Frustrated with the Autism diagnosis process

I’ve been told many times that I couldn’t be autistic because I’ve functioned in normal school and work and it makes all the pain I went/am going through to do that feel so much worse

I relied on well researched self/familial diagnoses for this stuff 😥 I think I'm both ADHD and autistic, actually

I had a similar experience. All of the testing I took blatantly indicated I was autistic and yet the psychiatrist said that I must have social phobia (ignoring both my and my mother's accounts that I can be very socially obtrusive) because I performed decently in school and "acted pretty normal" as a child. Which shocked me given all the "quirks" my mother had mentioned during the discussion about my youth like obvious scripting during play, strict rule setting/abiding, clear special interests, and severe texture aversions. She completely invalidated my experiences and assigned a diagnosis that made no sense just to avoid the label of autism. Went to both my therapist and GP about it and was assured that the social phobia diagnosis was completely unfounded and my test results were very clearly indicating ASD. Definitely find another psychiatrist if you are able.

❤️

Omg I was evaluated for autism when I was 12 or 13 and the mfs said that I have slow processing, traits of ADHD caused by anxiety, and severe social anxiety and depression, but not autism or ADHD. Like 🤨🤨🤨

When I was first coming around to the idea of being autistic, I told my therapist about wanting to look into getting evaluated. She immediately shut me down, saying I was nothing like her actually autistic clients. That I made good eye contact and I didn't have (I swear to god she said this) "dead eyes." I spent the rest of the appointment pushing back against her views and that was the last time I ever communicated with her. After I got evaluated and diagnosed, I left her a voicemail saying I was Autistic and I was glad I didn't listen to her

Ugh I’m sorry. I’m glad you found someone now. My psychiatrist said there was no way I had autism and questioned my diagnosis because “autistic people don’t want to make friends” since I was talking about friends during my appointment. My jaw almost dropped

I had a formal eval, too, but it was super general for every psych disorder in the book. Not ASD specific, even though that was what I requested. I was told the same thing -- no ASD because I had marginally good eye contact ( I was super focused on their eyebrow or shoulder or ear, never their eyes) and I could hold a conversation (canned, rehearsed responses based on things I correctly predicted they'd ask). I'm currently waiting on an appointment for a second opinion with a different doc.

I've been told by many that I am not autistic because I am affectionate. I wasn't diagnosed until 15 because of it. I really wish that atypical autism and atypical signs were more recognized and accepted. I can't imagine how many it could help.