Thank you so much for your response and to the others that responded as well. I'm left thinking that I should take my interest as reason enough to seek a diagnosis.
Another poster commented on it, but I definitely thought of my ADHD diagnosis/treatment as panacea. I believe that's because Vyvanse has (amongst other things) largely put a lid on the anxiety that I've struggled with my whole life. I certainly share your mixed emotions with the late diagnosis and subsequent success with medication there. It's hard not to dwell on the past, but overwhelmingly, I'm enjoying my new life.
The eye contact one is interesting. I recall being yelled at a lot in childhood for not looking at people when I speak to them. As an adult, I find myself forcing it when I remember; it honestly makes me feel ill just typing this and thinking about eye contact though hahaha
Your rationale for working on things from an autism-first perspective makes a lot of sense. In fact, it's precisely the reason we got our son diagnosed at 3 - it changes how his speech therapist, physiotherapist, OT, etc treat his various challenges. Perhaps that's another reason for me to seek a diagnosis - it should be easier to better myself if I have some clarity around what's actually going on...
I hope you don't find this inappropriate (apologies in advance if you do).
My son was diagnosed with ASD a couple of years back. More recently, it was suggested that he likely has ADHD too. Essentially, the school he'll be starting at next year wanted him to have a cognitive assessment and it came back with a gulf between the things he's good at (reason, logic etc - top 2%) and the things he's not so good at (working memory etc, bottom 7%). Nothing in between.
I had always suspected that I had ADHD, but it was dismissed by therapists who wanted to focus on SAD (very limited success). It felt a little self-involved, but like a lot of newish parents, this was the push I needed to ask for an assessment for myself. The specialist said it was clear as day and at 36yo Vyvanse was immediately (and remains) life changing :)
I'm getting to the question (sorry) - my GP, wife and my a few others suspect that I'm autistic too. Having done a few quick quizzes, it seems that they might be correct (explains a lot, TBH). I was told that there's limited benefit in being diagnosed as an adult though, so I've left it alone. I'm left wondering if that gels with yourself or anyone else that was diagnosed in adulthood? Have you found diagnosis to be beneficial? If it wasn't so expensive, I'd probably do it for curiosity's sake...
I love the use of human-readable URL's. The ability to cut the song title out and go to the Artist page (for example) is really neat. Nice work Wilson - I'll be using it!