ever since i became aware that i might be autistic, i feel like i'm going backwards

It's been a year since i started considering that i might be autistic. I'm still waiting for assessment but ever since I became aware of it, it's like I'm worse than I used to be? There's sensory stuff that I used to be able to tolerate, social events I used to be able to tolerate that I can't tolerate the same way anymore. I have less energy than I used to, I get more overwhelmed than I used to. It's harder for me to keep my mask up. Skills I used to have are either not there anymore or they're worse than they were before. Honestly don't really know what's going on