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Does anyone know what to do when professionals don't seem to believe that one even has a developmental disorder and won't help out by doing an assessment? I am a middle-aged adult female who is convinced that she may be on the spectrum. So many things that others with autism have written make a lot of sense to me because my life is like that. But there seems to be no one willing to help me find out for sure. This is very upsetting to me. I have been labelled so many different things by some many people...shy, arrogant, inferiority complex, immature, crybaby...and now I just want to know if maybe I can have a real answer as to why this pattern of always "starting again" with new groups of friends keeps happening. And why I can seem so smart with memorizing and knowing things but so stupid in a crowded place or chatting in a group.

I really feel like I need help, but the professionals I have contacted so far have expressed that they do not usually work with adults. Do they not believe me? Could they think I am just wasting my time...or that I am delusional? Maybe I turn them off too, just like lots of others I meet.

Sorry to go on and on, just hoping for some advice.

No answer for you, but I know how you feel if that is any consolation. I'm new here too.

I can't tell you that I know what you're going through, because I don't. But I have also been struggling for a few years, being called lazy and given many faulty diagnoses and meds. I am on my second shrink now, and have brought him copy of the book Aspergirls. He seemed interested in learning more and said he wanted to read it and perhaps buy his own copy if it seemed good. I told him the author had AS

Not knowing anything about your situation I would just recommend you to get serious. Tell the doctor/shrink that you feel like you're not being taken seriously. Maybe even buy the book I mentioned and read it, also mention that to them. If they don't listen just remind yourself that YOU'RE the one paying them. If they don't listen you should tell them, you are a customer after all

Good luck!

Happens to me as well. My mother keeps saying this is going to disappear in a few years. The psychologist thinks i have social phobia.
Maybe it is so hard for me to express my emotions they don't understand. It is indeed confusing.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome to WP!

Welcome to Wrong Planet.

That sounds very frustrating, i'm not sure why they would be so hesitant to help you, all the contact i've had with the mental health field here (in Australia) has been a very pleasant and professional experience.

Sometimes, and this is based more on misconceptions than science, it seems that middle aged people, especially females tend to slip through the cracks when being identified as being on the spectrum. I think it's largely to do with the more common conditions such as mood disorders being misdiagnosed as the root cause simply because they're the easiest to identify and most prevalent, but also because for some reason that i've never understood, there seems to be a belief that there is a gender disparity when dealing with autism. Also, many assume that autism is picked up early, which in my case it was not (diagnosed last year), and in many others, perhaps you as well, it has been missed.

I hope you find someone you can get along with, it can really make things much easier.

Welcome, again, to WP. Many of us here have encountered professionals who don't want to know us. Autism, as anyone who's serious about it would already know, is a condition diagnosed in children. When it's diagnosed in children, at as early an age as possible, there are small possibilities of doing something about it, and an alert professional can count on a few years of fees by trying to help. When it's diagnosed in adults, there aren't any good outcomes.

Thank you all for the kind words. I do feel better about things today - yesterday I was a wreck and even had what I now understand to be a meltdown.

Welkome to WP

Mick