How is autism actually treated? You hear people saying the diagnosis changed their kids life or it’s important to be diagnosed early, but how?
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The biggest thing with diagnosis, especially early diagnosis, is the knowing. When you have a name for something, you also have resources and support. My son has a disorder with symptoms that overlap with autism and he was diagnosed right around age 2 – had we gotten him diagnosed later, we’d have had a much rougher time of it.
When people aren’t given proper supports for a disorder, they tend to develop maladaptive coping methods, fail to succeed, etc. If someone knows that they struggle to make eye contact because they’re autistic, they can learn ways to cope with that and know they aren’t just weird. Many people with ADHD, for instance, are told they’re lazy, or scatterbrained, or a flake, etc, etc. But they aren’t. Their brains just don’t work the same as everyone else’s. I have OCD, which often involves intrusive thoughts. If a person doesn’t know that intrusive thoughts are normal and not a reflection of who they are (they can run the gamut from self harm to deviant sexuality and more), they can end up suicidal over them.
Autism is no different, for the kids and their caregivers. Diagnosis is life-changing for anyone (autism parents are just the ones in the front row all the time).
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