An authentic diagnosis
Are there really 194,000 older people who need an autism diagnosis to finally be their true selves?
“It’s never too late for people to live in a more authentic way…they may still have decades to live”.
Quote from a Guardian article about seeking an autism diagnosis for older adults, spoken by a clinical psychologist.
My question. When did a diagnosis like autism start to represent an authentic truth about people? When did a list of behaviours in a psychiatric manual, decided by committee, become seen as a window into people’s real and hidden selves, while the way that they actually live in the world is reduced to masking?
When I did my PhD with autistic children in 2002, there was no talk of their diagnosis meaning they could live more authentically. When did everyone decide that this codified professional opinion represented an inner essential truth about people that they would not acquire through years of living?
When did psychiatry become necessary for authenticity?
(Here’s Dani Drinkwater and I reflecting on the above mentioned Guardian article).
Besides the «authenticity» question. Since the focus is on older people; for many of these symptoms may well be early or emerging dementia of several kinds, - if it is not a lifelong pattern. However, the typical autistic experiences and views of the social and conceptual world is truely different from the majority. Realizing this with acceptance and adjustment rather than shame and guilt can be helpful for them as well as us.
Getting an autism (and ADHD) diagnosis at 39 was life changing. So much made sense for me - why things were so hard, why I was misunderstood over and over again, why I misunderstood others all the time (I take everything very literally and have a hard time understanding joking tones) - and it was a true relief.
I went for a diagnosis after my kids all started struggling with mental health around puberty. They all were neurodivergent in some way - ADHD, autism, OCD. And then the question was, well, this is genetic, which parent has what? And I was like ohhhhhh. Knowing earlier would have majorly impacted my life choices. But now I have answers for my kids and for myself.