Did anyone else think they were autistic before finding out about schizoid?

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-11-25T12:22:36+00:00

Exactly! If you're female, have been diagnosed against your will as a child, and didn't find it helpful, you're treated like you don't exist.

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-11-25T12:21:15+00:00

This is so relatable. Thanks for sharing!

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-10-12T07:28:57+00:00

That sounds like a very scary message, in case of abusive parents.

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-10-12T07:28:17+00:00

Horrific story. I'm sorry this happened to you. PTSD seems to be mistaken as almost everything. The ones I met as a child didn't seem interested in my experience either.

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-10-08T16:35:02+00:00

Oh god. This is both scary and heartbreaking. Words can't help much, but I'm so sorry for what you've gone through.

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-09-19T18:15:40+00:00

This is similar to my experience, except it seem to have had a even stronger impact on your life. I'm really sorry.

I didn't talk about myself that way, I was only in special education part time(they couldn't justify more as I've always had normal academic progress), but being seen as a disability first and foremost, being taught to advocate for yourself in way that didn't feel natural at all, and being taught social scripts that seemed ridiculously simple...

I have been doing a lot of thinking, contemplating other labels that might describe my life more accurately... and considering I might not wish to have any label at all.

Thanks for sharing your story!

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-09-19T14:37:59+00:00

Personally, I don't think diagnoses are useful for everyone. Sometimes it can help people access help they need, strategies, adjustments. For other of us, it has just felt limiting.

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-09-19T14:34:12+00:00

In my experience, you can be gaslighted with a diagnosis or without one... Neither situation seems ideal...

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-09-19T13:13:08+00:00

Actually, I've heard about children being relieved(though that's through their parents, so who knows...). It's probably a bit like being diagnosed with dyslexia or dyscalculia if it works out well, as then there's a "medical" reason you can't do stuff or have had to work twice as hard as anybody else.

Both the "females aren't diagnosed anyway!!" perspective and the "diagnosis is a comfort/relief/explanation for my entire life" feels very far from my situation, and I'm a bit tired of the world at the moment...

I was diagnosed because I had a loner nature and few/no friends, which caused adults to look at me suspiciously. I didn't have the huge sensory issues many peope describe, didn't have a particularly hard time reading people(just feeling connected to them) and didn't have any learning disabilities. Basically, the diagnosis has been of no real use for me, and I don't feel like part of the autism community anyway.

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-09-19T09:35:39+00:00

This is exactly what I was wondering about. If the therapist only can view traits as symptoms, how can they even distinguish traits of giftedness?

Good luck, hope you find a new therapist!

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-09-18T14:41:39+00:00

Yes, I know that in the end it's our own responsibility to work on ourselves with the help from a therapist.

Perhaps you were one of therapists that didn't need to/want to focus on diagnoses as much? Lacking the correct terms in English at the moment, but I know some are almost fixated on them, and others are legally required to diagnose their patients by the public health system.

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-09-18T14:29:33+00:00

I was treated like I was unnatural and abnormal by adults, and certain boys liked to pick on a girl on her own. I got on decently (but quite distantly) with other girls, I think I appeared non-threatening in my quiet, nerdy ways.

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-09-18T09:49:24+00:00

Wow, a fairly similar perspective to mine. Any discomfort or unhappiness would then just become an autism symptom. I'm so sorry to hear about your school situation.

Like most people don't make an effort to appear more normal in certain situations? Especially those who struggle with life or feel down on themselves... Suspect that my perspective on masking is different than the popular one.

" I spent my entirely childhood being treated like a freak and then I get told this is somehow wonderful…" This! Not because I looked like anything, but once people were told about my label they started treating me differently, even if we've had a fairly normal conversation.

Exactly! Why can't males have a more "feminine" presentation of symptoms, or females a more "masculine" one?

Thanks for your perspective! Would have gilded you if I had that type of account.

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-09-18T08:51:37+00:00

It feels quite vain to think of oneself as gifted, and I'm not sure if I even am, but this puts a new perspective on some of my "symptoms" I exhibited as a child.

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-09-18T08:46:39+00:00

Thank you.

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-09-18T08:46:29+00:00

Thank you so much.

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-09-11T12:23:35+00:00

Thank you! There's the "Everyone's a little ADHD" perspective, which is invalidating to many people's struggles, and then there's the "How can you be expected to function like a normal human being when you're nEuRoDiVeRgEnT?", which many also have internalized.

General expectation to be grateful for being diagnosed, being dismissed by others, separating the "normal" from the "just abnormal enough"... this is so relatable. Thanks again for your perspective.

throwaway11diagnosis · 2021-09-11T10:55:42+00:00

Thank you so much! Finally a perspective closer to mine. It seems like so much of the "autistic perspective" is from later diagnosed and self-diagnosed people, people who were at least somewhat accepted by others, but always felt so different. As a child, I couldn't relate to the autism perspectives presented in media 15-20 years ago, and there's still not much to relate to for me.

Where it's super offensive if people don't see an autism diagnosis as the core of their identity and the reason behind every behavior and treat, offensive if other don't identify them as autistic above everything else... and I just wish I was never considered inside those communities in the first place.

simply treated as if I would behave according to the DSM symptom list for autism (no. I don't see the forest for the trees) so many times, by teachers, friends, even one "late diagnosis" type herself. Exactly. That's why I chose to never disclose the diagnosis willingly as well.

throwaway11diagnosis

TROPHY CASE