i remember very little about my childhood but this meme tickled some memory in my brain that i cannot place. i know my parents took me to a bunch of evaluaters and considered "special" schools for me bacause i was a very weird kid but today my mother tells me i was never diagnosed for anything.

the problem is i don't 100% trust her to be telling the truth for seveal reasons, and though i know you shouldn't self diagnose, i am pretty sure i am autistic.

is there a way i could get access to my childhood psychological/neurological evaluations ? (i am an adult now)

even if they werent conclusive i would really like to see them.

the problem is i don't actually remember any of them and i don't know when, if, and for what i was tested...

Hello everyone, I'm 28 NB asexual and possibly on the spectrum. My official diagnosis is BPD because my therapist keeps on saying I'm not autistic. But the point is that he said I'm not autistic because:

- I have a bachelor's degree

- I have sex sometimes with my bf to please him

- I don't have a mental deficit

Basically he's full of stereotypes and I need to get properly assessed. what do you think?

I'm litteraly distraught right now. I've been sobbing for the past half an hour (I don't even know if I'm allowed to use the term meltdown for this anymore).

I was just told that I'm not autistic and I genuinely don't understand. Everyone in my life has told me that I am (literally coming from other autistic people themselves) but yet I don't? How can they determine whether or not I have autism from a 45 minute session over a call where I could barely talk due to my stress over being on said call.

I apparently don't check 3/4 of the childhood boxes but my mum literally couldn't remember what I was like as a young child so how can they base it off of that?

I feel so miserable right now. I don't know whats wrong with me. I struggle so bad with daily life and needed this diagnosis to get the help I need. I feel like a fraud for even thinking I had it.

What do I do now? Do I re-apply? Is that even possible? Do I have to wait another year for it? Do I give up and accept that I'll never know whats wrong with me? I don't know what to do. I feel so awful someone please help.

I got fed up today with this feeling of “I didn’t used to be like this” and I did some research. I had always brushed the term autistic burnout aside. I didn’t realize how different it is from what NT’s would call burnout. I never would have imagined.

‘An extended period of stress and overwhelm accumulating without any recovery, and you hit a point where you start to lose your skills and abilities to function.’

Oh god…

‘A late diagnosis can worsen autistic burnout’

I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to react to this information. And all the recommendations for treatment. Special therapies, EMDR, IFS.. I have to figure out if this is really autistic burnout, and then do something about it, right? Otherwise it’ll just keep getting worse? I’ve already felt emotionally depleted for weeks. Probably months, actually.

I can’t let this go on.

Hi everyone, I hope you’re doing well.

I’m a 29F , and I was diagnosed with Autism at 27 and a half years old. I also have other difficulties like ADHD, internalized borderline traits, underlying anxiety, and similar issues ….

The thing is, I’ve always lived inside my own imagination and inner world. I never really understood social cues or how to position myself socially, whether at school, in professional settings, or in personal relationships. Honestly, from childhood until the age of 27, I was completely lost socially and behaviorally.

When I say I did reckless things, I really mean it. For example, at 27 and a half, I was contacted by a cosmetic surgery clinic. I didn’t do proper research, didn’t think things through, and just said yes immediately. I struggle deeply with understanding boundaries, positioning, and decision-making in relationships and life situations in general.

After the surgery, I completely collapsed mentally because I realized I hadn’t fully understood what I was doing or why I was doing it. I ended up hospitalized for several months, and that’s when I finally received my diagnosis.

From 27 and a half to around 28 and a half, I dedicated myself almost entirely to therapy. I spent about a year working on myself, understanding my condition, and trying to heal.

By the time I turned 28 and a half, I was feeling relatively stable. Then in March 2026, I started applying for jobs, and in April 2026, I started working.

During therapy, my psychologist constantly encouraged me to “remove the mask” and stop masking my autism. Since I genuinely struggle to know what I’m supposed to do socially, I followed that advice exactly.

And honestly… I deeply regret removing the mask in a professional environment.

I now feel completely disorganized and socially exposed. At work, everyone quickly realized that I was “different.” People make jokes about me because I’m too naive, and I constantly hear comments like “you’re weird.”

So my advice to other autistic people is this: be careful about unmasking in professional environments. With close friends or trusted people, maybe yes. But work environments can be extremely harsh and unforgiving.

And the worst part is that even after removing the mask, social interactions are still extremely exhausting for me.

Edit. Wow so many comments. I will slowly make my way through them. Appreciate everyone taking time out of their day to hopefully support my lush kiddo! It may take me some time to get through. Please know I am not deliberately ignoring anyone's effort

My nearly 13yo AuDHD kiddo was seen by an Ed psych to try and support her back into school. She was taken through WISC-V & WIAT-I IQ tests (I think, I don't know much about this sort of thing) and scored 88, low average.

