Hello it's me. So I got diagnosed with autism as a kid, around 15 years old, but my parents didn't seem to like the diagnosis so I never got any treatment or anything. So I go about my adult life with the background assumption I have autism.

Flash forward to today, my employer changes healthcare plans and suddenly I have psychiatric care coverage for the first time ever as an adult. I've been dealing with some stuff so I book a few appointments with the assumption I have autism. We'll long story short, over a few sessions the doctors have me screened and determine it's very unlikely I'm autistic in a medical sesne, which was kinda shocking to me.

But they tell me stuff like autism diagnoses have become better since I was a kid, so that calms me down. They tell me it's far more likely I exhibit what's called schizoid personality disorder (SPD) , which often seems like autism on the surface. I guess it explains a lot.

Anyone have experience with this?

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[–] 16 points 5 days ago (1 child)

My official diagnosis is schizoaffective (after thinking on it for a few years, I really think psychotic bipolar would be a better way to describe it), although I know many schizoid people.

Personally, still think you should tell people you're autistic. Something psychs (I genuinely hate psychs, the pharmacists are usually more qualified) don't understand is that there's quite a bit of acceptance with more minor mental health diagnosis nowadays. I'm able to ask for reasonable accommodations without doctor's notes for autism and other issues usually. Now to be fair, the accommodations I ask for at work are pretty simple - if I'm on an early morning shift, call me a couple hours ahead of time to make sure I'm awake. Not getting tilted over me regularly being 5 minutes late because of time blindness. But the point is, it's a lot more socially acceptable to say it's autism or ADHD than anything else.

Now to be fair, I am usually the most competent employee at my job, and I'm also in food service so neurodivergence is quite common in back of house. I left fine dining and now I work at a pizza restaurant, I am extremely overqualified for my current position and it frequently shows.

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