This may sound unusual, but I am grateful that I was diagnosed as a young girl.
Why?
I was considered a child, so I was taken care of by the pediatric system. This means that investigative tests and procedures were performed quickly, and I received my first diagnosis within only a few months.
I always hear about adults being symptomatic for years (or even decades) before being properly diagnosed.
I could not imagine struggling for years without any treatment or validation. Not only would it be psychological torture to be told time and time again that there is no reason to have pain and severe symptoms, but it can also result in an individual feeling defeated.
Developing a serious chronic illness as a young person is awful, but I would much rather be ill for a longer period of time with treatments options because of a diagnosis, rather than becoming sick later in life. The fight to be taken seriously is tough as it is, but to experience uncontrolled and untreated symptoms of chronic illness for YEARS, without any kind of validation or known cause, (I believe) is worse than being diagnosed and treated more quickly as a school-aged kid, even though it means struggling with the illness for much longer.
Plus, I met some pretty spectacular healthcare professionals in the pediatric system.