps.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

As I was diagnosed just this week I can say so far its been helpful, I spent a long time going up and down in terms of thinking I was imagining my issues to thinking they were valid, it was stressful, now I can say with certainty that my problems are because of Asperger's syndrome, that is nice to be able to say.

surprisingly I also found that the learning deficit I was diagnosed with when I was 15 is also a part of Asperger's, I was always bothered by the fact that no one could tell me why there was a deficit now its all neatly understood under the Asperger's umbrella and that's very comforting.

I am not being helped in terms of benefits or anything but in terms of understanding its brilliant, also despite feeling welcome on this forum before being diagnosed, I now feel more comfortable on here, before I always felt like I was just pretending, even though I wasn't, the doubt in my mind all the time made it difficult for me to feel ok giving my opinion on things to do with autistic problems, e.g. coping with change.

It's hurt me. Mainly because people treat me differently. When I found out about my label I felt like it explained why people treated me differently. I didn't feel like it explained the way I act.

I really think that I have ADHD and OCD, but no one ever diagnosed me. Probably because they thought autism was enough.

I was only diagnosed earlier this month.
To be honest, I had become a bit indifferent to whether I got diagnosed or not over the years, I just stopped caring.
I had suspected for about 8 years, but the fact I had other things in addition, made diagnosis more complicated for me. It was not spotted when I was a child, I was sexually abused, that added a heap load of complications and it was those that came to the forefront.

After decades of believing myself to be a useless failure, that total lack of self esteem is so deeply engrained that I am not sure this diagnosis will make any difference to my life at all. I already have monetary assistance, which just makes me feel worse anyway, as I wish to be a productive member of society, a society which teaches us that we are of little use unless we are earning our right to exist.

Also, in my area, there seem to be absolutely no resources so my struggles still remain the same.
I do not now give myself a pat on the head and say 'there, there, it is only because you have a differently wired brain' when I mess up. I still berate and call myself all manner of derogatory names.

I liked to know that my internal approach to things had a name, a reason, and a sort of logic.

It explains much of my childhood memories.

As an adult, most AT people will not get beyond very short sentences with me, let alone care about my pattern of thinking.

It helped me to know it. It didn't help other people to that about me.

Knowing that I was diagnosed as a child helped immensely. As I submerged myself in the literature on autism spectrum disorders (beginning with the history of the diagnostic criteria) I was stunned to realize just how differently we on the spectrum experience the world.

I had spent a lifetime trying to be neurotypical when I found out that I was diagnosed as "genius with borderline autism" as a very young child. This information along with hours of study on autism spectrum disorders, has provided a framework for justifying the life I now live. Once I understood the neuroscience on the autistic brain, I could easily see that my best chance for flourishing would require an environment as free of sensory stimuli as possible. Since I am hyper-perceptive with a hyper-memory and hyper-sensitivity (especially to noise), I have to maintain a living space that is noise free (to be able to work) and with no visual clutter.

Now that I understand that this is the environment my hyper-sensitive central nervous system requires, I no longer apologize for my needs.

The knowledge of that early diagnosis paved the way for me to develop a lifestyle that would accommodate the unique characteristics of the autistic brain I was born with.

Yes. I get the special care and schooling I need.