Sorry if this seems stupid. My kid was diagnosed with type 1 autism, formerly asperger's. We weren't even testing them for that (it was adhd), but the doc pointed out a lot of behaviors that are classified as autistic. I never thought of those behaviors that way, because I did a bunch of that stuff when I was a teen, too. I just learned I was weird and figured the rest was due to my super dysfunctional family. I've learned to cope. I keep my weirdness to myself and pass for a normal person pretty well. No one would ever guess I'm autistic (again, I've no diagnosis but it's implied).
So, with that context, would there even be a point to getting a diagnosis? What would it benefit me? I'm middle aged, so I don't need educational accommodations. I've learned to adapt, so idk if I'd even be diagnosable.
Idk. I'm still just messed up learning that my kid, who I thought was neurotypical and a LOT like me is considered autistic. How different would my childhood have been if I had been evaluated when I was younger?
First let me welcome you to the "hey wait that was autism!?" phase. It's a trip.
As this thread as a whole states, it depends on what value that diagnosis brings to your life. Weight against how much that diagnosis will cost you. Research autism for yourself and your kid, review your own history and talk with people who know you.
In my region of the US there is one licensed human doing adult diagnosis, on an 18 month waiting list for about $2k. He would also require a 4hr interview with at least one parent in addition to the 8hrs with me. At a time when my family was still angrily listing all the reasons my son's diagnosis was wrong. So my son has a diagnosis, i likely will never bother.
When i started asking close friends for thier opinion, most responded with "duh". I was not infact, as good at masking as i'd assumed. Though it's not an uncommon experiance to find a few people extremely attached to their own image of you. Those relationships tend to end poorly when you open up about your actual lived experiance. So be aware of that cost while you're exploring this. You'll likely be better for their absence but the process can still hurt. The end of one of my oldest and closes friendships resulted in me paying $600 for a full genome sequencing, followed by months of learning how to read the raw files from that. So i could understand the one genetic study thats been done on tactile defensiveness. Having the report put me in the 80th perentile for autism was kinda meh at that point, so i don't believe an offical diagnosis would do much for my piece of mind either. Finding the GABRB3 mutations identified in that tactile defensiveness study also in my genome though. Having that specific answer was worth the time and expense.
Like most people here, i'm a lot kinder to myself now that i have some understanding of how my brain proceses things. I let most of my masking fall away. And was shocked to discover most people don't go through life with every muscle in their body tensed up like they're constantly hearing nails on a chalk board.
LOL that is happening at a hilarious pace right now.
I'm right there with you. Going through all of it right now. I have been considering getting an official diagnosis, but I'm 100% sure I'm on the spectrum, so I'm not sure if there is a point.