It's official

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I finally received my diagnostic report yesterday evening, confirming Autism level 1 and inattentive ADHD. Although it had been verbally confirmed previously, there's something different about getting it in black and white... It was a bit surreal and weirdly moving reading it back and seeing my developmental history and the other info I'd given reinterpreted through the perspective of the psych and articulated to build the case for a positive diagnosis. It was really validating.

It was not a cheap process, though I'm so glad that I have done it and have some concrete answers finally and am learning how to manage myself better (properly) as a result.

I want to say thank you to everyone here for helping me in this process, though you might not be aware that you have. I lurked a long time before joining, and reading about other's experiences of living undiagnosed, going through the process of getting diagnosed etc helped me to make the decision to follow it up and get some resolution. This place and you all are awesome.

YAY!! Congratulations!!

Getting it in writing is sooooo much better than getting a blastoma!

Congrats Comet zed. nice to have you amongst the Dx'ed ....( diagnosed) ...Sometimes nice to get the stuff behind you.

Congratulations. I'm sure you had a pretty decent sense of what the ultimate outcome would be, but it can help to see it in writing.

Congrats!

Good on you for seeing it through.

Also, I like your avatar, it's clever. Hope to see more of it.

Congratulations!

Thanks all, it really is a massive relief to get it over with. Next up is trying to get medicated for ADHD...

I found the ADHD assessment harder (meaning longer, more annoying) than ASD.
They really have to be accountable since they're administering meds.

Congratulations!

I'm Autistic, my bride has ADHD...so my congratulations is regarding the Autism diagnosis.

That's interesting. I suppose it's because of when I got my ADHD diagnosis, but it was basically just a tell the doc that I was having a pattern of attentional issues not related to intelligence and being handed a prescription for a starter dose. 15ish years ago it's not like there was any real evaluation tests that could be performed anyways and I wasn't in college at the time. The diagnosis was 95% on the basis of the ritalin working as it doesn't work for people that aren't ADDers.

Yeah I will have to go through another ADHD assessment with a psychiatrist to get meds... so that'll probably be a couple of months waiting just to see someone... And another $1k plus... And maybe more waiting if the current ADHD med shortage continues here...

But I'm glad I'm in a position to be able to do that at least. It's shocking how poorly ADHD treatment is managed. I could rant about that but it probably deserves it's own thread.

I'd be interested to contribute. I don't think very many ADHD meds are made specifically for autistic brains. In my case, sure Vyvanse helped me focus a little bit, but because of my autism I went into warp-speed rumination or rabbit hole thinking when I focused, and ended up getting nothing done because I stim when I think. Either that, or my "inattentive" thoughts became "hyper" and my hyper thoughts became inattentive. My brain was definitely more present but I still lacked basic EF skills to know how to accomplish anything. No skills, no results.

I have a long thread explaining my ADHD testing if you're interested.
It's in the Psych Conditions forum, from 2020.

Close friend , with both Adhd&ASD had great luck using Strattera . Then his HMO took it off their formulary .
Too expensive to get it, and his doc which his HMO told him not to prescribe Strattera, ( Not on the Formulary anymore)
Tried the Mucinex product ... daytime cold med ... over the counter only .. seemed to help him .

A really sweet person on WP once told me about Mucinex. I was very busy at the time and then went on holiday so I didn't write back to her, but I really should. We need to discuss Castor Oil as well as optimal B12 levels.

Squee.

Yeah I've heard that the ASD + ADHD combo can complicate things, I'm willing to try anything that will help though. The psych who diagnosed me also has both, she said Vyvanse was working for her, there is a shortage of it here at the moment though due to export restrictions from the States... Just going to have to cross my fingers and hope for the best. I'll try to dig up that thread (if I remember lol).

I have made a whole heap of lifestyle changes already that are helping, leaving my job, exercising and eating better, cutting down on sugar and caffeine. Taking Ginko and magnesium seems to have helped a little too.