How I Got My Autism Diagnosis

Getting an autism diagnosis as an adult can be a long, emotional, and often confusing journey. In this episode of The Aspie World Podcast, I’m sharing my personal story of how I got my autism diagnosis — the signs I noticed, the challenges I faced, and the life-changing moment of finally having answers.

Whether you’re seeking your own diagnosis, supporting a loved one, or just curious about the process, this episode gives you an inside look into what it’s really like to navigate the autism diagnostic pathway.

• The early signs that led me to seek an autism assessment

• What the diagnostic process was like step by step

• How it felt to finally get my autism diagnosis

• The biggest challenges I faced before, during, and after assessment

• Tips for anyone considering getting tested for autism

Getting diagnosed doesn’t change who you are — but it can help you understand yourself better and find the right support to thrive.

• Autistic adults seeking validation and clarity

• Anyone considering getting an autism assessment

• Parents supporting their autistic children through diagnosis

• Teachers, carers, and professionals wanting to better understand the process

If you’ve ever wondered whether you might be autistic or struggled to access support, this episode will give you insight, reassurance, and hope.

🎁 FREE Download: Get your Autistic Adult Bulletproof Brain Starter Kit and discover science-backed strategies to reduce overwhelm, manage stress, and build unstoppable confidence → www.bulletproofbrain.org

If this episode helped you, please:
✅ Subscribe to The Aspie World Podcast so you never miss an episode
✅ Leave a review — it helps us reach and support more autistic adults and families
✅ Share this episode with friends, family, or anyone considering an autism diagnosis

Remember: getting answers is the first step to understanding yourself — and you’re not alone on this journey. 💙

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:Who This Episode Is For:Resources & Support for Autistic AdultsLet’s Stay Connected

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
OK, so now how I got my autism diagnosis.
Hey guys, what's going on? Welcome back to the Aspy world.
My name is Dan and I have autismand ADHDOCD and dyslexia.
I'm making weekly videos all about this stuff.
So if you want it learn more. Remember to hit the subscribe
button. What's going on, dude?
Welcome back to another video. It feels like it's been forever.
It's yeah, it's been that. So I just launched a new
product, which is just absolutely crazy.

(00:21):
So anyway, I'm still pumped to this video.
I got a lot of people asking me,Dan, how did you get your autumn
diagnosis? How does the process work?
Where did you go? What did you do?
So if I would take some time just to talk about some of the
common traits of autism and, andkind of like how you can
characterize it, how people spotted it in me and how I see
it myself. And then how I got my autism
diagnosis. Because I really believe that
understanding how you got an autism diagnosis can help you

(00:43):
achieve your autism diagnosis ifyou're looking for that.
So let's let's get right into it.
So first of all guys, autism being a neurological
developmental condition means that there are characteristics
that are neurologically ingrained in a person who's only
also the spectrum. Now if you're interested, I do
have a little freebie like life hacks book for autism that you
can download for free. The link is in the description

(01:05):
down below where you can just goto the link in my bio and where
it says free book. Just click that and you get it
for free. Some of the characteristics that
are completely obvious with an autism is things like, you know,
obsessive behaviour. An autistic person may be really
obsessed with a specific topic of interest.
You know, mine is all things kind of chemistry related
because I did a degree in chemistry marketing business.

(01:26):
I love all that kind of stuff. But then you could have somebody
who's really into photography that could be excellent
photography, that they want to spend all the time doing
photography and that's their thing, right?
That's where their talent lies or sort of obsession lies.
That you could have another autistic individual who is
obsessed with Marilyn Monroe, that kind of thing.
And one being by being obsessed is that they constantly spend
all their time learning about it.

(01:46):
They constantly spend all their time that researching it.
They would fly out to kind of Marilyn Monroe's house where she
used to live, like try and stalkher friends online or whatever,
and then just note everything about that subject.
And this is another trait, wanting to talk consistently,
obsessively for hours about thatone thing.
You may think autistic individuals will have issues

(02:07):
with social communication, whichis correct.
This is another trait. But also autistic individuals
will, if they get going about the topic of interest that
they're interested in, you know,OK, so people who know yoga
people on the spectrum could be Minecraft and they'll just talk
to you for hours about Minecraftor Roblox, right?
That's because they have learnt all of those things and they
want to dictate that stuff. They've led verbatim.

(02:27):
And that's a really interesting characteristic where you can
have a very shy, quiet person who's on the autonomous
spectrum, but if you ask them a question about their their
specific topic of interest, they'd be very, very vocal about
it. And I think that's very
fascinating. So with me, one of my traits is
that I talk a lot. I know, I'm sorry, but I talk
excessively. I talk a lot about a lot of
things and I, I, I memorize a certain fact and I love talking

(02:48):
about those facts, right? And that's really common within
autistic individuals. Now, another trait is having
difficulty with eye contact. A lot of autistic individuals
won't necessarily be able to make specifically good long
sustaining eye contact when they're talking because when an
autistic person is, is making communication effort to look in
someone's eyes is kind of like looking into their soul and like

(03:09):
grabbing them by the scruff of the neck.
It's very awkward. Very uncomfortable and they
can't really do it. So this is something that you
can see quite apparently. Another thing is difficulties
with a change in the routine. Autistic individuals love
routine. They love knowing the outcome of
a specific set of events. Like we're going to go to the
zoo today that we have to drive for an hour in the car.
We've packed sandwiches. When we get there, we're going

