Crysalis99
Active Member
Hello everyone,
Where to begin!?! Hello, I am 36 years old and fairly certain I have self-diagnosed myself on the spectrum. I am from Ohio, US (I do love Cleveland). It has also been a very difficult and challenging ride to get to this moment for myself. So I just ask you bear with me here....
To start I am a social worker in juvenile corrections (it's extremely difficult to appropriately attempt to mask my own social awkwardness in a place like that). My specialty is juvenile sex offenders but deal with the gamut of mental health (including having to provide treatment to youth who do experience lower cognitive functioning and on the spectrum themselves). But aside from being a clinical social worker and being too blind to see my own potential diagnosis nearly my entire life, my story isn't about my career.
I have two kids, one daughter (age 7) and a son (4). I am currently going through a divorce but should be almost settled. I have custody of my two children due to the ex-wife's own unresolved trauma and mental health issues (personality disorder traits). My children were just recently assessed for IEP/Learning Disability. For the last two years, I believed my daughter was very much on the spectrum (and as I have explored my own journey into the possible dx, there are so, so, so many things about my kids and myself that just make sense now). My daughter's IQ was tested to be 132, a load of sensory issues, and some memory recall issues. She has been on a waitlist for an assessment at a local Hospital's Neurodevelopmental Center for Autism since March 2021. She is set to be assessed (via telehealth, ugh!!) on the 23rd of this month. My son was assessed for a Learning Disability and is a bit developmentally delayed in nearly every area but gross motor. I see similar traits at times that I notice from myself and daughter from my son, but I am not confident he is on the spectrum as it could be learned behavior from his sister since she was his primary form of socialization from birth to three. Will be getting him assessed as well just to cover my bases but I'm fearful itll take a year to get him assessed like his sister. However, there is no doubt in my mind, both kids are ADHD. And makes sense with the comorbidities. I am dealing with/just finding this out now because...well there is a reason I have custody.
When my daughters therapist and teacher suggested that our daughter could be on the spectrum, I fought it hard at first. So did the Ex-wife. But I eventually came around. Upon self-analyzing why I refused to even entertain the idea about my daughter first, I realized it was because I needed to look in the mirror and it was upon doing so put all of the weird and random puzzle pieces in my life into perspective. I struggle with eye-contact which is an extreme challenge being a social worker. For probably 15 years now, I have dealt with it by digging my toes into the soles of my shoe (anyone else develop that coping skill?!? It would be nice to cut back on my Dr. Scholls spending haha
). Just one example but even with my own background and training I was clueless and mis-self-diagnosed plain old anxiety for years and years (though I totally still have anxiety!).
While I have never quite felt like I wasn't human, I have always felt I was a different breed of human others with my more intense emotions, social faux pau's, and everything else that is included. Where as when my daughter was three, I even remember her making statements about not wanting to play with the 'humans' when I would pick her up from Daycare.
So that is my story in a nut-shell. The last ten years have been a roller coaster ride for myself because of the past marriage but if I take-away nothing else from everything I have gone through, its I now know I am not alone and I am not a total enigma.
But I do feel, now that I have been able to analyze it that I entered Social Work/Mental Health because I wanted to understand people better.
Hope everyone has a good day, and if you're in the US, go RAMS!
Where to begin!?! Hello, I am 36 years old and fairly certain I have self-diagnosed myself on the spectrum. I am from Ohio, US (I do love Cleveland). It has also been a very difficult and challenging ride to get to this moment for myself. So I just ask you bear with me here....
To start I am a social worker in juvenile corrections (it's extremely difficult to appropriately attempt to mask my own social awkwardness in a place like that). My specialty is juvenile sex offenders but deal with the gamut of mental health (including having to provide treatment to youth who do experience lower cognitive functioning and on the spectrum themselves). But aside from being a clinical social worker and being too blind to see my own potential diagnosis nearly my entire life, my story isn't about my career.
I have two kids, one daughter (age 7) and a son (4). I am currently going through a divorce but should be almost settled. I have custody of my two children due to the ex-wife's own unresolved trauma and mental health issues (personality disorder traits). My children were just recently assessed for IEP/Learning Disability. For the last two years, I believed my daughter was very much on the spectrum (and as I have explored my own journey into the possible dx, there are so, so, so many things about my kids and myself that just make sense now). My daughter's IQ was tested to be 132, a load of sensory issues, and some memory recall issues. She has been on a waitlist for an assessment at a local Hospital's Neurodevelopmental Center for Autism since March 2021. She is set to be assessed (via telehealth, ugh!!) on the 23rd of this month. My son was assessed for a Learning Disability and is a bit developmentally delayed in nearly every area but gross motor. I see similar traits at times that I notice from myself and daughter from my son, but I am not confident he is on the spectrum as it could be learned behavior from his sister since she was his primary form of socialization from birth to three. Will be getting him assessed as well just to cover my bases but I'm fearful itll take a year to get him assessed like his sister. However, there is no doubt in my mind, both kids are ADHD. And makes sense with the comorbidities. I am dealing with/just finding this out now because...well there is a reason I have custody.
When my daughters therapist and teacher suggested that our daughter could be on the spectrum, I fought it hard at first. So did the Ex-wife. But I eventually came around. Upon self-analyzing why I refused to even entertain the idea about my daughter first, I realized it was because I needed to look in the mirror and it was upon doing so put all of the weird and random puzzle pieces in my life into perspective. I struggle with eye-contact which is an extreme challenge being a social worker. For probably 15 years now, I have dealt with it by digging my toes into the soles of my shoe (anyone else develop that coping skill?!? It would be nice to cut back on my Dr. Scholls spending haha
). Just one example but even with my own background and training I was clueless and mis-self-diagnosed plain old anxiety for years and years (though I totally still have anxiety!).While I have never quite felt like I wasn't human, I have always felt I was a different breed of human others with my more intense emotions, social faux pau's, and everything else that is included. Where as when my daughter was three, I even remember her making statements about not wanting to play with the 'humans' when I would pick her up from Daycare.
So that is my story in a nut-shell. The last ten years have been a roller coaster ride for myself because of the past marriage but if I take-away nothing else from everything I have gone through, its I now know I am not alone and I am not a total enigma.
But I do feel, now that I have been able to analyze it that I entered Social Work/Mental Health because I wanted to understand people better.
Hope everyone has a good day, and if you're in the US, go RAMS!
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