I did consider that myself. We do work on a case by case basis, and I can agree that a first time offense should be dealt with as has been done thus far. Let us take a moment to discuss it, then I will update with what we decided.

Indeed I am in the US. In 2016, I went to the only person within 100 miles who could diagnose and she only did kids. She did not help. So last year I wanted to try again and she was still the only one we could find. I was on a wait list for a year.

This time she didn’t give me the RAADS test. She asked me a bunch of questions relating to adults. I still had to do the pattern recognition test but no numbers this time. I had to wait a month to get the results. My husband was there to help fill in the behavioral side, as I didn’t know until he told me that a lot of the stuff I do is related to autism.

In the middle of all this I discovered that the Easter Seals have the ability as well because someone my husband knows got hers through them.

Honestly it’s worth the stress and anxiety of the wait from second test to the results. I can now be confident that I am the way I am for a reason.

If you have more specific questions let me know!

Except for the fairy thing and not wanting kids we could have the same mom. Mine also didn’t believe it was real if she never had it. You’re not depressed you just have to choose to be happy. There is no way my mother did the best she could. Also fairly sure I got it from my dad, who got it from his mom.

I think you’re right. When I lost my last job, I had a panic attack going to an interview and completely lost it. I think my burnout triggered in that moment. I lost the mask completely then. And now here I am. Unless things change, I will probably never be able to work again.

I remember being 5 years old in my back yard wondering why I was different.

I always looked. I actually read books by a woman who worked with kids who have autism, and even wished it wasn’t just a boy thing because it sounded like me. Forgot about that until one day a few years ago I was looking at cnn.com and they had an article saying something like autism isn’t just for boys, it presents differently in girls. I read that article and cried. It all made sense.

Everything I’ve read since has just reaffirmed it, and my husband, having a normal brain and in the psychology field, took me step by step through the DSM criteria. I originally thought I had maybe 3 of the symptoms. As he went through it, he pointed out things I do that meet the criteria in every category but 2. So I can’t even trust myself to diagnose me since my brain works differently from the author.

I tried in 2016, before I met said husband. I got the dreaded social pragmatic language disorder for my trouble.

My husband and I have gone over the idea and I’m going to try again for a diagnosis. I went through autistic burnout after I was fired from yet another job and my husband has had to take care of me because I went from being a strong independent mother of two, to being unable to wear shoes because I strangle my feet with the laces. It’s been so hard to deal with this and I feel like I’m made of glass now after being steel for so long. There ARE supports for adults. Just as there are with all disabilities. Because this IS a disability. My husband works with people of all ages with various mental conditions, with autism being the most common, and naturally being an expert with it thanks to me.

So in October I will be going back to the only person within 100 miles who can diagnose me. All so if something happens to him, someone is taking care of me. Otherwise I would literally starve because I refuse to leave the house.

Also, I can trace every single bad thing that happened to me in life, and there was a lot, to an autistic trait. If I had known, or my mother had taken it seriously that I used to go scream and cry in a corner when frustrated instead of making it a somehow funny story, most of those things wouldn’t have happened.