How I Got My Autism Diagnosis
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- Опубліковано 1 бер 2023
- It was a mess and a half, to say the least. And took a real convoluted path to the destination.
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Okay so, some additional details. My mom (pronouns e/em/eir*) reminded me of one more fundamental problem we had with getting my neurodivergenses diagnosed. Until the year when I turned 20, the diagnostic criteria in Finland explicitly and strictly forbade diagnosing anyone with both autism and ADHD at the same time.
This was, of course, absolute bullshit but Holy Bureaucracy kept our national standards that way for years and years. Thankfully, the current hoi50061 and hoi50131 standards are realistic: they state clearly that autism and ADHD co-occurring is fairly common.
So basically, my diagnosis was defined out of existence during those years of my life when I would have most needed understanding and accommodations, especially in school.
Yayyy /s. -.-
* Mom came out as non-binary / genderqueer to my sister and me a few weeks ago. E likes us two to use 'mom' about em as we have done that all our lives, but e calls emself "parent" and prefers that people outside our family follow eir lead when addressing em directly ("your mom" when discussing with my sis and me is fine, e says).
(about your mom) That's so cool! E sounds like a really cool person. Just goes to show that it's never too late to learn more about oneself ^^
Request:
Would you consider doing a video on squibs from harry potter?
Because like, wouldn't having no magic in a magical world count as a disability? But I feel like they were sorta just glossed over in both the books and the film
Fab news for em!
your mom passed off her disable gene clearly
I'm also a trans man (21) and have autism among other things. I did not get a diagnosis until i was 14. the ONLY reason why we found out i had autism was because i came in with an eating disorder (and i said i was depressed). I was starving myself and rapidly losing weight, and said i was extremely depressed. all i got was "you have autism, not depression, and start eating again" and no resources or help afterwards. even when you get a diagnosis chances are it just makes it harder to live anyway. when i started my transition journey years later when i was 16/17 i got a no to start hrt TWICE despite living in Denmark where it should have been more accessible. when i turned 18 i tried again and this time, because i mentioned i had CSA trauma, i was forced to talk to a very non-helpful old man therapist 8 times before i could go any further. it fucking sucked, it was like no one was actually helping me. i only started my hrt journey last year, but at least i'm here. wish i could have started sooner.
I still haven't been diagnosed. I dont even know how to start going down that path. I'm scared that it might interfere with my transition which I've just made an appointment about. I'm honestly terrified.
Gotta love living in the uk
Same, on all accounts, except I live in the US.
@@Monarchofmonarch yeah it sucks. I turn 25 this month and I'm kinda scared I left chasing the autism diagnosis too long
An autism diagnosis shouldn't interfere with your transition too much - I'm autistic myself and am currently on my way to getting HRT
The only mental disorders they should be able to deny you treatment based on would be stuff like psychosis and dissociative disorders
@ForgottenSouls well, actually I the UK there's been a lot of backlash against transgender healthcare recently, and one of the talking points that keeps being brought up is "tons of the people who think they're transgender are autistic", with the implication that that makes their identity less valid, they'll often outright say that autistic people can't understand gender or that their gender dysphoria is a result of autistic "obsessions" or black and white thinking.
This week I met with a childhood friend. She´s studying psychology, and told me about her suspicion that she might be autistic. She also told me I should get assessed too, as it is a bit more obvious in me in retrospect. I told her about my suspicion that I have adhd. And she said I could very well have both.
All my life, I was just seen as weird. Even in my family I was the weird one, but nobody ever thought anything of it, because yes, I´m a girl and I don´t show the stereotypical male traits of either. But considering the Slovak healthcare, getting any diagnosis will be difficult
I got my diagnosis when I was a senior in high school. I actually want to audition for RuPaul’s Drag Race and use my time on the show to be a role model for kids on the spectrum and that having autism isn’t necessarily a bad thing and that I can do amazing things and that my diagnosis isn’t really holding me back.
I may get my autism diagnosis this year in April if lucky. At age for it was mentioned by a caretaker in kindergarden, that I could have autism, but my mom denied that and contributed it to the stress of moving to a new city. In 2nd class I got tested for ADD which was negative, but the doctor offered to prescribe meds for me anyway, which my mom luckily denied and in 3rd grade I had to meet a psychologist for my teacher thought I had a behavioural disorder. Again nothing found, so the pychilogist made an intelligence test, that showed that I was above average in almost everything except my processing power, which was slightly beneath average. At University two students, who studied alongside with me asked me idenpendently from one another if I had autism. since then I informed myself on Autism and the more I read and the more tests I made the more I was reassured about it. I've been trying to get a diagnosis for two years and I'm so happy to get it hopefully soon, because getting into the system in germany as an adult female read person is almost impossible. THank you for your video it was very encouraging to me and I look forward to more of your content in the future!
Wow, I am in the same boat on pretty much all acounts. Sorry to bother, but would it be okay to ask how the process of getting a diagnosis goes In Germany? I've been wanting to get one for almost a year by now, but I haven't had the time due to university. Where do you start with the process and what kind of challenges should one expect? Sorry for all the questions, this is just my first time meetiing somebody who actually knows about the topic. Feel free to ignore my comment if it's bothersome. X)
I have a very similar story! My old principle (it was a small school, and she doubled as one of the teachers) was the first to suggest to my mom that I might have autism, but my mom wrote it off as her wanting to make more money off of my diagnosis (my principle, last I checked, was NOT the type to do that) rather than actually thinking I had autism. I truly discovered autism for the first time through the internet and dove into a rabbit hole of study because I related to it, and wanted to know more. Though I've never had any one ever ask if I was autistic, mostly since the only pears I had was at that school, and none of them really seemed to know how to talk to me well enough to get to the point even thinking of stuff like that. Nor have I ever been tested for anything.
I'm more scared of attempting to get a diagnosis because of how my mom would react, she seems to get really angry when I bring it up and will bring up all the worst cases of people with diagnosed autism.
@@b.h.4249 Don't worry I understand that very well. Sadly I can't tell much myself apart from the fact that it is very fucking hard to get into the system and that you have to pay part of the diagnosis cost. I am however willing to give you an update once I am through.
@@asahitora Thank you, I would appreciate that a lot! I'm just glad to know anything about the process, honestly. I'll try my luck soon, too. Good luck with your diagnosis, I hope you get through soon! :)
My mum talked to the doctor about it when we watched this documentary. I am kinda concerned that it mighty effect my gender transition in the future and I already have enough road blocks with the British health care at the moment
I wish you all et luck in the world. Stay strong💪
Your "the cry running away with me" example completely hit home, sorry for the incoming wall of a story. Just really resonated with me and I'm so grateful for another's introspective ramble. Disability and the spectrum in combination are often overlooked.
I was only recently diagnosed as a nearly 30 year old adult, having sought out a private assessment with a window of opportunity where I wouldn't be out of pocket.
I showed extreme signs of emotional disregulation as a child (including perfectionism traits that still plague my creative processes today), combined with an extreme aversion to anything remotely attributed to "failure"; as a toddler. A small child without the concept of grades or what "failure" even was, outside of "colouring outside the black lines". I would both isolate and overreact to miscommunication, and was pretty much the trademark "tarnished gifted child" of bundled high-functioning ASD and ADHD traits. I skyrocketed in nonverbal activities and was tested to be falling behind on verbal skills, but nothing was done beyond a little flashcard therapy, and no correlation was ever thought of.
