At the age 15 I switched to a new doctor who immediately diagnosed me as on the spectrum. Turns out that all the things my mom had been saying to my doctors and teachers was right. I got too overwhelmed, I didn't know how to communicate very well, and my progress was a little behind. I have the (now no longer considered autism) diagnosis of sensory processing disorder. And just as my mom listed to everybody I get overwhelmed by too much noise and too many people, I have trouble explaining what I need and I get along better with adults socially than people my age. Throughout my life I have spent countless hours in doctors offices getting test after test to find all the random things that my SPD has blessed me with. My underdeveloped nervous system really is a blessing because it has made me so much more willing to help those just like me.
Because of my late diagnosis and self discovery, I decided I want to help everybody everywhere and make things easier, not only for autistic people but also people who live crazy lives. I am now a sophomore in college and am on the track to get my PhD in Applied Behavioral Analysis. At this point I am the only undergraduate on my schools research team and I work daily with autistic children. I would say that my diagnosis has made me literally obsessed with helping other families reach a peaceful point in their lives with the incredibly unique gift they have been given. My goal is to open my own practice and to provide occupational, speech, and physical therapies and to publish research on a regular basis that could help those I can't reach out to.
Melbourne, FL
