Does it help to have an autism diagnosis

[Illclimbanymountain]

Apologies if I’ve posted this in the wrong section. I’m after some advice regarding my 25 year old son.

When he started at infant school his teacher (it was the first class she’d ever taught) asked us if we thought he might be autistic. Her reasoning was that he was extremely bright, at least two years ahead of where he should be academically speaking. He would also get fixated on things, ie trains and transport. Given that he was a little boy, this aspect didn’t worry us. When we queried with the teacher exactly what she meant, she backtracked and it was never mentioned again.

He levelled out throughout primary and high school and left school with an average number of GCSEs. He did really well at college and went on to uni, leaving after six months because he felt he hadn’t settled and was finding it very difficult academically. He said he didn’t understand what was being asked of him. He would think he’d understood the point of an assignment then score poorly.

He’s being working since and is doing well. He lives with his partner and is happy with him. He came round last night and told us that he thinks he may be autistic and wants to know, just to have the knowledge.

Our concern is how to best support him through this. I don’t know whether we should be encouraging him or trying to dissuade him. I don’t really understand what he hopes to get out of it. He says he wouldn’t plan on sharing it with anyone if he was but in the next breath says he told his employer. His dad and I are concerned he’ll be treated differently and that it will harm his chances of getting jobs.

He doesn’t need adjustment as such at work but he says he gets stressed about little things. We’ve told him that work is not all sunshine and roses and that it’s normal to feel stress and have off days.

How can we support him. Would it help or hinder him to have a diagnosis and will be be treated differently if he has a label.

I’m well aware I need to do some work and educate myself in this area so please don’t rip me to shreds. Sorry for long post. I just want to best support my boy.

I think that he is showing great insight and a diagnosis would probably help him to understand himself better. Some of the problems that he would have had over the years may be explained by a diagnosis too. This will help him to realise that there is a reasons for his difficulties in certain areas. Without a diagnosis, people can tend to internalise these struggles and it can lead to poor mental health. If he understands himself better he can start to put in strategies to help and recognise what his triggers might be. I am grateful that my two children received their diagnosis when they were young. One was 10 and the other 15. The 15 year old suffered greatly from a later diagnosis by thinking she was just stupid, flawed, socially inept etc and it's been very detrimental to her mental health. Her diagnosis was a relief to her. There shouldn't be a stigma to telling people either. One day in the future workplaces will be forced to make adjustments and accommodate neuro diversity. This can only be a positive thing as far as I'm concerned.

I think diagnosis is important for understanding yourself. It isn’t a label. DS wouldn’t have to tell anyone he didn’t want.