I did not receive any kind of treatment or thoughts of diagnosis because my teachers blamed it on my disability. A purely physical disability that had zero (and has zero) to do with my behaviour. They attributed my problematic behaviours to "well, they've been in and out of hospital a lot so they just haven't had time to socialize properly", disregarding that things barely changed as I grew older; I just eventually learned how to mask the most problematic outbursts if I was feeling overwhelmed, which.. didn't help in the case of my early diagnosis of clinical depression and anxiety. I had an unfortunately large black dog reigning over me at an incredibly young age despite my loving mother and little home troubles, simply because I didn't understand what was "wrong" with me. I always felt "incorrect" but never had someone just take a five minute sit-down with me to talk it out.
My grades plummeted in highschool because I never learned how to study in a way that would actually let me retain any information. I eventually left pre-graduation due to a combination of bullying, depression, anxiety boiling up into panic attacks, and self harm. It took me a long time to want to even try getting back into tertiary education, simply because I felt like a failure in all aspects. I couldn't control anything; not my thoughts, not my focus, and I couldn't just "will" myself to "stop being a lazy teenager" like I'd been consistently scolded to magically accomplish.
Finally, FINALLY having some kind of answer to where things went wrong was a mixed reaction. I was upset. I was grieving for myself, for the time lost and the indescribable pain I went through. But ultimately I now feel more at peace with myself, to know I'm not actually "broken". My wires are simply corded in a different way so to speak. Now I know how to recognize when my body and mind are telling me that this is too much, and how to deal with some of my issues focusing. How to better calm down in the moment and not give in to raw flare-ups of extreme emotion. Medication isn't a great consideration given my history with SSRIs, but at least the door's open.
Thank you for sharing your story. I hope ours become rarer as time goes on; my young cousins were lucky to get diagnosed and proper help early. I wish for that to be the norm so nobody goes through that confusing mess.
thanks so much for sharing, this is very close to my experience and quite helpful. a) counting fear of failure as emotional dysregulation and b) mentioning control when writing about focus, thoughts and will (i'm such a control freak and perfectionist, needless to say i've been stuck for years now) the way you did gave me several dot-connecting aha-moments just now!
This was a great video! A similar thing happened with my little sister (except she got her autismXadhd diagnosis the second time at 16). I also went a bit unnoticed (till 18) because I did well at school and was a bit better at masking than her.
I was diagnosed when I was three. The nuns at my daycare saw that I tended to isolate myself from other children. My parents took me to many specialists and finally discovered I am Asperger. But they did not tell me until i was eleven
But in the meantime, i had to go to pedaghotist twice a week all year from first to fifth grade and do many kinds of tests, even if I didn't know why.
I was actually pretty good at behaving at school and masking and I never had any kind of special help in class, my teachers didn't know i was asperger up until a fight with my italian teacher in which I insulted her in front of the whole class. I literally exploded in anger (something that still happens sometimes) and shouted to her. Luckly, the situation was fixed after me bowling my eyes out and my parents explained everything to my teachers. After that, things got very much better. Never got angry like that to them again.
But, like I said, i discovered four years later that I am asperger. My mom told me one day during summer, a time I was really happy. She was very gentle about it and helped me understand.
For me it was not a problem, I felt like I was special like I always wanted, but I was also... liberating, because finally there was an explanation to why I was so different from my peers, the "weird one" among the crowd who liked reading more than he liked soccer.
Sometimes it gets a bit heavy for me, especially when people say "if you were normal you would be like that" and when sometimes i say that to myself too, but I do not have real problems with being asperger. I befriended some of the people I love most because I am as I am
The term "aspergers" is actually out dated, and was named after a N*zi scientiest. The proper term is ASD or Autism, Aspergers just means someone on a specific part of the Autism spectrum. I'm not mad, and I'm very proud of you for sharing your story
@@DAYDR3AMERR aw thank you.
I'm very lucky to have gotten an autism diagnosis at age 6, almost immediately because my brother also has diagnosed autism. It didn't dawn on me just how hard it is to get a diagnosis until i started hearing people's stories. I am now 17 and trying to get an ADHD diagnosis, as me and my family both suspect that i have both autism and ADHD. I am STRUGGLING in college due to being fidgety and unable to focus on ANYTHING.
And OH MY GOD. This process is PAINFULLY slow. I feel for you all going through the same process, really.
The shit you had to go through to "legally transition", made my eyebrows travel ever higher and higher. Wow....
There are big reasons why the QUILTBAG+ community in Finland and our allies rejoiced and partied in February when a new law covering gender affirmation finally passed a parliament vote. We had been pushing for a new law for almost two decades. It is a lot better now -- not perfect but considerably better.
I got diagnosed when I was in 2nd grade.
My mom noticed that I couldn't remember information longer than a day. My mom also noticed that I was timed in my head. If I saw someone turn in work, I would rush and turn it in.
I don't remember the diagnosis. My mom was on the phone when answering questions.
I got diagnosed with autism and ADHD.
As someone who just started their diagnosing journey for Autism and ADHD, seeing it took you 16 years really discourages me because I only have 3 years left of high school and I won’t be able to pass every year if I don’t get some accommodations soon. I am really hoping it will get better though, I recently got the courage to tell my parents and they said they are calling a therapist that I could see more often then the one at my school. Wish me luck I guess
As a female diagnosed at 17 I totally agree that it is harder to get a diagnosis.
The only reason I (an afab person) got diagnosed when I was 3 was because I didn't talk. My mom was concerned and my doctor (unhelpful) shrugged it off, so she went to get me tested on her own.
Great video. Although I haven’t been officially diagnosed, I was able to recognize that I am autistic in high school, in part because of an autistic character in a show I watched (representation is important people). I was also able to notice that my little brother is on the spectrum too and he was able to get a diagnosis after years of trying, in part because I pointed that out to my parents. He is a little kid and I am an adult. Although it wasn’t easy getting him a diagnosis, it was relatively easier for him than it has been for me. I always had trouble in school due to being neurodivergent so my hope is that my little brother can get the help he needs that I was never able to get. I want to get a diagnosis as soon as I can but unfortunately I live in the USA and very few places are covered by my shitty insurance.
I am also non-binary and I never understood why people think being neurodivergent is seen as a reason for you not being “really” trans. To me it sounds like ableist infantalizarion, saying that neurodivergent people are not self aware enough to know there own gender. Of course some trans people are gonna be neurodivergent, just like some trans people are left handed or some have blue eyes. It shouldn’t be a point against the validity of their gender.
I've seen a study on attitudes and beliefs amoung british people towards autistic people and apparently, fully 1/3 of people think that being autistic is the same thing as a simple learning disability (known as intellectual disability in the US.) Other people think of it as a basic developmental delay, as in "being mentally 8 years old". 75% think that autistic sensory difficulties and meltdowns are emotional problems, as in they think they're immature tantrums or us being too fussy or self-centered.
@@robokill387 , would you by any chance have a link or remember the title, an author's name, or the name of a research institute or university involved in the study? As depressing as that study sounds, I would want to read it.
