Welcome back. So much for me writing a blog post every week. So we jump from late February to mid-April and Autism Acceptance Month.

Back in February, I identified four problems that arose from the discovery that I was likely autistic:

‘proving’ that I was autistic, family acceptance, perception of total strangers and perception of work colleagues.

Proving that I am autistic

Is self-diagnosis any less valid than an official diagnosis? I was restocking some shelves in the branch of The Works where I was working when this discussion came up. My Assistant Manager had a son who was ‘really’ autistic in her words. She described him. She felt that because I did not display the same symptoms of being autistic as her son, then I could not be autistic. Now, the thing about autism is that it is a spectrum. This graphic from the CAMHS Professionals website tries to explain the perception vs actuality:

The point is that being on the autism spectrum is not a straight line. I am not ‘less autistic’ than my former colleague’s son. We are both autistic, but we have different ways that autism affects us. So, because the way that autism affects me, does not mean I am less autistic.

How does this link to self-diagnosis vs an ‘official’ diagnosis? There have been times when because of the doubts over the validity of self-diagnosis, that I have wondered was I truly autistic? H|owever, as the diagram indicates, the autistic spectrum comprises different facets of a personality and the different levels in each of those facets. That said, I think I will be relieved to receive an official diagnosis, if only because it will help address ‘problems’ #2 and #4.

Family Acceptance

Ironically, part of the process of official diagnosis as an adult is that the clinician needs to speak to family members in order to gather their recollections of me as a child, and whether I displayed missed signs of being autistic. Apparently my voracious reading is one some indication. Bear in mind that we are talking between 1970 and 1985, so we shall have to wait and see what comes of that.

Work Colleagues

This is the biggie. April is Autism Acceptance Month. Yet, it is still necessary for me to feel I can’t declare that I am on the autistic spectrum in order to find a well-paying job.