I’m functioning just fine - should I still pursue a formal diagnosis?

I am often asked this question, or a variation of it. "What's the point of seeking a diagnosis now, if we already know that I/the child is ADHD/autistic, but we're functioning just fine?" Here is my take on it!

Yes, I think that if a formal diagnosis is an available option to you, you should seek it. (Acknowledging that formal diagnosis can be a privilege, and if you have not been able to access it, I see you and hear you!)

Where I live, in Ontario Canada, there are many resources and supports that we can access for our children or ourselves as adults, with formal diagnosis. This includes but is not limited to things like accommodations at school to make learning more accessible, as well as certain grants or savings accounts for those who might need them to help offset some of the extraordinary costs that can come along with being disabled or raising disabled children.

Moreover, 'functioning' is fluid, and you cannot take for granted that the functioning of today will always be. It is very common for autistic kiddos, for example, or AuDHD kiddos, to do well at school in elementary years and have complete burnout and shutdowns closer to high-school. Or, for gifted AuDHD kiddos to make it through high-school very well to only have a complete emotional breakdown in University, and find themselves unable to 'function' without lots of accommodations that they had previously been able to live well without.

There are many variations of this scenario, and mixes of identifications and diagnoses, that play out all too often. Even with those of us who have historically been able to work and support our families; this function too can be dynamic where we take for granted it will be static.

When a burnout or other difficult event occurs for a neurodivergent person, it can suddenly be the case that their "functioning level" seems to change, and can do so rapidly. One deemed "high functioning" can suddenly appear to lose skills and need a lot of help and resources, they may need income support or accommodations at school that they had not considered before. Those supports are much harder to get into place during a burnout, than if you were to have the diagnoses ahead and supports at the ready.

Diagnosis, while a privilege, can be a very helpful tool in your toolbox of preparedness, when it comes to supporting yourself or your loved one. The earlier the better, so that you can have supports in place and ready for when the time comes that you or they need them.