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[–]RestingWitchface 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It took me until I was 28 to get diagnosed with autism, and even then it was because I had the money to go private. One of the major reasons why it was missed was because medical professionals only ever looked at clusters of symptoms in isolation and not as part of a bigger picture. Then just gave up on me when their "treatments" didn't work. It's not hard to see how this approach could have disastrous consequences for an autistic child (diagnosed or not) who ends up in the gender identity clinic.

[–]Aquadog 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yup. I got diagnosed with BPD. Nobody thought it fit 100% and I questioned if I "lived up" to the symptoms. I didn't get diagnosed with autism until 27. I feel like a lot of grief could have been saved if I had just been diagnosed as a kid.

[–]RestingWitchface 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Same. Sometimes I get really angry thinking about it. When I got diagnosed my parents told me they'd thought about getting me assessed when I was a kid, but never bothered because it didn't seem bad enough. I spent over half my life with severe mental health problems and feeling extremely isolated and confused. Self-harmed and made a suicide attempt. My late teens and 20s were spent in abusive relationships. I wonder how different things would have been if I had just had this information about myself and any kind of support.