• Lhianna@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Well, I live in central Europe. In the second largest city in my country. There are two places that diagnose adult females. Waiting list says it takes 3-6 years to even start the process. I’m 42 and I’m not going to waste more years on fighting my brain until they finally have the time to diagnose me. And the most important thing is even when they do diagnose me there won’t be any help that I don’t have to find myself. It will simply be a note in my medical file.

    I already know I’m neurodiverse. I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD last year and the neurologist who diagnosed me strongly suspected autism as well. She’s just not licensed to diagnose me officially.

    So I went to look for resources, for books to help me understand why I might be the way that I am. For communities who might understand my struggles.

    People in my life don’t treat me differently because I don’t demand accommodations. I might say that I need a short break to clear my mind, that I need some space or that I don’t really feel like talking but that’s it. I don’t demand they do anything differently, I simply learned more about myself and know how to react differently to things. And that’s what self diagnosis is about for me. Finding ways to make your life easier for yourself and not demanding others to accommodate you.

    There are certainly people out there who claim to be neurodivergent or to have this or that mental health issue and demand to be treated differently. That is a problem and I acknowledge that. Especially with the rise of TikTok videos etc. it’s getting worse. There is a difference between those people and people who are just looking for ways to understand themselves better, finding ways to help themselves and taking the responsibility for doing that on themselves.

    Criticizing the first group of people is one thing but telling the latter one their experiences are not valid is very hurtful and doesn’t help anyone.