Tag: late autism diagnosis
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Autistic Burnout or Depression? A Lifetime of Not Knowing
For years I couldn’t tell whether I was depressed or simply spent past what rest could reach. Here’s how I learnt to ask the difference.
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The Long Way to the Room — Getting Assessed for Autism and ADHD as an Adult, from the First Doubt to the Day After
What the adult autism and ADHD assessment is really like: how to find an assessor, what it costs in money, time and energy, how to prepare, and the day after.
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The Faults That Were Never Faults
My eldest would rub at a mistake until the page wore through. I had spent forty years calling the same thing in myself a flaw.
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The Weight I Cannot Put Down: Mothering from Inside the Same Neurotype
The diagnosis did not lift the guilt. It only changed its shape.
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The Silence Between Knowing and Writing: What Happened After My Late Autism Diagnosis
What happened after my late autism diagnosis: five months of silence, post-diagnosis depression, and the body-first way I processed grief before I could write again.
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I Didn’t Read Any Autism Books After My Diagnosis: What I Reached for Instead
After my late autism diagnosis, I didn’t reach for autism books. I returned to books from my palliative care career, about meaning and how to survive loss. The words hadn’t changed. I had.
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The Wrong Operating System: Being Gifted and Autistic Without Knowing It
What does it mean to be gifted and autistic, only finding out at 40? A personal essay on twice-exceptionality, late autism diagnosis, and the cost of masking.
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I Went In Expecting an ADHD Diagnosis. I Came Out With Autism: A Late Diagnosis Story
I booked an ADHD assessment. I came out with an autism diagnosis, and giftedness. The full story of my late neurodivergent assessment as an adult woman.
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The Demon Marks Were Always Mine: What K-Pop Demon Hunters Taught Me About Late Autism Diagnosis and Self-Acceptance
On receiving a late autism diagnosis at forty. The grief of finally understanding yourself, and what self-acceptance looks like after decades of not knowing.
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Why I Called It “Grow with Their Flow”: A Late-Diagnosed Autistic Mother’s Origin Story
How a blog name born from homeschooling burnout became a metaphor for late autism diagnosis, parenting neurodivergent children, and self-acceptance.