She scored this too. Word Reading 95 37 Average 11 years 4 months

Spelling 70 2 Very Low 7 years 8 months

Numeracy 67 1 Extremely Low 7 years 4 month

She has a tutor for maths because she is WAY above my GCSE ability. She can do complex algebra/equations which just don't work in my brain. When she did a mock GCSE age 10, she got the equivalent of a C.

She is doing GCSE English work with another tutor.

These results was discussed in front of her, and now she is feeling all sorts, as am I. Her spelling is poor, but her vocabulary is immense.

How can someone so obviously "bright", have such a low IQ?

I know that it's only testing certain things and doesn't account for others, I'm just too close to it to be able to accurately explain this to her. She says she feels like a fraud and feels really upset that people now believe things about her which she doesn't feel are accurate.

Meh!

I was 15! A doctor told my parents and we were all shell shocked. I then had my formal diagnosis at the age of 19 💖

Edit! I didn’t except this post to blow up but just to let you know I used the term “realised” instead of “diagnosed” so that people who haven’t had their diagnosis can respond to 🥰

Is it only me, or do you also find it difficult to walk normaly on that floor? I usually go diagonaly, and sometimes only step on one color.

Honestly, I don't understand why she said I was debating when I didn't feel like I was.

She said, I couldn't have autism because I could have a two-way conversation. So, I asked her what she thought autistic people are and what two-way conversation mean (cause I have no clue how I couldn't be autistic for answering her questions, which she said is what two-way conversation js)

She said that autistic people don't have empathy at all, and they live in their own world.

I said that some autistic people could have empathy, some even hyper empathy, and some could have no empathy.

She said are those people diagnosed? Who are these people?

I said many people on the internet have said their lived experiences.

I have no idea what caused things to be ticked off, but she accused me of debating an educated professional who spent years studying about this.

This month will be the last one I'll meet her probably. Though, I feel like I want to say something, idk how I could word it to her.

i dunno if its just a me thing but i CANNOT shower for the life of me standing up i have to be sitting

I went to party recently and just ended up hiding upstairs for the majority of it

i got the results of my autism assessment and it turns out i’m not autistic. she just kind of reinforced my already existing ADHD diagnosis and i am ok with that. but i want to say thank you to this community for helping me to learn more about myself (even if i’m not autistic)

edit: ok because i’ve gotten enough comments about it-yes i’m aware that autism can become more obvious as u get older but i just don’t think that’s my case. i feel like it could be attributed to other things. and she gave me other reasons besides it not being present in childhood that also disqualify me from having a diagnosis. i wasn’t sure one way or the other i really just got this assessment to finally have clarity. i would appreciate if people could stop telling me that the doctor might be wrong. you’re gonna make me spiral lol

What's something you thought was common among the human experience until you realized it was an autistic/neurodivergent trait?

I just wanna understand. Here in my country, these are very common for disabled/neurodivergent folks. I don't like to use them, but I'm very curious about people who use this kinda of stuff

Especially for those diagnosed as adults, was your “aha” moment? It could be one exact thing or a compilation of things.

She said that they are too different things but I told her that they have been merged a few years ago & she said she's going to see if that is true & tell me in my next session.

I think I saw some people with a similar problem & others were telling them that their therapists are probably using old terminology.

What do I do no? Can I call myself autistic or do I have to go to another therapist?

Edit: I also want to say that I'm 90% sure I have autism but can I call myself "officially diagnosed by a therapist"?

Hi everyone! My name is Foxy and I have MSN autism. I love the autism community but there are some trends/misconceptions/agendas from generally LSN folks that really upset me as someone with higher support needs

1. Support levels change daily. Nope. I am referring to LSN HSN level 2 etc. It is the average over a long period of time. Levels can change but it is consistent over a long period of time. My best best best day would being nonverbal, take public transport over the very familar route I memoriesed, nearly have a meltdown on my bike, get to my art specialist school, hang out with my friends, do art way slower and longer than other students, and then become near unresponsive frim exhaustion the rest of my day. And forcing myself to do that led to a very dangerous meltdown where I nearly died. Oh and mond you the only reason I can do a full school day is because I only have art classes. I'm not saying yall don't have struggles. I so sympathise with burnout. But if yall can manage a full time job or regular mainstream school its not the same thing.

2. Going non verbal. You can't go non verbal. It is permenant. The word would be verbal shutdown. Again its not the same thing. It hurts when you take one of my biggest struggles and trivialise it.

3. Autistic people do have empathy, its just double empathy. Autism is a spectrum. A lot of autistics do not feel empathy like me. Please whenever you see an autistic person talking about their experience please don't be like oh thats actually a stereotype.

