I ask this because of the cost. I am willing to pay for an assessment in the lower end of the high cost range which assessments typical have. However, I want to know what it would do for me, if I already have enough evidence showing I’m autistic? I want a therapist who can help me with struggles relevant to being autistic. But I don’t know what an assessment would actually give me? I can see it potentially giving me access to a good therapist who specialises in autism. But can I do that without an assessment?
For those of you who are diagnosed, what has it done for you? Did it make any meaningful difference in your situation?
If a diagnosis can help improve your quality of life then yes it’s important.
This. I’ve always known, but never got diagnosed. After struggling through life, I thought I could get help. So I was tested and got a plethora of things I wasn’t expecting. Now I’m being treated for other things and the ASD diagnosis only confirms what I had always known about why things are different (i.e. I didn’t always know I had ASD, but I’ve always known that things are different). But my life is undoubtedly better now and had I grown up in a healthy environment, I may have known all these things much earlier and may not have needed to struggle for so long.