Author Lotta Lundh was diagnosed with autism at the age of 50

The road to an autism diagnosis has been long and tortuous for Lotta Lund, 50. The first time someone mentioned it could be autism was during a doctor’s visit five years ago.

– My doctor said that there was an underlying vulnerability in my frequent observations of the disease and that there might be a diagnosis behind it, says Lotta Lund when own nest communicate.

After seeing a doctor, she had to go to a preparatory meeting with a psychologist to see if the investigation was appropriate.

– But with the psychiatrist I was not completely frank about my difficulties. I guess I just wasn’t prepared for the fact that I had autism, and I wasn’t quite into it yet. I just thought it was wrong with me, says Lotta Lundh, and if I just sharpen it, everything will be fine.

Regular sick leave
Growing up, Lotta Lund was said to have been “very shy”.

– At school, I did exactly what the teachers said, and thus I went under the radar. But inside I felt really bad, which led to the growth of self-harm behavior.

Lotta Lundh found social rules difficult to come by and in order to fit in with them, imitated her friends in everything from clothing to the subjects she chose at school.

– I didn’t start with what I wanted, but did what others thought was good. She says it really continued even when she was older.

While continuing her studies, Lotta Lund chose to study international economics.

Others said it was good and had a lot of functionality. So I did as they said even though economics didn’t interest me at all.

After graduation, she worked as a manager, marketing assistant, and in other management positions for 20 years, but during these years she was often on sick leave due to debilitating depression.

– The office environment and social community with coffee breaks and coffee breaks was a lot of work for me. It never worked for more than six months in the workplace, and it gave me very low self-esteem. Why didn’t I fix what others are running?

A writing career suited her
During sick leave in 2017, Lotta Lund was advised by her therapist to start writing.

– When I wrote it, I discovered how much I enjoyed it. It was very easy for me. Then I saw in a group online that they were looking for short stories about fatigue syndrome for an anthology. I sent a short story and entered, it says.

Then Lotta Lundh took writing courses and began writing detective stories. Today, she works full time as a writer.

The job as a writer suited me well. I can work in silence and I can control my own times. She says I work best in the afternoon and evening and doesn’t do well with a desk job.

At the moment, Lotta Lundh is writing, among other things, a detective series about a cold case group in Karlstad. One of the characters in the book series is police officer Ophelia. She says she is autistic and struggled with her previous jobs.

– I picked out a part of myself when I wrote about Ofelia, but now that I’ve been diagnosed with autism, I can use more of myself in future books, says Lotta Lundh.

The daughter was investigated
Today has been four years since Lotta’s 11-year-old daughter, Siri, was diagnosed with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Lotta Lundh, who had previously felt resistant that she would receive the diagnosis, begins to change her mind while investigating her daughter.

– We have many similarities. Just like me, Siri has a hard time with social stuff and misunderstandings arise easily with friends. But unlike me, she was already out of school in preschool. I think this helped her get diagnosed early, she says.

After Siri’s diagnosis, Lotta increasingly begins to believe she may be autistic. But then, when she herself was ready to make an inquiry, she had to fight to get it.

They may have thought they had already made an assessment at the pre-interview with the psychiatrist, and didn’t know that I wasn’t completely honest about how I was feeling. But after receiving two refusals, I wrote down all my difficulties and finally passed the investigation, she said.

And so last fall, just before Lotta turned 50, she received an autism diagnosis on paper.

“Soon after the investigation, I felt it would lead to a diagnosis, so when I got the news, I felt relieved,” she says.

Lotta Lunde also feels that being diagnosed with autism has changed her view of herself. The difficulties you face are endless, but today I am kind to myself.

– My difficulties do not go away, but today I am kind to myself. I can live my life the way I am instead of struggling to be like everyone else.