I’m in kind of a weird situation. I’m past my 40’s, and a close younger relative of mine got diagnosed with ADHD and I was talking with their psych and she said “uh it’s pretty clear you have this too., and you’ve been masking.”
So I was already seeing a psychiatrist, for anxiety, paying out of pocket because I didn’t want people in my profession or the health insurance company to know.
I told my own psych about the ADHD idea and she started prescribing stimulant meds to see if it helps.
It’s been amazing. My anxiety has practically melted away and just everything has gotten better for me.
Should I get diagnosed officially now?
On one hand I like the privacy.
On the other hand, my current psychiatrist might retire soon, and also if I have to change jobs, I think I’m required to list any pre-existing conditions.
I’d really like to hear other people’s experiences either way.
Does an Autism diagnosis have an impact on emigration?
Yes, but mostly because it’s a spectrum disorder and there are concerns about how much care a person will need and thus how much of a burden they will be to a healthcare system. I think it depends on the country you’re emigrating to, of course, but a country with a really good public health system is not going to want ro support someone with a very expensive disease. But for someone like me who doesn’t need care, it isn’t an issue, but because of misunderstanding of what Autism is and the poor classifications of “levels” or “severity”, there’s concern that it could be an issue. At the very least it might require extra documentation and thus lots of extra time to process.