4. Stop making fun of the good doctor meltdown scene. I've had similar meltdowns. I've been restrained and sedated. That is my life so kindly please stop. It is invalidating to hear

Therapist shows up to intake appointment late.

Says they have "some questions for me". Session is 30 minutes and I assume thete will be a handful or two of questions so I should probably try to keep answers under 30 seconds or 60 seconds tops.

Therapist proceeds to ask generic, open-ended questions like "Tell me about your parents/friends/relationship/self..." I try to give them a few significant snapshots in under a minute. The therapist then says they see what I mean about suspecting autism because they are surprised that when they tell me we don't have a lot of time that my answers are not more concise. "Not a judgement. Just an observation."

I told her no problem and that I am not offended but that this exchange is indeed indicative of other frustrating exchanges I have had with people before. I explained that I get this a lot and really dont understand why because I feel like I am operating from a logical hypothesis and that if I am not meeting expectations it is because for example in this situation:

1. They did not first manage expectations about how many questions there were or how long they expected me to take to answer them

2. The questions were not precise enough to extract precise answers for on the fly without preparation and in the time frame

3. I expect the asker (especially one that is a mental health professional and should by extension be a good communicator) to guide the process politely interrupting me if I am digressing and saying "okay, that's good. We will circle back to that." Or at least check their watch or update me that we have x amount of questions and y amount of time. Something...anything really.

She seemed a bit offended when I explained this to her in a polite tone. I think she thought I was being cheeky. And this lead me to think that perhaps the reason we make people feel uncomfortable is not because of a defecit in us, but rather that our presence makes the defecit in them more visible and so they reject us. Its like psycholigically protective for them to find fault with us. She doesn't want to take responsibility for the miscommunication and cannot fathom responding to criticism without taking offense.

Anyone else feel this way or have a similar experience? I'm just sort of aghast that people can really hold the other person so single-handedly responsible for the conversation and then claim its neurodivergent people who are oblivious. I mean we literally prepare for and review every conversation we ever have and presume co-accountability. How can it genuinely be us every time that then is the problem?

This one was really helpful to organize my brains 🧠..

For real now.

I make just enough eye contact, smile in the right situations and are very responsive apparently (I practice facial expressions starting 15+yo in the mirror, 33yo male here btw).

But you know what the great kicker here is? It can't be autism because I can understand people's intentions in 5 sentence short stories quickly. Dafuq, ever heard of learning stuff while growing older?

The weirdest part comes now.
So I discovered I was autistic 4 years ago and tried to find a place to get an assessment (I'm German). My mom helped with this a lot, and then I finally got a chance. Now my brother and dad both also wanted an assessment because everything clicked with them too, but they went to a private psychologist so it could be done quicker.

They got the AuDHD diagnosis. Both. And the psychologist even said it's with absolutely no doubt for them.

^ My family is livid right now, the symptoms for autism and ADHD are way more apparent from the outside in me than in them both my dad and brother said.

This means I gotta get a paid assessment now, in Berlin. Just great.

Tl;Dr: I mask too well so I didn't get the diagnosis, but both my dad and brother have the diagnosis for AuDHD. Sucks.

Thanks for reading, I really needed to vent...

Send some good vibes please, share facts and stuff about your special interests too if you want.

Just curious to know what your first “eureka” moment was that pointed to autism and when about in your life this occurred.

My heart is beating terribly, I feel sick, I was diagnosed with autism to see if I have it, but my mother doesn't know about it yet and she denies quite aggressively that I have autism and I'm afraid of her reaction when she comes and reads this letter, I'm on the verge of tears right now.

I'm afraid she'll be angry with me, and she will be. I feel like I'm ready to die on the spot.

Just kill me now I knew that the school thinks that I have autism (I look like a typical person with Asperger's syndrome) but I didn't think that they would write about it directly my mother denies even though I'm 16

I can't handle it, I'm afraid of screaming.

Like the title says. I'm not sure how to go from here.

I'm a woman in my 40s, and I got diagnosed with ADHD last fall. So, like 4 months ago.

I also wanted to be assessed for autism because I identify with a lot of the symptoms. I did 5 or more tests online which all came back strong. I know they're not official but still maybe some indication. Everything I read or see, I relate more to AuDHD than ADHD.

I've relatively high iq if I can trust any of the tests I've taken. Usually comes out to 131.

I'm relatively successful. High salary leadership job etc. It's obvious that im pretty great at compensating, right?

They said I'm somewhere on the spectrum but not enough to get the diagnosis.

But in the examples they used to why I don't qualify, they used examples of adhd like being spontaneous sometimes.

Anyway, I'm just not sure how to go from here.

They're the professionals, not me, but I just feel like my experience isn't rly accounted for.

What to do?

I suspect I have autism. I asked my family doctor if she could refer me but she said it’d be $2000 dollars.

I’m curious how much you guys paid