Meet Marcy.
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Marcy Vega always felt she was different than other people, she just didn’t know why. As a child, she didn’t have many friends, but there were girls she was close to because of their common passion for dance. Being part of a dance group kept her from feeling isolated but as she got older, she realized most of her relationships were superficial. As a young adult, Marcy found social situations stressful and spent a lot of time alone. She was diagnosed with ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) when she was 20, but that didn’t explain all her challenges – difficulty connecting to others, long periods of depression, and severe anxiety around large groups of people. If these things were normal, she thought, then why wasn’t everyone else walking around on the verge of a mental breakdown?
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Marcy became desperate for an answer. She tried therapy for two years, but that didn’t help. Learning more about ADHD didn’t help, either. “I felt like ADHD explained some things but did not paint a full picture of what I was feeling,” Marcy said. Her breakthrough came after reading an article by a woman with autism. The writer’s checklist of symptoms resonated with Marcy. She, too, thought in terms of black and white, had trouble processing language when overwhelmed, and experienced emotional meltdowns so intense she required days of isolation to recover.
While a self-diagnosis of autism helped Marcy understand why she had social anxieties, it didn’t help her cope. When she was 32, she decided to get a professional evaluation. “Then,” she said, “I would be able to figure out if what I was feeling was real or merely just in my head.” Because she had to pay out of pocket, Marcy researched providers and found the Autism Treatment Center had the most affordable fee and the shortest wait time. She was able to schedule an appointment the following month and, two weeks later, received a report with her official diagnosis of autism.
Finding out she had autism brought Marcy clarity and opened the door to resources, accommodations, and support she never knew were available. “For any adult that might be thinking of getting a diagnosis,” Marcy shared, “I would ask, ‘what does it mean to you?’ Will it help with the self-doubt and validate what you’re going through? This was absolutely the reason I decided to seek a diagnosis and it was the best decision I ever made. Because of that, I was able to find a therapist who specialized in women with autism and I think it’s completely changed how I view myself. And, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say, it was a decision that saved my life.”
While a self-diagnosis of autism helped Marcy understand why she had social anxieties, it didn’t help her cope. When she was 32, she decided to get a professional evaluation. “Then,” she said, “I would be able to figure out if what I was feeling was real or merely just in my head.” Because she had to pay out of pocket, Marcy researched providers and found the Autism Treatment Center had the most affordable fee and the shortest wait time. She was able to schedule an appointment the following month and, two weeks later, received a report with her official diagnosis of autism.
Finding out she had autism brought Marcy clarity and opened the door to resources, accommodations, and support she never knew were available. “For any adult that might be thinking of getting a diagnosis,” Marcy shared, “I would ask, ‘what does it mean to you?’ Will it help with the self-doubt and validate what you’re going through? This was absolutely the reason I decided to seek a diagnosis and it was the best decision I ever made. Because of that, I was able to find a therapist who specialized in women with autism and I think it’s completely changed how I view myself. And, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say, it was a decision that saved my life.”