I’m 23 years old and trying to get an autism and add diagnoses and this video is so damn relatable to me man, oh my god, it legitimately feels like your talking about my life (just make some minor changes like swap Finnish for math)
i got diagnodecd at the age of 4, my autsim was very clear back then, i used to be very mute and always out of the group/class, i still am rather alone than in a group that stayed with me my whole life, and because im mute i got a speach therapy my whole life till i got 16, also when im alone doesnt mean i always want to be alone
I had an interesting journey to my autism diagnosis because in retrospect, I think part of the reason it took until high school was because my mom, despite not being fully educated in neurodivergence at the time (I am firmly a 90s kid and definitely never presented as the stereotype in any sense), very quickly figured out a good balance between meeting my needs and teaching me to be aware and respectful of the needs of others. I also was fortunate, after a specific bully moved out of the school and I made friends with her two hanger-ons, that most of my peers liked me and the staff actually handled me and my behavior fairly well.
Then we moved the year I was going into third grade and things...stopped being so good. Not at home; the worst that happened at home was my brother making the admittedly unfair but also understandable given his age and lack of education at the time assumption that if there was something "wrong" with his incredibly smart and capable older sister, why couldn't she fix it? (He has since moved past this and regrets this line of thinking; we're on good terms and even at the time, were quite close, so much so that outsiders were confused.)
At school on the other hand, because I wasn't a stereotypical anything, I became something of a WEIRD combination of "the school weirdo who everyone either ignores or picks on" and "everyone's little sister" (which naturally came with the classical exasperation when the behavior of said "little sister" comes off as annoying); it did NOT help that the system in question was extremely athlete-focused and I have always been a clumsy and uncoordinated person, though this has improved over time.
Flash forward through several miserable years wherein I was the bigger person wherever possible and even convinced one of my better teachers to give one of my biggest bullies one last chance to not be a total jerk and it WORKED (we weren't friends after that but he never picked on me again and was actually something of a sweetheart by our teens).
My mother, a life-long educator, was sent to a conference about autism spectrum disorders and happened to pick up and read the book "Freaks, Geeks and Asperger's Syndrome" (I am aware that there is debate on whether or not that diagnosis title is problematic or not but the book itself is relatively sound and written by someone with the diagnosis). She recognized several traits that I had displayed over the course of my life and was given permission to bring a copy of the book home with her.
Once home from the conference, she asked me to read the book; surprised since I was and still am a voracious reader, I complied and took the book to my room. Several minutes later, I rushed into the living room and declared "Mom! Someone else thinks like I do! I'm not nuts!"
I received my diagnosis and while school was never perfect after that and I STILL have things that I'm bitter about, I did have a label to why I was different and did get accommodations. I've even been told that I set a precedent in the school system that has paved the way for better treatment of kids on the spectrum...so there's that I suppose.
I am trying to get autism checked. When I first brought it up I was ignored pretty much. Then I got diagnosed with unstable personality disorder. I got adhd diagnosis on first grade.
I am also transman, but that has not changed anything.
I'm surprised that I was diagnosed with autism even early, maybe late, but looking at other people, I got the diagnosis quite early (I'm class 01 and I got it after finishing elementary school)
Omg the cry running away with me thing is so true. I was diagnosed at 4 and I would and still do have those exact crying fits, except even my mom sometimes couldn’t calm me down. It would happen when I felt guilty or stressed, to the point where a teacher literally said “You punish yourself more than anyone ever could”
As a white American boy (although, now I know that I am a demigirl), I got back with results immediately. The only problem is, my parents did not notice until I was the age of 13. My stepmother and Dad allowed me to forget about the actual diagnosis until I was around 15 and by then, their divorce was going on. I had to look up the symptoms of Autism to finally understand myself.
Sorry for possible typos, english isn't my first language and I have dyslexia as well.
I'm autistic and I got my diagnosis at age 18.. And at day care they noticed my odd way of playing and said to my parents there may be something going on. But nothing was done. And when I was at the age to go to school, I got bullied for 9 years straith which combined with me trying to survive each day in schools noises and homework eventually lead to mental health problems. I got to theraphy and they did psychological testiong to me and found out there is something wrong, and like in your case, didn't do anything about it. Only after getting theraphist that was specialised in autism, adhd and other neurodiverged things things started to roll for the better. She noticed at the first time we met that I may have autims and started to work to get me properly tested. I mean she had worked for years with this kind of stuff so she knew the signs very well. And there I finaly got the diagnosis. Also my theraphist was shocked to hear how it was noticed before but haven't done anything about it.
Hey thanks for sharing your story. Even though you’re just a random person on the internet it’s nice to know there are so many out there who understand.
It made me feel like sharing my story so umm ye. Some months ago I (17 f) tried to get an adhd diagnosis aaaand failed. I’ve known for years that there was something up, but never had the courage to talk to anyone besides friends.
Now I gotta say I’ve come to a point where I’m really disappointed in the system. It feels like shit to be measured whether you're struggling enough and “deserve” help when there’s apparently a “right” way to be struggling.
I ended up in the category of “not outwardly struggling enough in the stereotypical way, because OF COURSE neurodivergency can only express itself in one way *cough*”. So then, like so many others have experienced they sent me out where I came from with nothing. Kinda feels like a “stop pretending to be sad. You’re obviously fully capable you just need to try harder to be happy” and ummmmm yeah that’s not fun.
I have access to everything they wrote about me, and reading it sucks because everything is right there beneath the surface but because I’m not failing at school and have friends they refuse to investigate further or acknowledge anything
This experience honestly just made me wanna never attempted to get diagnosed again, but then at then same time having a “real reason” would mean so so much.
I'm learning all the time how ridiculously lucky I was as a cis girl to get dxed with Autism and ADHD at age 6. This I largely attribute to the tenacity of my mother for which I am very grateful.
I was told by my psychiatrist once that I was in fact NOT depressed because "People with autism cannot regulate their emotion properly" while I was IN FACT suffering from toxic relationships in both love life and in my family since childhood, I was ALSO being bullied by my classmates in some degree because of my strange behaviors from being mentally unstable
I was recently diagnosed with autism right when I turned 25 years old after waiting 7 months for an evaluation of the testing that I went through. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was in my junior year of high school after I had a major knee surgery because orthopedic surgery anesthesia can really mess with your brain at times. I still hold a bit of animosity towards the schools that I’ve attended and the a little bit towards the medical system for not diagnosing me with these 2 conditions much sooner. I have spastic hemiplegia cerebral palsy which I have had ever since I was born. I was diagnosed with anxiety and persistent depressive disorder before I was given my ADHD and autism diagnoses.
Huge shout out to school system for being so incredibly unhelpful to autistic and neurodivergent kids, especially girls. I had an incredibly hard time at school because teachers just assumed the fact I didn't talk to a single classmate EVERY day and sat in absolute silence during class = being a good student! Congrats!
