Autism diagnosis

Unlike most adult women who are late-diagnosed, it wasn’t after my child was diagnosed (the opposite happened) or even after I figured it out myself and then pursued diagnosis (though that has been the case for ADHD and every other diagnosis I have).

had just recently started with a new psychiatrist, my 10th in the previous 7ish years since I had finally gotten my ADHD diagnosis and started seeing psychs regularly. (I move and change insurances a lot). She was the first female psychiatrist MD (and not prescribing psych nurse) I’d seen. And, thankfully, she was aware that autism can look quite different, especially for women. (The autistic community has been trying to get away from these gendered descriptions of autism, but that’s how she, and most articles word it at this time)

It was our third appointment, and we were talking and near the end she said “I have here in my notes to remember to ask you– have any of your previous psychiatrists talked to you about you maybe being autistic?” Or something along those lines.

It was out of nowhere and took me by surprise (very rare in healthcare type settings, I’m usually the one orchestrating everything)– but then everything just suddenly fell into place. My real (positive) earth-shattering, life changing, “!!!” moment had come with the ADHD diagnosis, but this felt like an immediate sense of gathering up all these scattered issues, memories, traits, etc that hadn’t fit into what I understood ADHD to be, and placing them gently in a cozy little [[ cognitive frame ]] of “autistic.”