I’ve been in and out of psychiatric services for most of my life and have had many different diagnosis flung my way. My new psychiatrist feels I have autism and has referred me for formal diagnosis in the next few months.

My question I guess is quite simple. I’m 32- I have bipolar disorder and ADHD confirmed, but is it possible to have walked through life up til this point not even considering autism? I’ve been diagnosed with schizoaffective, personality disorder, ADHD and complex trauma, but never autism.

At this point I’m more interested than anything. I’ve worked in autism services before, looked after children with autism and worked as a psychiatric nurse so when my psychiatrist suggested it last year I almost laughed. Now that she’s reinstated some of my bipolar medications alongside ADHD meds I’m actually laughing slightly less and wonder if she may actually be right?

Im keen to hear your views on this and to engage a bit more with the autism diagnosis. I’ve been so close to autism in my clinical career I’m a bit taken aback by the idea of having it myself.