13 Results in Diagnosis

A reminder of why my autism diagnosis is so important

Because I live a very solitary and quiet life, a life where there is very limited social interaction and where I work from home, I often forget that I have autism. Well, it's maybe not that I 'forget', but more accurately that I'm not reminded of my autism so much. I recently had to attend a large meeting (50 people) as part of a course I have joined. This is the first time I have been around people in a large group setting in around 10 years, ever since university. During that meeting, I was reminded that I am 'different'. I sometimes like to think that I'm not, but this meeting made it clear that I am. It was a highly unstructured meeting, with no definite end time, and no clear instructions as to what we would be doing. We found out during the meeting that the instructor would be selecting random attendees throughout the meeting to interact. This terrified me to the point I had a racing heart and tears in my eyes. I just wanted to leave. I was brave and I stayed. I just listened and hoped I would not be asked to speak. Luckily I was not asked to speak, and I'm not sure what would have happened had I been asked to speak, because I don't think I would have been able to.

Am I just an introvert rather than autistic?

I have always been a very quiet person and I am happiest when I am on my own. These are key aspects of introversion, which is feeling energised when on your own, (as opposed to extroversion, which is feeling energised when you are with others). Whenever I am spending time with someone, I can feel my social energy declining, and I am always relieved to be on my own again. Not because I didn't enjoy my time with the person, but because socialising doesn't energise me. Introversion explains a lot about me. Learning about introversion has been really helpful. In fact, before I knew I had Asperger's Syndrome, I just thought that the reason I was so different to others was because I was more introverted than them. However, I have still always felt extremely 'different' to other (neurotypical) introverts - and this is because I am autistic. I created a film to explain the differences between autistic introverts and neurotypical introverts. I hope you enjoy it!

Are autistic people more likely to have gender dysphoria?

Gender dysphoria (GD) is the condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because their biological sex does not match with their gender identity. A person born female may identify as a male and a person born male may identify as a female. There is some thinking that there is a link between ASD and GD. However, there is very little evidence and results are unclear. I have some thoughts on why there may be such a link:

Was it such a bad thing to be diagnosed as an adult?

I often feel bombarded by people who praise early diagnosis of autism. There are lots of benefits of receiving a diagnosis as a young child, for example being entitled to receive support at school. However, there are also some benefits of not getting diagnosed until adulthood. I think that I am a better person in many ways because I wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome until I was in my twenties. The period of time in which a person is diagnosed, for example 2019 versus 1999, would also affect how useful a diagnosis was. For many older adults, having a diagnosis as a child would probably not have helped them much at all, just because of the period of time and the widespread lack of understanding of autism.

What does “different not less” mean?

There is a phrase that goes around the internet that says, “Autistic people are different, not less.” I never understood what this phrase meant until I stopped and thought about it. There is actually quite a lot of deep insight behind this phrase that many people (including me!) do or did not understand. What is… Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today This article and our podcasts are available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue t…

Why have I become more introverted?

I quite often read that people feel they become more introverted as they get older. I was wondering how this was relevant to autistic people. Let me investigate...

When are expectations of people damaging?

One of the greatest challenges I experience with my relationships is the other person not adapting the way they interact or work with me despite me telling them that I have ASD. It's incredibly frustrating and disheartening having to deal with people who aren't flexible, but it happens to me so frequently that I am used to it.

5 unfounded things people say about autism and how to respond

It seems very common that, when an autistic person tells someone else that they are autistic, the other - neurotypical - person is likely to say one or some of the comments listed below. In this article, I'm going to look at why a neurotypical person might say these things and how I personally might respond to them in order to achieve the 'best' outcome.

Does ASD get worse or better as you get older?

Let's look at some of the things that may affect whether 'a person's ASD gets worse or better in adulthood.' When we talk about 'a person's ASD' we can think about: negative consequences of ASD - depression, anxiety, etc. actual signs and symptoms / autistic traits

Changing relationships pre- and post-diagnosis

An awkward scenario I find myself in is when I come in contact with someone who knew me before my diagnosis. Last year I met up with an old classmate, who I had not been in touch with since university. When discussing what we'd been up to, I mentioned the curly hair project, and of course this led to further questions... eventually with me disclosing that I'd been diagnosed as autistic some time after the end of my degree. The young man's response was something like "Oh... ok."