Not only that but my family despises the idea of me being autistic for reasons I don't know at all. It's so wild realizing just know all the things I struggled with as a kid HAD a reason and I wasn't just "shy".
been having my own weird journey to getting diagnosed. parts of my family are starting to consider we "may" be autistic since my nephew's generation of resources are a lot more foreward and informed.
i still feel heavily under-educated on autism. yet my mom took me to the doctor for my toe walking and speech issues haha!!! oh god...i just wish the system was easier on us. this shit is hard!
i got my diagnosis when i was probably about nine or ten years old. prior to that i had been diagnosed with adhd and among other things, anxiety and general insomnia. the autism sort of made everything click because i did not act like other kids at all. most of my childhood was spent entirely alone or with one or two friends at the most. it wasn't until my last few years of high school that i finally made some friends and they weren't even made in the real world, they were made online.
my online friends are all neurodivergent and queer and they make me so fucking happy. they appreciate me for me and they are part of the reason why i care about myself at all. my eating disorder, depression, and anxiety all made my self esteem plummet, mostly on account of the fact that i am rather on the chubby side and my mom's general attitude towards food and me loosing weight only further drove me to binge and purge. my friend's dug me out of that pit of darkness and they really made me who i am today.
additionally i also really struggle with some pretty bad back, leg, and neck pain due to the extra weight that my body carries and since i struggle with really awful insomnia (since i was about six or seven), i'm constantly tired all the time. it took me a while to accept that my body can't do all the things that my classmates can do and that it's okay to be able to take a break and let my body rest. just today as i'm typing this comment i'm trying to convince myself not to take a jog on my treadmill because my legs probably won't be able to keep me up due to the strain i've been putting them through over the past week.
your videos make me feel seen, they're wonderfully edited and they make me feel so happy whenever i hear you talk about things that i myself have experienced.
(p.s, you should take a look at transformers earthspark, it's got, at least in my opinion pretty decent disabled, lgbt, and neurodivergent rep in it. like legit it made me fucking ball my eyes out bc of how a lot of the characters talk about their gender and how it's okay to be different. the silly little robots have got me in a chokehold.)
If you want to share with an autistic insomniac ex-nurse with a history of eating disorders (plural): what all approaches, techniques, supplements, and/or medications have you tested for your insomnia and how have they worked?
Personally, I have accepted and am okay with that I won't ever sleep full nights during the workweek. Instead, I use melatonin to get sleep-in mornings Saturdays and sometimes also Sundays. Thick, dark, tightly closing curtains are essential for this approach to work.
I also use one earbud almost all nights in bed to re-listen to audiobook playlists, mostly Dorothy L Sayers, James Herriot, and Agatha Christie, read by people with as calm voices as possible. So if I don't sleep, I get to enjoy my favorite stories, which is at least rest and relaxation, and if I do fall asleep while listening, that's a bonus.
I also accept that I will wake up in the wee hours more often than not. I use that time for self-care and light, simple chores that don't wake up my brain (we have the privilege of a single family house, so I don't need to worry about disturbing neighbors). Keeping the lights to a minimum, I open the clean dishwasher and shake off excess water from the dishes, maybe start a load of laundry (night electricity is cheapest here), then make and drink a cup of calming herbal tea, go to the toilet, and crawl back to bed to continue listening to my book.
Insomnia is not my enemy anymore, and the alone time I get in the silence of the night is almost always okay and can be quite wonderful at times.
Best wishes and a solidarity fist bump from Finland!
i relate to this too much. its been 2 years since i first started researching autism and realizing "im 90% sure this is me", and many doctors appointments later, i'm stuck at the "yeah we know theres something going on in your brain but we dont know what it is, sorry lol" point. my parents go back and forth between thinking its autism or not. they usually think it isnt because they can barely even say the word "autism", even though theyve watched me go through every single trait of it since i was 5. currently hyping myself up to finally talk to them about it and say that i NEED to get an assessment done (bc last time we tried, the doctor literally GHOSTED us.)
It’s became of Oakwyrm that I have been making changes to my novel. Thanks to this channel I found a few things of what not to do.
Ok side note watching this video, the "Well there's traits of this mental health condition but we can't diagnose so go off ig" is literally what happened to me when I got evaluated a second time (they said there were traits of bipolar but couldn't diagnose and instead just tried giving me meds despite me saying I wasn't ready). My first evaluation I got diagnosed with GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) though
I wasn't diagnosed as autistic until 2013. I was 19, burnt out from high school which I had barely survived, and newly out as a trans man. I'm pretty sure the only reason I was diagnosed was because the doctor who dx'd me is ALSO autistic and does screenings as a COURTESY while working his day job as a family doctor.
I have a lot of the traits you mention in this video
I’m currently seeking looking into a potential autism diagnosis, but it’s taking time because my parents arnt the mental health type. I can’t function very well around other people’s anymore which is what prompted me to look into it.. I enjoy hearing about others experiences on a sympathetic and empathetic level, so thank you for sharing your story!
I remember getting a Mclean (Massachusetts hospital that I was told specialized in mental health in the area) psychological evaluation and coming back with 3 new diagnosis and my parents refusing to tell me them for a while (I was 17 years old at the time) until I put my foot down about it being my diagnosis and that I have a right to know.
A second ADHD diagnosis
Autism
General anxiety
And major depression
Apparently they were discussing weather they wanted to tell me because they read somewhere that “when people get an autism diagnosis it can make them act more autistic.”
And honestly, knowing I have autism has helped contextualize a lot of things that used to make me think I was just a failure.
But now I am on anti-depressants and just was able to start HRT.
eugh the “ you have traits of this but not enough for a diagnosis “ thing . unfortunately because adhd is classed as a behavioral disorder and not as the difference in brain chemistry that it is , if you aren’t suffering enough- or crucially if / others / aren’t suffering enough as a result of it- they just won’t diagnose you . same w autism , and especially if you’re afab . i had the same thing happen to me with both autism and adhd . but i went into that assessment with the predetermined notion that no matter what they ended up saying , i still believe i have these things , as i’ve done years of independent research
Thank you for your videos!!! I really like the way how you tell your stories and show you drawing at the same time. Also your perspective and topic choices are very unique. It's good that you talk about things nobody else seems to talk/think about.
I'm trying to get an autism diagnosis for 4 years now. It's so exhausting. The specialists are overrun so they take only people who are pre-checked. And the doctors who are supposed to pre-check me tell me they are not specialized enough to pre-check and transfer me to the specialists. My mom got me tested as a child but the doctors said something like "this 3 year old girl who doesn't speak to other children is not autistic but just very shy..." ...yeah I'm not convinced.
I can relate to hearing you speaking about your school time a lot, only for me it was a different language.
That an autism diagnosis can stop you from transitioning is so messed up. Especially when it's proven that autistic people are more likely to be LGBTQAI+.
As a five year old child I was diagnosed as having ADHD, then eight years later they deleted ADHD and put in Autism. In the old system I didn't got enough points for Autism but they knew that there's something funky about my brain.
I remember being told I was tested for something, and that the result was: I was on the border of a yes and no. But they aired on the side of no since I was tiny for my age and weight loss was a side effect of the medicine. On top of that, there weren't really problems in school or otherwise, so it wasnt a big deal.
Not sure if it's worth seeking anything out in my late 20s.
I've been wondering if i have autism as well and it's so great to hear that you can be autistic with ADHD presenting traits! I have a lack of attention to detail, memory problems, and troubles organizing, which are ADHD traits but i don't have the main problem of attention regulation (i think). But i do have the main autism issue of having a hard time socializing and having conversations. So it's like i have the main autism traits but the details are like ADHD. I've been confused for a while about this and your video brought a little bit of clarity to my own experiences. Thank you!
