Transcript:
Hi everyone. I hope you’re having a wonderful week.
This week I wanted to talk about why anytime someone on Twitter comes out and says that they were just diagnosed autistic, I always, if I see that, make a point to either comment or retweet a congratulations, and I want to tell you why.
You know, some people might think this is kind of funny because generally when someone gets a medically diagnosis you would not publicly congratulate them (except for maybe pregnancy.) There’s not a lot of circumstances where you would congratulate someone for a “medical” diagnosis. But for me, when I was first diagnosed autistic – it’s been a few years back now – but as an adult in my late 20s, it was for me almost a bit like a birthday. It was the start, a beginning of a new journey, reviewing my past experiences, and even my life moving forward with new and fresh eyes.
It was like everyone else had the instruction manual for life handed to them and I was missing mine, and mine seemed to have different information and pages than everyone else’s. And someone finally gave me my manual. I finally have my handbook that just kind of explains everything about me and a lot of the questions that I’ve been answering. When you have a vehicle, like we have this RV, we have this giant book that you get out any time you need to know how to fix something or troubleshoot. And really for me, that autistic diagnosis was my diagnostic manual to troubleshoot myself.
The beginning of that self-discovery journey and re-learning who I am through that new lens was something that for me was very powerful. It can also be information that can be really shocking and shake someone up, and when they try to come out and try to share this, if they are met with negativity and people meet them and it’s different – it’s not happy and accepting – people are just beaten down, and it’s starting off in a bad mindset. It doesn’t have to be a bad thing; it can be very empowering depending on what you do with the information. That’s why, whenever I see someone who has recently been diagnosed, I always do say “Congratulations” because I mean it. I really do mean it. I hope that the diagnosis and the information is something that empowers them as they continue with their life moving forward with fresh eyes.
So anyway guys, thank you so much for watching. Let me know – give me thumbs up – if you like this video. I do put out new videos fairly regularly, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss them. Thank you, guys, so much. I’ll talk to you next time. Bye.
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I fully understand – being diagnosed was a huge moment for me, and my health problems of the last few months notwithstanding (cancer and various things associated with that such as internal bleeds and lung infections) my life has overall been much better since November 2006 when I was diagnosed than it was before.
Any time a person dealing with “symptoms” finally gets a diagnosis it is cause for celebration, especially when the diagnosed condition is not externally “obvious”.
My clients’ most frequent reaction is “I’m not crazy and it is not all in my head” said with a big sigh of relief. Congratulations are indeed appropriate!
Christa–I LITERALLY need “the manual.” So many times I’ve gone to therapists, and they’ll tell me to do XYZ, and I’ve felt like, no, you don’t understand. I need to go back to age 2 and learn all those skills I need to know BEFORE I can do XYZ. Especially with ADHD thrown into the mix. Who do you go to for help? Where do you find an OT who helps adults? I feel like I want to re-do my life with special ed, kind of like that silly Adam Sandler movie, Billy Madison.
My son is almost five and newly diagnosed…or he’s now on the Autistic radar, and in the process of getting everything sorted. But, I recognize the behaviors. To me it’s super obvious, and when it finally occurred to me that he’s Autistic, it felt like a bit of a celebration. I’m neurodivergent myself, but in a drastically different way. The amazing things I’m able to do are because of the way my brain is different. I truly believe that different is what changes…even revolutionizes the world. My son is definitely different, and all of these traits/behaviors he has that scream Autism are simply marvelous…most of the time. I don’t know what he will be up to in life, and I’m sure there will be hard parts for him…pertaining or separate from his Autism. But, I think of the way he touches me an others…the way he interacts with the world, and I know his Autism is a pretty huge piece of it. So, I can’t help but be a little excited about his differences.