“Mental health & the power of diagnosis…”

3 people. 3 voices. 3 examples of how diagnosis can be vital in supporting good mental health.

In response to the mental health and burnout study, of 1,153 respondents, over 477 chose to share deeply personal stories, feelings, and experiences. Today I’d like to touch on the positive benefit of diagnosis on our mental health in adult neurodivergence.

3 people. 3 diagnoses. 3 improved lives.

“My mental health has been a rollercoaster. Getting diagnosed was a major step forwards, even though it only came after I had burned out so thoroughly that I didn't know if I would ever recover”

“It's hard to articulate the sadness associated with nearly 50 years of feeling 'wrong' before diagnosis explained it to me and switched the light on. Now I can be a little kinder to myself”

“My major burnout was a few years ago and before my diagnosis - I have no words to describe how bleak and destructive it was - thankfully with the help of peer support, self education and a fantastic therapist I am in a much better place than I have been for decades”

Diagnosis Changed My Life (💬This is actually me, not a respondent)

I was diagnosed with OCD at age 11. I spent the next 38 years believing that my constant struggles with my mental health were solely due to my OCD.

In 2021, I was diagnosed with autism. It made some sense, but not completely.

At the end of 2024, I experienced my first burnout and, within a week, was diagnosed with comorbid complex ADHD, autism, and OCD.

Total headf**k. Temporarily, more of a headf**k than the last 50 years, however…

Fast forward three months, this diagnosis has changed everything. I can now see that it is giving me answers to so many things in my life that I once felt ashamed of, dependencies, harm, broken relationships - things that never made sense, so much that block out and ran away from. I can also link its heightened presence through trauma, that previously I had pushed as far from existence as possible to avoid speaking about.

I no longer feel shame. It’s about permission, self kindness, and creating a framework that works with me, all of which I can feel is really starting to improve my mental health.

I have a long journey ahead, but with a completely refreshed support system in place, a new found peer to peer community, and a job that I feel very safe in the boundaries of, I have more hope than I can remember. But, one day at a time, it’s a light I can see.

This may just be a good patch, by this time tomorrow I could be completely derailed, it can come at anytime, from anywhere, however the gaps between each derailment appear to be lengthening, which too gives me hope.

When the psychiatrist shared his analysis in that final assessment, he said something along the lines of, “If you had known all of this sooner (in reference to the full diagnosis), you might have had a very different life.”

What was I supposed to do with that line?

I don’t look back in that way anymore, other than making sense of events, but not regret or shame. I look forward, toward managing myself in a way that truly works for me, rather than running at things I was never built for and harming my mental health in the process.

💬 If I appear to have lost my sense of humour this week, I haven’t. With spending the majority of recent days reading 475 personal experiences repeatedly I am feeling a whole load of energy towards what we do to make the most of the opportunity, and we voice so many heartbreaking accounts that creates action and impact.

Next week normal service will resume….💬 This said I am now panicking that I have actually lost my sense of humour as a consequence of recovery. Sh!t….Or maybe it’s the new meds? Sunday morning was bonkers, I washed the car for the first time in 6 months and then went to buy a little plant, it wasn’t planned, just did it. I took one of the kids, who said ‘You’re chatty today’ on the journey and I thought, ‘I am, I assume that is on account to feeling slightly off my face right now’ and by 2.00 p.m. I was back to my usual quiet self (verbally, I never shut up in written word it seems).