‘Waiting years for a diagnosis isn’t simply waiting for a piece of paper’published at 08:55 BST
08:55 BST
Erica Witherington
Disability affairs reporter
Image source, HandoutImage caption,
Erin says she wants more support to be available before the diagnosis stage
At school, Erin says it might have looked from the outside
as though she was thriving. She was ambitious, sociable and getting good
grades.
Inside, though, she says she was struggling to stay afloat.
She developed anorexia, became a young carer while her
mother received palliative care, and later had to deal with her death.
When overwhelmed, Erin says she sometimes went into shutdown
and couldn’t speak.
“I could know exactly what I wanted to say, but I
physically couldn’t get the words out,” she says.
Erin, now 21, was diagnosed as autistic at college. She says
it finally helped her to understand what sort of support she needed, and to
stop asking herself, “Why can’t I just cope?”
But she believes getting support shouldn’t have to wait for
an autism diagnosis.
“Waiting several years isn’t simply waiting for a piece
of paper,” she says.
“Those are years in which a young person is still
developing their identity, and potentially struggling without understanding
why.”