I wish you lots of love and best of luck in your future endeavors with your mental health! I hope you get help faster from now on.
I started looking for and got a diagnosis for autism last year after my mom and i read about it and realized that it sounded exactly like me, i talked about it with a teacher while I was still looking for it and she said something like "oh yeah, i thought about it when you changed to this school, but I couldn't say anything, I'm glad you finally figured it out" and, after so many years of going back home exhausted from all the noise everyday, isolating myself and thinking there was something wrong with me, she couldn't have said anything? Not in any of the parent and teacher meetings where she and other teachers expressed how worried you were that i wouldn't talk to anyone?? Was there really no moment where you could have said "hey, maybe your child is autistic, have you ever thought about testing?" And i got so frustrated I just started laughing, nodded and went back to my table
I have a distinct memory of one teacher in early elementary school trying to push me to speak more in class by calling on me to read a paragraph from the textbook and cutting me off to tell me to "No, try again. *Louder.*" until I cried. Then she sent me outside the room to sit in the hallway and whenever another teacher stopped by to ask why there was a crying 7-year-old in the hallway she'd come out to tell them I was throwing a temper tantrum and I wasn't allowed to come back in until I stopped being angry. It didn't change anything, except if I remembered her name today I'd go egg her house.
The "there is something wrong but not enough for a diagnosis so good luck" has happend to me twice now trying to get diagnosed, and one docter even told me to my face that I can't have ADHD cause I wasn't fidgeting enough during our first meeting (dispite me twirling my hair non stop between my finger the entire time but sure dude) so I feel your frustration on the topic
I had something similar happen for a physical issue. I went to the doc in highschool when I was getting sharp pains in my wrist. Doc did tests and....nothing except "you appear to hyper-extend your wrist here's some pills for that" but there was no actual diagnosis. Needless to say despite my mom filling the Rx, I did not take the meds. If they couldn't tell me an actual problem I'm not taking anything for it. The pain acts up every now and then but I deal.
Wow! What a twisted path you've walked! I'm glad that everything came together, even though it happened in a weird, roundabout way!
BTW, your drawings are getting better!
So am I, my friend, so am I.
And thank you ^^
Hearing about this makes me really mad to be honest.
I hope things continue to get better for all the people who currently have to experience stuff like this!
Thank you for the video
Not quite the same, but we ran into a weird diagnosis bar with my cerebral palsy. Shortly after I was born an 'adverse haemorragic event' caused me to stop breathing for a bit. The doctors got me back up and running and one of them ran through the possible effects of cerebral palsy with my parents while they tried to figure out which part of my brain had been hurt and how badly. Then a couple of months later my brother and I went home from hospital at which point my parents noticed that my head was always facing left and I was moving a bit weirdly. So off we go to get me actually properly looked at.
The problem being that apparently doctors weren't at that point allowed to diagnose cerebral palsy until you were one, which isn't a thing they tell you (I believe my aunt is the source of us knowing this) so this begins a campaign of my parents going 'Look, he definitely has cerebral palsy.' and the GPs going 'Are you sure his brother isn't just a floppy baby?'. Like at this point I am so stiff that I can not touch my toes at a point when most babies can put them in their mouths.
It's an odd one because while I can guess that you wouldn't want to be too precise on cerebral palsy right away (since it can be very variable) it not only led to a struggle to get a diagnosis but an active attempt by some of the GP's my Mum went to to diagnose my brother, who wasn't even at issue. I suppose there's a reason that I've seen some doctors advocating for replacing diagnosis with formulation in a lot of cases (which is the prior stage where you just articulate the problem and deal with it rather than trying to tie it into a wider classification, not sure how I feel about it. Probably useful in some cases in removing the illusion of totality from medical knowledge but has some clear problems both for medical systems and activists who rely on the identity categories).
But yeah, bit of tangent but there's mine.
When I was in third grade (so like 8) I was diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), which is similar to ADHD it just involves less of the hyperactivity, then when I was in eighth grade (like 14) I was diagnosed with Autism, and when you were talking about struggling to learn spelling, writing, and grammar in Finnish and was just like “oh, I am the same way with English, I feel you man” yeah I hate English cause I don’t understand it, at all, proper grammar? ha what’s that, writing essays and research papers? Oh they can go to heck, spelling bees? F that. Yeah, if you can’t tell I really don’t like English (even though it’s my first language)
I only got diagnosed with autism a year and a half ago (I'm mid thirties). I went in for an ADHD evaluation because I was having trouble focusing on my work, and the tests came back that I had ADHD, Autism, Anxiety, and Major Depression. At the time, all of those seemed like surprises. I knew I struggled with some anxiety and sadness, but I didn't think they were severe enough to, you know, count as clinical problems. But the more I adapted to seeing myself that way, the more I could understand and accept it. I've been struggling with these things my entire life but telling myself I just needed to do better.
Like you, I was the gifted kid growing up. I think that's why no one thought I needed help. I masked my problems so well I didn't know I was doing it. It was only once my mental health was entirely my responsibility and I realized I was probably going to die if I didn't take better care of it that I was able to start acknowledging that, no, I'm not neurotypical, and I should have had help a long time ago.
This is in contrast to my brother, who was so sensitive and defiant as a child that he was diagnosed with (then) Asperger's when he was five or six. I grew up right next to him, unable to see that I have the same condition because my expression of it is so different that I just couldn't read it as the same. He was the one who got all the help, while I was praised for being quiet and smart and left to my own devices. Now, I'm struggling to function as an adult in a world I was never prepared for. I serve as my brother's caretaker because it's one of the only jobs I can actually do (and because he can't live alone).
To make all of this just a bit more interesting, both of us are trans, going in opposite directions, as it were. My brother figured it out immediately as soon as one of our friends came out and he saw that I would accept her for who she was. For me, it was difficult and complicated. There were so many layers of masking that I had to take down, so much pain I was carrying around because I always had to be the mature one and never sat down and really looked at what was going on. I am grateful to my brother for acting as a mirror to me, and helping me to understand the things about myself that I learned to hide and be ashamed of. Things are getting better, it's just a slow road towards health.
i was luky in getting my diagnoses at 11 after four years of pushing from one of my teachers (bless he hart) and had vary sportive parints. the fact that it is still so hard to get a diagnoses is horrible.
although ive been diagnosed with adhd for a while me and my friends who are also autistic have been suspecting i may have autism myself, i really wanna get it checked with a psychaitrist but my dad wont let me...and hes the same person that withheld my adhd diagnosis from me for a while and also my psych eval from me...and ended up sending me to an aba clinic (tho im pretty sure he had no idea what they actually did and disguised themselves as "occupational therapy") so thats fun....
