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How many times have you been misdiagnosed before getting it right?

neuronnoodle — Dec 10, 2025, 12:33 AM

I was cleaning out old medical records and found a timeline that made me so angry I had to share it somewhere: - Age 16: "Anxiety disorder, generalized" - Age 19: "Major depressive disorder" - Age 22: "Bipolar II" (I do not have bipolar disorder) - Age 25: "Borderline personality traits" (also do not have BPD) - Age 28: "Treatment-resistant depression with anxious features" - Age 31: "Autism spectrum disorder, level 1" SIX different labels before someone finally saw what was actually there. And here's the thing — every single one of those diagnoses was describing autistic traits through a non-autistic lens. Social difficulties = "anxiety." Sensory overwhelm = "mood swings." Meltdowns = "emotional dysregulation." Special interests = "obsessive tendencies." How many labels did you collect before someone got it right? And did anyone ever apologize?

Replies (21)

softskymarin [admin] — Dec 12, 2025, 12:46 AM

Oh I have a LIST. Depression at 14. Social anxiety at 17. GAD at 21. OCD tendencies at 23. Adjustment disorder at 25. ("Adjustment disorder" for being autistic in an allistic world — imagine being told your PROBLEM is adjusting to things when the things were never designed for you.) Autism at 36. No apology. Just a prescription for an SSRI I didn't need and a decade of therapy that helped marginally because it wasn't addressing the root cause.

overstimulatedowl — Dec 14, 2025, 08:41 PM

depression at 15, anxiety at 17, "just highly sensitive" at 20 (not a diagnosis but a therapist said it and it stuck for years), ADHD at 27, autism at 29. the ADHD diagnosis actually helped but didn't explain everything. the autism diagnosis connected the dots.

tentativefern — Dec 20, 2025, 05:25 AM (edited)

When I was 19 a psychiatrist told me I had "adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood." I had just started college. I couldn't eat in the dining hall (too loud), couldn't make friends (didn't know the scripts), couldn't keep my room organized (executive dysfunction). And instead of asking "why can't this person function in seemingly basic ways," they said "she's just having trouble adjusting to college." I'm not even angry at the misdiagnoses. I'm angry at the YEARS. The years of thinking I was failing at being a person when actually I was just an autistic person without a manual.

raccoonking — Dec 20, 2025, 05:33 AM

BPD misdiagnosis club member checking in. ✋ Autistic woman with trauma history = automatic BPD stamp in most clinical settings. Never mind that I didn't have unstable relationships or identity disturbance — I had autistic meltdowns and alexithymia. But I "presented as female" and "had big emotions" so BPD it was. Three years of DBT that helped some of the skills but never addressed the core issue. The therapist who finally diagnosed me as autistic read my old records and said "I don't know how they missed this." I cried in her office.

lilpawz — Dec 20, 2025, 07:14 AM

depression at 13, "oppositional defiant disorder" at 14 (pathologized my autistic sense of justice and demand avoidance), bipolar at 18, finally autism at 24. the ODD one still makes me furious. i wasn't defiant, i just needed to understand WHY before i could comply and nobody would explain anything to me.

neuronnoodle — Dec 20, 2025, 08:06 AM

@overstimulated_owl "Just highly sensitive" — the amount of therapists who use "HSP" as a catch-all instead of screening for autism is WILD.

noodlearms — Dec 20, 2025, 04:52 PM

i got diagnosed with "school refusal" at 12. that's not even a diagnosis, it's a description of behavior. nobody asked WHY i was refusing to go to school. (the lights, the noise, the bullying, the sensory overwhelm. but sure, "school refusal.")

marzipandreams — Dec 20, 2025, 05:32 PM

I want to make a gentle note for anyone reading who might be questioning their diagnosis: misdiagnosis is common, but so is co-occurrence. Some people have autism AND depression. Some have autism AND anxiety. A previous diagnosis isn't necessarily wrong — it might be incomplete. The anger at missed autism is valid. But don't throw out treatment that helped you just because the label changed. That said: BPD misdiagnosis in autistic women is a documented epidemic and I'm furious about it.

crayoncryptid — Dec 21, 2025, 05:02 AM

Reading these stories makes me feel less alone but also so ANGRY on behalf of everyone here. How many of us spent years being treated for the wrong thing? How much suffering was preventable?

bouncystarpond87983 — Feb 22, 2026, 12:26 AM (edited)

zippystarnest373 — Feb 22, 2026, 02:22 PM (edited)

@overstimulated_owl "Just highly sensitive" — the amount of therapists who use "HSP" as a catch-all instead of screening for autism is WILD.

twinklymango296 — Feb 22, 2026, 10:12 PM (edited)

Only two misdiagnoses for me (depression, anxiety) but here's the kicker — both of them were partially correct. I WAS depressed and anxious. But nobody asked WHY a 12-year-old was so anxious he couldn't eat in the school cafeteria. Nobody connected the sensory sensitivity, the social exhaustion, the rigid thinking. They treated the symptoms and ignored the cause for 20 years. The thing that made me angriest in retrospect: so many of the therapeutic interventions made me WORSE because they were designed for neurotypical brains. "Exposure therapy" for social anxiety when the issue was sensory overwhelm? That's not treatment, that's torture.

dustycobweb157 — Mar 7, 2026, 01:07 AM (edited)

@tentative_fern "An autistic person without a manual" — yes. That's exactly it.

tinycrayonpond0113 — Mar 15, 2026, 03:35 PM (edited)

happyacornvalley38886 — Mar 20, 2026, 12:45 PM

@lil_pawz Pathologizing PDA (pathological demand avoidance) as ODD is a TRAVESTY and it happens constantly. "The child refuses to do things" — yes, because her nervous system perceives demands as threats, not because she's being oppositional.

fuzzycactushollow2338 — Mar 28, 2026, 06:43 PM (edited)

speedynapnest7174 — Mar 29, 2026, 03:20 AM (edited)

fluffypancake78117 — Apr 4, 2026, 09:18 PM

"treatment resistant depression" was actually just me being autistic and not knowing it. antidepressants didn't work because i wasn't depressed, i was burned out from masking for 25 years.

dampmoonmeadow951 — Apr 29, 2026, 05:45 PM

@noodle_arms "School refusal" as a diagnosis is the most infuriating thing. It's describing the symptom and calling it the cause. "Why won't the child go to school?" "We've diagnosed her with Not Going To School Disorder." Absurd.

glowyhedgehoggrove22791 — Jul 4, 2026, 07:02 PM

@crayon_cryptid The anger is appropriate. Let yourself feel it. But also — you're here now. You found your people. The diagnosis was late but the community is real. 💛

meltymushroom339 — Jul 26, 2026, 07:49 PM (edited)

I think what I'm taking away from this thread is: we're not broken. We were never broken. The diagnostic system is broken. The fact that so many of us have nearly identical misdiagnosis timelines is PROOF of a systemic failure, not individual failures. Grateful for everyone sharing. This helps.

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