Diagnosis as a privilege
I have entered an interesting time in my life. Over the past year, I have come to realize some things about myself that I have mentioned in passing here, including potentially having autism and ADHD. This has set me down a path to try and find a way to a formal diagnosis in order to access any supports that may be available to me, especially at work. These are big parts of the current puzzle that is me, I am trying to solve. I’m learning that it’s just not that simple, especially as an adult.
Here in Ontario, with our “free” Canadian healthcare, one would thing that this process would be relatively simple. Request a referral from your family doctor or GP, and meet with a psychiatrist for an assessment. The thing with free health care is that for something such as this, there is a darn long wait. Think 12-18 months. Now that is 12-18 months where I continue to struggle as I am, when theoretically, supports could already be in place to help me. This is just for the autism diagnosis.
Now, theoretically, my family doctor could do the ADHD assessment with me. I could at least get that diagnosis in place. However, that is only a part of the puzzle. I need both diagnoses if I am going to access said supports. And that will still be approximately one month at a minimum wait to get in to see my family doctor. My next option is to go through an online provider and pay several hundred dollars to get it faster. That is not the kind of money I can afford. Nor can others, what about people who do not currently have a family doctor?
This is leading me to the stance that is becoming much more common as more people come to understand neurodivergence and ADHD and autism. There are more of us out there than originally thought. I am very much of the generation where it was only boys that were diagnosed with these conditions in school. Never mind that girls could have them too! Anyway, I’m coming to understand the meaning and importance of the phrase “self diagnosis is valid.” Because it becomes more and more clear to me that formal diagnosis is a privilege. It is not accessible to everyone, myself included. I can only imagine it is even more difficult elsewhere, like the US, for example.
That is not to say that there are not places on the internet where self diagnosis is not accepted. Some groups on Facebook for example… But those are not what we are talking about here.
I am convinced I have both ADHD and autism. I have taken the self-assessments that are used for diagnosis, which I was given access to thanks to my counsellor. She has helped me work through a lot of this, especially becoming comfortable with my neurodivergence. It was something we talked about in detail just this week. She accepts and acknowledges my neurodivergence and we find ways to work with it. It makes as much sense to her as it does to me. Self diagnosis IS valid.
What I lack is the ability to access tools and supports that might otherwise be available to me with a formal diagnosis. For those, I guess I continue to wait.