Seeking Autism Diagnosis: Need Advice

You have two options. 1. Get a new doctor and end up telling the doctor everything the current one knows to get em up to speed and ask for the testing of the new doctor. 2. Advocate for yourself. Tell the doctor every single thing you experience that has to do with any form of autism spectrum disorder. Look into Asperger's Syndrome as well even though it got absorbed into ASD in the DSM, because it has distinct differences from standard autism that could impact diagnosis. Fill the doctor with every bit of information until they allow the testing. Eventually they will or they'll drop you as a client out of annoyance. This is really your best bet unless you want to start from square one again with a doctor.

Whats funny is that the term "high functioning" is what my doctor also said to my mom to which she relayed it to me. It might be a common term if that is the case.

I am also in the process of being professionally diagnosed, and with late diagnosis usually comes lots of doubt. Even medical professionals have trouble seeing past the stereotype of “nonverbal 4 year old boy who likes trains and will grow up to be a science genius”. I say do your own research on places that take your insurance and call around, that;s what I had to do. Self diagnosis is also 100% valid, in lots of cases, because you know yourself better than anyone. I would say that, if you;ve done your due diligence, it would be alright to self dx. If you feel you need a professional dx, I would be happy to give farther advice on how I found my testing center.

I am currently self diagnosed and my girlfriend who has autism and her mother both think I am autistic. My therapist as well would not follow thru sending me for an eval bc he said I was “high functioning” I mask around him a lot 😭

High functioning isn't even a term in ASD. That doc is a quack. It goes low support needs to high support needs. It took me a while to find a doc to diagnose me, don't loose hope