I have ADHD. That’s a certain. Officially diagnosed, on the process of finding medication and titration.

Although the doc I was meeting who was conducting the ADHD tests and a few followups, took account my traits and the answers to the ADHD questionnaire, which suggests AuDHD in their experience.

I read many AuDHD accounts and blogs online. Their story always lines up really well with mine.

I am of the opinion that the label does not matter in terms of practicality. A “what helps, helps” kind of motto. But I do feel a bit disingenuous when I say I am autistic to people since I didn’t get a second opinion or anything.

Any experiences and thoughts on this? Is there is any concrete benefits if I were to seek out an official Autism diagnosis aswell?

  • arcane potato (she/they)@vegantheoryclub.orgEnglish
    14·
    1 month ago

    I’m kind of in the same place. I’m on a waiting list for an assessment. I have two therapists (one individual, one couples) and they both operate under the assumption I am AuDHD. One is autistic herself so I take that as peer review lol.

    Here are my pros and cons:

    Pro:

    • Possible workplace accommodations. Work is very chill about needs but I would feel less guilt about asking for something someone else told me would help.
    • Help identifying what accommodations I could use
    • Giving me a “reason” for why I am the way I am - justification to make life changes to be more healthy and happy (vs being an absolute failure who deserves to work myself into an early grave).
    • I am in a leadership position in my industry - I feel like it’s my duty to let my freak flag fly, so to speak, to allow others to know they are not alone. Diagnosis would be validating and make me feel comfortable saying to a wider audience “I’m autistic”. Lets be real, the ND% in my industry is well above average (extremely niche engineering discipline) but it would be nice to see people be more open about it.

    Cons:

    • My boss’s boss is ableist as fuck although I suspect she’s ND as well. I don’t want to leave my job but I will not put up with any of her shit if she decides to comment on this. She’s already made ableist comments to me about people being ND without knowing I am ND.
    • I worry about the ability to immigrate in the future. I have no plans to, but I know that I wouldn’t be able to move to my current country if I had a diagnosis. (I don’t think it needs to go on my medical file as it’s done outside of the health care system but IDK).
    • I worry about the ability to travel to the states. I have no desire to do so currently (even though there are so many trains I want to ride and so many nature I want to see) but I do have aging family there. I was already nervous going last year with my ADHD meds but we drove and it didn’t come up, but I feel like border crossing is only going to get worse.