How Long Was It Before You Were Diagnosed?

[mangosoda]

I first realized I may be autistic at 11, but I didn't really identify as such until I was 12/13. I started seeking diagnosis at 14, and got diagnosed a month before turning 16!

 

[Neri]

How did all you people manage to go through childhood without anybody noticing any weird behaviour and getting social services involved that forced your parents to get you assessed for something? Being diagnosed in childhood makes me feel like I'm severe or low-functioning, when I never have been severe or low-functioning.

I was super quiet, tried to be invisable. Hid in libraries at lunch time. Parents are both autistic and too self-and-other (than me) focused to notice how much I was struggling, until my dad put me in a adolescent mental hospital (private) when I was 15. This was in the 80's and psych people seemed they had zero knowledge of what a lot of women look like, who are on the spectrum. Trauma and abuse from my mother (mostly), meant I shut down from very early and just self harmed, hardly ate, was depressed and wished I didn't exist.

 

[Neri]

1. How long did it take you from when you first discovered you could be on the spectrum to the point you asked to be assessed? (For me, two years).
2. How long did you then wait from the date you were accepted for assessment to the time you were assessed and diagnosed? (For me four and a half years).

(I realize many of you may not have been assessed).

6 years. I went to my gp early after doing my research and finding out in was highly genetic, which was the clincher for me. My Dad and second oldest son are very obviously autistic. Son is officially diagnosed but still wasn't when I figured out I am.
My gp said "Why would you want to spend all that money to find out something you already know?"
I didn't have a good answer at the time so I dropped it.
I went private, online, for my assessment. It wasn't the most bona fide one, as it was a cheaper one from a psychologist rather than a more expensive but water-tight one from a psychiatrist. Good enough for me though. It was very quick, from applying, getting a loan to pay for and getting the assessment.
Oh, I forgot to mention, that was late last year, when I was still 50. I'm 51 now.

 

[Cryptid]

I was in my mid-fifties when I received my first official diagnosis.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I think it was two years before I was diagnosed after the school psychologist had written on an assessment on me that I exhibited signs of being autistic but then never suggested that I get tested which could have helped me sooner as this assessment was for IEP and for tutoring. After I was diagnosed, I accepted it rather quickly as it explained a lot of the issues I was having.