I underwent a late diagnosis after researching the topic to the point I thought I had a good understanding of what defines autism. Well, that, and being told to „stop being so autistic” by so many people over the years, starting in childhood. Always brushed that off as a joke, haha.

Don’t beat yourself over not getting a formal diagnosis and here’s why. I got mine rather quickly, ADOS-2 people said it’s petty obvious but the results were supported by depressingly shallow descriptions of myself. Psychiatrist was surprised when he saw those results but we talked for a bit about why I thought I might have disabling qualities of the condition until he admitted that it’s surprising I’m seeking help this late. I have very mixed feelings about the whole process. It seemed to look at me very 2-dimensionally and that sufficiently clever person would be able to game it easily. Given that I consider myself capable of gaming it, I found it of little worth and ultimately I value my self-diagnosis more. I still distrust self diagnosed people regardless because of what’s happening currently.

Maybe a more distinct diagnosis will be possible in the future as we learn more about the conditions that constitute current ASD. I do recognise so many similarities among autistic people but there’s loads of differences too which have a major impact on life’s trajectory.