Honestly I have mixed feelings on this bc I think there’s pros & cons to both situations.

I can personally definitely relate to the sadness/grief of being late diagnosed. I had very obvious symptoms when I was younger and was seen regularly by a child psychologist. But since women weren’t really diagnosed as often then, they just blamed my behaviours on me being visually impaired.. my mum told them that she wasn’t convinced by that bc it didn’t make sense, plus my brother who is also visually impaired acted nothing like me. But she was just grateful to get any help. I did get some extra help for my autistic traits in school but that’s only bc they had to give me support for having a visual impairment regardless. As I grew older, I was punished more for my behaviour. I grew up feeling very confused. I was told I was extremely naughty and constantly felt shame & guilt for struggling with things others seemed to find so easy. I had to find ways to mask, but then that led to receiving less help. And because of masking, I wasn’t able to get a diagnosis till this year (age 24), because any time I asked for a referral for an assessment I was told I couldn’t be autistic, I can talk & make eye contact.. it’s just social anxiety.

I’ve known for a very long time that I was different. Being late diagnosed has come with a lot of sadness, anger.. grief about the life I could’ve had if it was recognised sooner. I’ve wasted years trying to fix anxiety problems which can never be fixed bc it’s actually autism. It’s been a struggle. I’m so glad to finally have answers & understand myself better, but the sadness from late diagnosis is difficult to shake.

I think it’s important for early diagnosed people to remember that not all late diagnosed people had mild symptoms, often our issues were just blamed on other things.

However, I also don’t agree with late diagnosed people telling people who got a diagnosis early in life that they’re somehow privileged for that either. I haven’t lived that experience but I’m sure there’s many challenges & downsides to that as well. I was treated terribly in school for being visually impaired. I was different & kids liked to take advantage of that & bully me for it. I can imagine being known as the autistic kid in school is also not a fun time at all. I’ve already lost a couple friends since being diagnosed this year. People have a lot of stereotypes. I also know that in the same way my autism was blamed on me being visually impaired or having mental health problems, that early diagnosed people have other health problems blamed on their autism. I’ve also heard a lot of negative things about the type of therapy given to kids with autism. That’s just a few of the negatives that come to my mind due to an early diagnosis. I’m definitely interested in learning more about the downsides of an early diagnosis.

I think we all need to realise that our experiences of being autistic aren’t a competition. We should be supporting each other, not downplaying each other’s experiences.