I think it would be interesting for you to do a video on RWBY and it's handling of disability which like most things in that show is a mess
I got *incredibly* lucky, which is something I didn´t realize for most of my life (currently 20, so most of my life isn´t *that* long). Yes, autism sucked massivly sometimes, but I only recently realized just how much WORSE it could have been. My parents knew early on I was nerodivergent, mostly because it was pretty obvious - I was a very, very puzzle obsessed toddler - but I was officially diagnosed in my first or second year of elementary school. So my parents, my teachers and almost every other adult in my life stepped up to help. I´ve had help through my entire time at school, even though it took until 8th grade for a school accompaniment person to stick. My teachers ALWAYS knew what was going on and how to handle the actually very bright kid not saying a word in class. As my sensory sensitivity got worse after the pandemic, I was allowed to wear headphones in class and later got out of group projects once it became clear my classmates were not accomodating. At all.
It still sucked. It still does, although University is a bit easier. Bigger rooms, for one, and nobody cares weather I participate or just quietly take notes. But I still struggled. I hid under the desk in school, I still chew my nails, I still can´t go anywhere new and scary without a plushie. And one plushie is already a positive change from me needing my entire pack of stuffed dogs. I still feel better around animals.
But I also recently realized just how lucky I am, mostly through the internet. None of the things my parents did to help me cost them a dime. In fact, they´re elligable for gouvernment help because of my diagnosis. My diagnosis will never exclude me from doing anything. I got my diagnosis early and from a doctor who wasn´t denying that I was autistic just because I didn´t show the typical symptoms of an autistic child and my dad has ADHD. Nobody in my family ever denied me being me, and if they ever did when I was small, well I don´t remember ever meeting relatives who didn´t love me for who I am so if they exist, my parents kicked them out of my life. I know perfectly well that my parents will be there for me. I never lost faith in the system created to support me and others, and that those people are doing their best.
So yeah. I got lucky. And I hope everyone who didn´t have as much sheer luck as I at least gets the help they need, and idealy the same help I had all my life. I hope future generations don´t face the horrors fellow autists told me about. I hope they have as much luck as I had. It´s a childish hope, but hey, we all need that sometimes.
after watching this, I feel really lucky that I got diagnosed with ADHD when I was like, eight. Funnily enough, this didn't really change much at the time since I was already going to a montessori school with plenty of informal accommodations, and so I literally just... forgot about it. Like i forgot that I had that diagnosis, and didn't remember until the pandemic hit and I was suddenly struggling in school again. I'm surprised those organizational skills I learned in elementary school got me that far, honestly (I went to public school starting in 7th grade). Suddenly remembering that I Had a Diagnosis and an explanation for why I was struggling to get anything done without the structure of a normal school day was like a slap in the face.
I've been diagnosed with Autism when I was 4 and a few months ago, my friend wondered if he had Autism as he had some traits, so I told him to get diagnosis and he had.
I was diagnosed 4 years old and I had show signs when I was baby like getting fevers and so on. I had also tantrums as well when I was younger. I was lucky that my parents and my dad side of the family that lived in Georgia,USA had the patience and love to help me navigate life to this point. I had came really far thanks to them.
My story sounds so similar to yours!
When I was a toddler I apparantly cried until I passed out. I can't remember it, but I think this could have been shutdowns. I was first tested for ADHD when I was about 6 years old. Their conclusion was: well there seems to be something, but we can't really diagnose you, so please come back later again. However the message, that I should test again at some point never reached my parents somehow. My mom assumed, that it meant that I didn't have ADHD so I grew up thinking that aswell. I struggled though. When I finally got psychological treatment for my depression at about 17, I brought up how I thought I might have ADHD (and also related to autism) even though the testing said, to my knowledge, that I didn't have it. It was only then, when I discovered, that the testing hadn't been conclusive. I still couldn't get a diagnosis then though, as my therapist told me, that this is impossible, while being depressed.
A year ago I tried to start my transition process. In the first hour of the assessment that I need for transitioning the psychologist noted autism-symptoms in me and in my country this is still considered a thing that could prevent you of being believed to be trans. Not neccessarily though, luckily, but I do have to be tested, before being "certified" trans. So now I'm on the seemingly endless waiting-list for an autism assessment. I'd be glad if I'll get an autism diagnosis, I just really hope I'll still get to transition.
i forgot how relaxing your videos are! very informative also lol.
Your channel is comfort ❤❤❤❤
All throughout school, up to high school which is currently the highest education I have, I would get meltdowns/shutdowns during school hours. Some situation would take place that I couldn't find a way around or otherwise reconcile with, and it would snowball on me. It often wasn't even the situation that would send me off, that would usually just make me nonverbal and withdrawn. What really sent me were the teachers forcing themselves and my peers to try to get me to respond or leave. That and the thought in the back of my mind of me gradually losing my emotional composure, crying and such, that crept up on me every time, always sent me down that road. It made me feel like the reason for the meltdown was circular--I was melting down because I was thinking about melting down. I feel like, if I was just left alone to shut down and be nonverbal for a while, it wouldn't have led to a meltdown. Maybe have a close friend next to me who I could just be with, although I didn't want to be disruptive to their classwork. But teachers seem to be procedurally required to make sure that can't happen.
My cousin got diagnosed with autism a little while ago and after that i did a bunch of research (honestly quite difficult as so many sources disagree or differ from one another also i'm female so yk there's not that much at all on that :/) and since then i've started wondering if i have it too. A lot of stuff people say doesn't really resonate with me but then there's also a lot that idk just really does. I have an autistic friend at school and a while after i started wondering about this i mentioned my current obsession with overwatch (within like 3 days of playing i knew the entire lore and most of the ability names and stats etc - i really fricking like overwatch) and he asked if i was sure i didn't also have autism. My response was literally just 'no' lol
One of the main things also that led to me wondering this was that I've always kinda felt like I think differently to other people- like I'll explain my thought processes and they'll often just be completely different to everyone else's; there was also this computer science competition called bebras (i think it's a uk thing - like the maths challenge but for compsci) and i don't do computer science for a level (i can use computers. i took the gcse and the syllabus sucked so i didn't take the a level (i had also had enough trouble narrowing it down as it was)) but i have friends who do and they showed me the questions and i correctly solved the ones they hadn't had time for in like 3 minutes. There were only like 15 questions and they had like 2 hours for them like????? It felt the questions were just made for how my brain is wired.
I've also heard about stuff like finding it easier to socialise and make friends online and oh my gosh it's so true for me like i am better friends with people i see every couple of months irl than i am with people i spend hours at a time with every day just because i met them and talk to them online.
Also stimming. I do that sometimes. I'm a complete hypochondriac so it might just be because I've been researching it but I have noticed it happening more recently.
So yeah I mentioned all this to some other friends who know more about it all than I do and they said they could certainly believe it so idk. I also have OCD and (undiagnosed but very obvious) depression so I feel like that muddles things as well cause there are a couple kinda conflicting symptoms
Anyway I appreciate you telling us your story, i'm sorry you had to wait so long for a proper diagnosis :( (the reason you finally got one doesn't sound much fun either :///)
I was diagnosed as a tiny girl because I wouldn't let anyone put me on the backburner. 😂 I was too loud and had too many shut diwns around teachers, classmates, and doctors to be ignored.
As a cis man, I got diagnosed with autism when I was around 5 years old lmao, and got plenty of support from then on.