(03:29):
to have our sandwiches and everything's going to be cool.
But if something happens, like you get a flat tire in the car
and then you have to eat sandwiches in the car and then
you delay going to the zoo. So you have to get like a hotel
next to the zoo and then go to the zoo that after a big no, no,
that the disruption of the routine, the the, the, the, the
surprise that just came out of nowhere.
This like unpredicted event thatwas completely out of out of the

(03:52):
plan of action can really throw you.
So that's another reason why autistic individuals can can
display this whole like issues with routine.
But on the same line, autistic individuals thrive from having a
specific routine. So they could get up in the
morning, you know, wear the sameclothes every single day, not
the same actual clothes, but thesame type of clothes.
Like I wear black clothes all the time, like black T-shirts,
black blonde sleeve T-shirts, black pants, black socks and

(04:15):
black underpants. Like that's, that's just me all
over. But autistic individuals will
have to get dressed the same thing every single day.
They will get up at the same time every day.
They will eat the same thing forbreakfast every day, then maybe
watch the same shows, might watch something or repeat all
the time. These things are very
interesting and they're very characterized in in autistic
individuals, emotional deregulation is huge.

(04:35):
Not being able to express themselves emotionally,
especially communicating with other individuals when you're
talking about emotions. And this is because autistic
individuals have a disconnect between the understanding in the
brain of energy that converts into motion, which gives you
energy, emotion, which is emotion.
And so this is something that's quite have not had to grasp 1/2

(04:55):
of their brain to kind of like do intimately on that level,
like, okay, I'm going to do it right now.
I'm going to see what, you know,going to see my emotions right
now at that moment in time. I think that's quite
interesting. And it's very, very apparent
autistic individuals will typically have issues making
friends because making friends is something that's quite hard.
You need to know social conventions.

(05:15):
You need to know unwritten social cues, which is a big
issue for people on the open special.
You know, how far do I stand to a person?
How close to a stand to a person?
How do I say hello? How do I inject myself into a
conversation? How do I say goodbye and how do
I leave a conversation? All these things are they're
quite mystical for assisting individuals and they may not
fully be able to understand that.
So that in, in a nutshell, the last thing I'll say is taking

(05:37):
things literally, just think individuals will take things at
face value. If you say something is
something, they'll believe that's what it is.
And this is part of the reason of how I got my diagnosis.
So back in 2013, this is just before the DSM changed the
nomenclature from Asperger's syndrome to the autism spectrum
disorder. My girlfriend, his mother was a
mental health nurse and my girlfriend was actually studying

(06:00):
autism in university because shewas taking a degree in childhood
studies. So she's seen kind of
characteristics in me that was very common in, in the studies
of these children that she was kind of studying.
And it was like, Oh my goodness.And I remember she tweeted out
something once say, like, why isit that the people on The Big
Bang Theory remind me of my boyfriend?
Because Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory displays

(06:20):
typically autistic traits, right?
Or what you would have called Asperger syndrome, which is now
like, well, support needs autismbecause there's a big whole
thing with normal picture. A lot of people don't like to
use functional labels. Other people don't like to use,
you know, I don't know, there's a bunch of things we're not
going to get into that in this video, but if you are
interested, I did a whole video talking about why Asperges isn't
used and why some people still use it and I'll link it down

(06:42):
below. So that being said, her mother
did question and asked if I was on the autumn spectrum.
Now, at this time I knew nothingabout autism and I met a friend
who found that some things that I did was really interesting.
Like she said to me, she was eating a banana out of coffee
and she put the banana peel inside the coffee pot.
She said, can you go to the kitchen, put this in the bin?

(07:02):
So I just threw the cup and the the banana in the bin.
But she was like deep, don't throw the cup away, only the
banana peel. But I'd taken what she'd said
very literal. And so that kind of start
getting conversation going with like, Hey, do you always do
things literally? Yes.
Do you, how do you think with this?
Blah, blah, blah. So it all came to a grinding
halt when I was in my place of work, which was I was working

(07:23):
for a company, a multimedia company, and I was sitting
behind the desk, right? And my desk was the same for
like 3 years. Like I've been in, I've asked
three years. It was a very small company,
maybe like 20 of us in one room,very small.
And I was there for the whole time, right.
So yeah, we were a very small company.
I had the same desk that I had for years.
And then the other thing that happened then was I went on

(07:45):
vacation with my, my partner forlike a week and I came back to
the office and they'd moved not only the office, they'd moved my
desk. And everything was complete
chaos. And I just had this like huge
like meltdown in, in the office and I'd never had anything this
big before. And it was just like, you know,
in, in work. And I was like, oh, you know,
they Take Me Out and I look all these smokes, dude, like you OK.

(08:05):
Then they took me to, you know, see, I work from home for a
little bit and they said we'd see a counsellor.
I'm not going to the council. And the council was also like,
yeah, you know, maybe we should get tested for autism spectrum
disorder. So I did that.
I went through those processes. I got referred from my doctor to
a autism specialist, went to seean autism specialist twice, did
two types of like interview based kind of some little bit
practical stuff. And then they kind of assessed

(08:26):
that and said, yeah, you know, you're on the autism spare trip.
And I'm like, holy smokes. And at the time, I knew nothing
about autism, which was really interesting.
And I went online then to find some information.
And because I'm bad at like reading, I wanted to kind of
learn through like video. I went to usually type in autism
or Asperger syndrome, which is what I was diagnosed with.
And there was just nothing there.
So I, I started this child because I was like, well, I can

(08:46):
add those things to, to this, you know, I can add this to, to
the, to the mix and, and maybe Ican help some people.
So that was my story. What's your story?
I want to know down below. If you're not already diagnosed,
then let me know if you're looking to get diagnosis.
But if you are, let me know yourstory down below.
Speak to you next time guys. Peace.