Knowing Yourself & Diagnosis

Diagnosis is a big topic, a label can be really scary…but what is downright terrifying is not knowing yourself, judging yourself for your capability or capacity, and worse, having others pass along their own conclusions of you to you. Diagnosis isn’t right for everyone, but it can be empowering and allow you to make decisions for yourself based on what you know and how you need things to be. Your decision related to diagnosis may also be based on age, severity of what is going on, beliefs about yourself, and emotions that arise when you think about the process, the results, and what will happen afterwards. All of these are important considerations.

Your symptoms, especially if you are seeking evaluation for autism, may vary depending on coping mechanisms and both camouflaging and masking already in place. Adults and adolescents can vary dramatically, especially due to the nuances of learned behavior and social performing. Because of this, adult assessments will carefully pay attention to your childhood history.

Regardless of history or symptoms, knowing yourself…really knowing you and who you are at the core of your being inclusive of how you move, why you make decisions the way you do, your behaviors in a wide variety of circumstances, your thoughts both about a situation and after an event has past, and defining features, traits, and personality characteristics matter. Knowing yourself allows you to edit, take what makes sense, and avoid latching on to judgments and labels from others that don’t align. Bottom line...sometimes part of that is a diagnosis, if you choose it to be.