I remember when I had unspecific "behavior problems" on my record in school for things like daydreaming and crying. And all the social difficulties that they just couldn't understand because vagina-havers like me don't get autism, or so they used to think lol
"We assume some of the children based on genitals are more social than the others, why is this social-gender one broken"
I'm very convinced that the only reason it took me until I was 20 to get an official ADHD diagnosis is because 1) I presented as a girl when I got tested for my learned disability, and 2) because the school I attended refused to get me tested until my parents threatened legal action, so a process that should've taken an entire school year, was fast-tracked through 2 months... I ended up getting a diagnosis of "you don't have any learning disability with a name, but you do have a random one that effects your fluency, so here's a few accommodations to help with that." I'm glad that I was given any documentation, but I feel that if I had gotten a diagnosis for ADHD (or autism as I think I might have), I could've prevented the anxiety and depression that I developed in middle school. The system sucks.
Can you please make a video about Sonic characters and disabilities? Btw woudn't be suprised if Silver has a form of Autism.
He already has those personality traits such as taking stuff too litterly, being socially aquard, struggeling with informal conforsations (Sonic Rivals), notaced in Sonic 06 he doesn't always look peaple straight in the eye and his personality profile also stated that he takes anger loudly and can't tell a single lie. Also in the IDW comics there are also parts where Silver panics as soon things go differendly as expected. And he is of course known for repeating the same stuff all over. At least it explinains why he says randomly "IT'S NO USE!" all over.
I am on the spectrum by myself and after i saw his personality profile i did recognise some things from myself in him. In my headcannon he is.
Seems like the problems can almost boil down to 2 issues: either you can get access to mental healthcare, but they waffle and bend over to bureaucracy and pedantry or you don't have nearly that easy access and have to rely on half measures at best. State vocational rehabilitation tried their best, but funding wise, the test they gave was only able to really solidify certain things ,but not get into details of comorbid ADHD with my diagnosed autism from when I was 12 years old (over 20 years now)
If everything goes well Im getting an official diagnosis at age 21 🥰
My journey was a lot more straightforward, though it speaks to the failings of the American Public Education System. I was in public school until I was 8, and was given reading awards when I was 7, despite the previous year being flagged as trailing behind in reading. Well, when I started a private school, my teachers found out that I was 3 whole grade levels in reading proficiency compared to my classmates (which at the time pretty much meant I was marked as illiterate). Once my parents were informed, they got me tested, and I was diagnosed with severe dyslexia and dysgraphia. They also considered dyscalculia, but considering the only language I could read and write in was math, that didn't stick. I was also noted to have ADHD symptoms.
Now, 4 years later, I wound up transferring to a bigger school and was hit with trying to learn French with no understanding or support. The year after, my English teacher noticed I had trouble reading aloud and would read far slower than my classmates. Neither language teacher believed me when I said I had dyslexia since it turns out that was never put on my transcript, and thus was not officially diagnosed according to my school. Also at the time, my parents were expressing concern because I stopped going to sports that I had been in since I was 5 and was once seen with tears in my eyes by a teacher (sports just got more competitive, which I am not, and I had to get up at like 5 every day to catch the bus to get to school). For me, their concern didn't feel right, but while researching, I noticed that a lot of my symptoms happened to match up with ADHD, the tentative diagnosis that I was never told about.
So over 5 years after my initial diagnosis, I got tested again to confirm that I had dyslexia and dysgraphia, as well as ADHD. Thankfully, my school was more supportive once I had an official diagnosis, but sadly, I was already used to struggling on my own (outside of the tutoring I got to manage my dyslexia symptoms), so I didn't get proper treatment for my ADHD for another 10 years.
Love the ace colors. ^^
I got diagnosed at a young age so I guess I'm blessed or something.
Me and my family are looking to get me diagnosed. Funny how they found out I was potentially autistic because my mom justified the "weird" (obivously autistic) mannerisms of my little brother, by using how I behaved when I was little.
thanks for sharing this!
honestly i think im autistic but i have no idea how to prove it
my mom says i certainly have some symptoms and may have asperger's or something like that, but.. i have no idea how to get a diagnosis
my therapist said i apparently "wasn't distant enough" to even consider autism
like.. i was talking to her and paying attention, so im oBvIoUsLy not autistic
and everyone stims so it's not a symptom
yet literally every online test i did was saying im probably autistic(i know online tests rarely prove anything but i took a LOT of them)
hell, yesterday i found out i was stepping on toes before the heels when i was little and it's like..... a very popular symptom
i just wanna know if im autistic or not hhhhhhh
yet i don't know where or who i can even ask that
my mom says there's a place somewhere but idk
I’m very lucky as a female that I was diagnosed with autism when I was 6, though I think it was bc I demonstrated some traits common in males with autism. My Mother had a lot going on with my fathers cancer getting worse, and my older preteen brother’s processing that by fighting with each other all the time, along with running a daycare, so I was allowed to do things how I wanted in my particular way and when family and friends pointed out that my behavior wasn’t normal she took me to get a diagnosis.
I was also given medication that just made everything worse, but luckily I wasn’t on it for very long. I was put into programs to help me understand social cues and I had to learn how to mask.
I'm a non-binary with ADD diagnostic since i was a young kid and now at age 26 i'm waiting for an autism diagnostic cause there are way too many unanswered questions i gotta have answers too.
I'm studing psycology and I know that it is pretty normal to postpone a diagnosis in preschool children when we are tring to diagnose mild Intellectual Disability, Specific learning disorder and ADHD but now we know how important it is to do some kind of preventive intervention for a better development. More over autism is one disorder that now a day we know a lot of clinical marker that allow us to do a diagnosis even at an early age and differentiate it form other disorder as, sorpries sorpries, ADHD.
So... yea... who ever try to diagnose him when he was a childe did a pretty awful job, even by past standard
We also need to remember that it was only recently that both US and international diagnostic criteria started to allow diagnosing ADHD and autism simultaneously in the same person (as unrealistic and asinine as such a limitation was).
Quote from Cambridge University, UK: "Notably, in the ICD-10, pervasive developmental disorders are classified as exclusionary for hyperkinetic disorders. This exclusion was eliminated in the DSM-5 for autism, with a comorbid diagnosis of ADHD allowed, and vice versa." (the exclusion was also eliminated in ICD-11)
@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 Yes, a lot of part of the diagnostic's manual are outdated, and a lot of law about disabilitis or special need are not in line with the real life necessity.
This is such a big problem and most people don't even realazi that. Ideally a manual should be renovete evry 10 years at the veary list, however the ICD-10 is from the 1994 and it is the most use for the diagnosis (at list in mu cuntry)! The most recent is the DSM-5 and it has been 10 years since its pubblication.
I don't even want to start to talk how bad the scholar sistem adapt to the special educational needs and the disabilities because there's too much to say
I am not diagnosed with autism but I have took the raads-r test and I got 213 (65 being the bare minimum) and my mom denies I have autism and I am not old enough to get a diagnosis myself so I’m just wondering what the fuck to do. but my mom still is trying to help me with my Neurodivergence or want she calls my autism but she still tries so I’m grateful for that but that doesn’t deny the fact that she is denying my autistic treats and tendencies
I have a diagnosis but I’m not sure which symptoms and behaviors are from what. My diagnosis list is kinda long 😅 Some of them have overlapping symptoms as well.
Sounds like your school was marginally better than mine. I wasn't even tested for anything, as my struggles were clearly caused by me being a migrant and struggling with the German language.
