Hello, I'm new here. So... I'm a thirteen year old who has found out that I'm probably autistic and ADHD. I'll explain. As a child, I was diagnosed with clinical anxiety. It runs in my family. But, now I'm questioning if it was really anxiety.
I used to have very bad panic attacks for what seemed to be no reason. If something changed or the teacher told me to do something, I'd panic. I'm not sure how long they lasted, but they lasted a while. I also had to learn to MAKE eye contact. My mother had to pretend to be a different person just to teach me how to make eye contact. I do now, but it still feels slightly uncomfortable.
I was able to make friends easily as a kid, but when I got home, I wouldn’t talk. I’d go outside and lose myself in my own little world. Kids would bully me and exclude me too. I would tell my mother I didn’t want to talk to people and things.
I have very intense interests and used to get asked if I was sad because I wouldn’t have a lot of facial expressions. I would just walk around the playground and just…not interact sometimes? I would mimic other kids and stuck next to people who were very socially accepted. I learned that I needed to talk and make eye contact and that if I didn’t monitor my body, I’d be considered weird. However, whenever I say something to my parents that might be me even suggesting I’m autistic, my parents would say/yell “You’re just quirky. There’s NO WAY you could be autistic.” Funny, cause I once had a diagnosed autistic girl tell me she ‘just got the vibe I was probably autistic’. Also ADHD and ASD run in my family. Maybe it was just anxiety? They also seem to think I'm faking, when I try to hint at them (I'm bad at hinting lol) I'm not sure. Any advice?
Hi so my parents did the exact same thing before I was diagnosed with autism asthma diabeaties abhd dyd ptd and the best thing do do is talk to an older sibling or someone at school you trust (head pupil/form)etc.. so I hope it works!!😊
Tks
Ls