I was diagnosed with adhd, but my struggles were explained with me being too lazy to use my intellect to compensate. (I don't know if the school in Germany knew my diagnosis)
I relate a lot to this story. I was AMAB, so I technically got my diagnosis earlier in my life, and I am a trans demigirl, but otherwise mostly the same. I didn't even learn I had autism until 6th grade, and I didn't know what it was until a couple years ago. I've also got told I didn't have autism by the government because I was "smart" and went to a "smart person school", which I did horrible in because I never studied, which is ADHD. But ADHD and autism play off of each other which makes it harder to recognize too. I had a councilor who told me that I wasn't trans and pushed me off because "Autism". I knew I was trans, I just didn't realize why. Now I have a councilor that's a lot better, but it was pretty icky of them. It also didn't help that I like superheroes and liked videogames, which people assume male though I know that a lot of girls like that stuff. Now that I'm the president of a trans club, thinking back to people who underestimate me because I'm the autistic one are just idiotic.
I still need to get a proper updated diagnosis, but it's 1) not cheap and 2) not entirely accessible to my knowledge. And even if I had tried around the point it might've been relevant, the DSM V and a dual ADHD autism diagnosis (which is the provisional position I've taken, which is arguably supported in part by an early ADHD diagnosis that then became autism after a few more tests) had only really become a thing a little over 10 years ago.
Factor in trying to get healthcare coverage and the accessibility hurdles and I'm still flailing for the most part, especially in having coverage for 1 year that could've helped and then this year the coverage drying up because of insufferable pedantry in the records and whether I qualified for assistance in healthcare access, because there's such a thing as being too poor to even qualify in my state.
I'm glad that your country has removed reproductive capacity as a factor in transitioning. I'm in Canada, and we still need the psychological assessment before the start of any medical part of transitioning (hormones and surgery). I've done it twice (because I had to move before I got to the medical assessment and had to start over) and both times the person assessing me was really nice and just assessed if I understood and have fully considered the consequences of hormone therapy. One of them did ask if I ever thought about having children but accepted my answer that I'm not going to leave myself miserable for something that may not happen anyway.
I can't believe that being autistic would be a strike against you. I mean, I can believe it, but I'm angry about it. Being trans and autistic just means that not only have you navigated the way you experience the world differently than an allistic person, but your internal experience of yourself is different than what you've been told it should be.
4:45 i relate so much to this
I’ve just decided not to get diagnosed until I find a genie who can turn me a five year old boy
Haha! Finnish diagnosis is ass! My friend got denied of an autism diagnosis because "they would rather go to a party then a library". They are most definitely autistic, but they didn't get enough points on the very out of date sheet of paper 😋
And here's the thing, they only said they would go to the party if: Only friends were there, there was nice food, and it wasn't too loud. ofc they aren't going to a damn library, they have reading difficulties 😭
I got extremely extremely lucky, becouse my psychologist send me for an autism assesment, other wise i would live without knowing... I asume its becouse i got there at my lowest point (littaraly 0 froends or peers i can talk to) and due to my hobby (I like dollcustomizing, wich isnt exacly a hobby people view as aproperiete for 18 years old (wich is weird since its art and acually shouldn't be done by children)
I’m almost certain I have autism, as I’m when I last talked to my doctors about it they said, yeah you almost certainly have autism, however we are trying to keep diagnosis’s down so we can’t have you assessed sorry.
I rlly wanna get diagnosed ;-;
I have so many traits but my mom said I’ve been developing as normal according to my doctors :/
I feel like there’s something wrong and I need help but I’m super confused-
man i love trans people i wish all trans people a very good life
on the other note, its so weird that autism diagnosis can get you disqualified for transitioning. as if autistic people cant be autonomous persons who understand themselves and as if majority autistic people dont deal w being lgbtq+
and its fairly weird that you cant just ask a dr to give you hrt prescription, considering how little percent of people detransition (maybe partially bc transition is made so difficult).
sorry if i made no sense im ill and dont think very good
It's because of outdated "theory of mind" theories that basically claimed we couldn't understand minds, including our own and that we lacked agency. If you read autism research from about 1988-2012 they frequently made claims like this, that we were assumed to be passive in our own lives and unable to understand anyone, completely lacking in human connection and empathy. This view started falling out of favour in the 2010s as they actually started studying the lives of autistic adults and their families and found their assumptions incorrect.
Like, they literally thought that autistic people were incapable of believing in religion and spirituality, because we supposedly couldn't conceive of a higher intelligence than ourselves. Turns out that there's little to no difference in religious belief, if anything autistic people are more vulnerable to cults.
@@robokill387 oh. thank you for the information. for all autistics i wish happy life/transition/not getting into a cult
Has your diagnosis affected your transition? I’ve heard that it’s really hard for trans people with autism to get Gender Reassignment Surgery
I was sort of wondering if you could do an analysis on Dopey from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" and also the 2014 version of the character from "The 7D" as it has been theorized that he has autism or angelman syndrome or both. I would like to hear your opinion.
It’s so cool how your mum is autistic and non-binary.
I have the same thing plus dyslexia, it feels like god put all things into me
omg the "reading and writing the finnish language is hard" thing is SO true! im born here in Finland, but i grew up bilingual. i spoke finnish growing up but its always been hard asf. Nowadays i barely speak finnish, only in professional settings mostly.
Another thing i relate to so far is that at age 11 i was sent to a child neuropsychologist, they said something is wrong and told to do extra studies on me but my mom never took me, so i never got diagnosed. Until age 18 when i got ADHD diagnosis. They wont do an autism evaluation on me bc of substance abuse.
I have a question tho, so did you get your diagnosis during the psychological evaluation in transpoli (The gender clinic)? They didn't apparently throw you away bc you had autism, but im afraid of it still happening
what language do you normally speak?
@@amberwingthefairycat English, but i grew up speaking both Finnish and English. I'm much more fluent and comfortable with English
@@shiruki8974 i see
finnish looks cool to me but also looks really scary with all those noun cases
As someone with "issues" the video editing is making it too hard to "hear" what you say, as my mind it too busy with visual overload.
Question for people diagnosed with autism, are there any practical benefits to getting a diagnosis for autistic people in the US? I'm already diagnosed with ADHD, so that's given me access to necessary services during school, and I can sort of intuit that I'm autistic*. I'm wondering if there's anything to specifically gain from seeking a diagnosis if I'm already confident in that aspect of myself.
* and I'm sure of it, it's been years of thinking about it, even tried to get diagnosed when I was in 3rd grade but I wasn't diagnosed because of some bullshit reason (A classic "Your scores on this diagnostic test are high enough to yield a diagnosis, but I say it's not enough, so I won't give you one" maneuver by the specialist, age 8 or 10 me got totally outplayed)
If you are in the US and do not need an autism diagnosis for anything specific, be careful and research thoroughly. The stigma around autism is strong in the US, and there is at least some anecdotal evidence that being autistic has weighed against parents in custody disputes and when child protection authorities were involved. I have read a couple of comments about life insurance having been denied, too.
All such cases that I have encountered in mainstream or social media were in the US, though I would not be surprised if similar things happen also elsewhere every now and then. Ableism is a pretty systemic problem everywhere.
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