Hello community I was diagnosed yesterday!! !

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It's nice to introduce myself here finally. This forum was actually what lead me to ultimately seek a diagnosis. I have been struggling for some time. Actually my entire life but it was only until this year that things really started to deteriorate in the mental health department and I was planning on hurting myself that my husband told me something has got to give. So I decided that I needed help finally and I started seeking therapy which was failing miserably. I went through six therapist and all of them were frustrated with my lack of improvement as was I. So I finally gave in and went to a psychiatrist and got diagnosed with depression and anxiety. I mean really it's not her fault. I told her I was anxious and depressed so she can only help with what she knows right? The meds felt kind of like disappointment and once again failure. Even knowing that some people thrive on medications and they live very happy and successful lives and there's no shame in relying on them it just wasn't my personality to resort to them unless it was a last ditch effort to get better. But something surprisingly good came from them. They cleared my head. I could think better and I could finally clear my head enough to start to mold my hurt, frustrations, struggles, and anger into a shape. Into a form. My problem was my anxiety. My anxiety was causing my depression... so what was causing my anxiety? Social situations at work.. It was social. Everything about it made me feel stressed. So I started researching. I remembered when I was a child my fourth grade teacher consulted my mother about possible autism or aspergers. My mother asked my doctor in private when I was in another room. I was ultimately diagnosed with ADHD instead however. I asked why and my mother said that he did not wish to label me. Coming back to reality I decided to research this. I found WrongPlanet.net and I thought the name was so perfect! I always felt like I was on the wrong planet! But of course there's more to it then just that. I always had verbal ticks and they drove my parents and teachers nuts! They thought I was just a bad kid and they punished me all the time for it but they never left me. It was here at wrongplanet.net that I discovered the concept of stimming and sensory processing disorder and sensitivity to sounds and lights. That was it there was no way it could be a coincidence for me! I finally went to my doctor who also happened to be a pediatric developmental practitioner and she diagnosed me before I could even finish explaining myself.

So here I am at 26 after all these years only just now figuring it out. The diagnosis was strangely a huge relief for me.

Welcome, Sun Beam.
You were deemed broken, but they couldn't be more wrong!

Take a look around. Members Only and The Haven occasionally sees topics covering some of what you've mentioned including medication. Medication serves its purposes but also serves to help companies sell it. In this case it helped you realise something existential once you figured out what the medicine was meant to curb. I had a lot of the same issues with my work environment. It was toxic sales, with all the politics and battle of sexes in tow.

Like you, my official diagnosis came at 25/26. For the first couple of years after my diagnosis this place was a Godsend to me. Beyond that it is still an amusing place with good people, that occasionally reminds me I still have things to learn about myself and the world. You might find that you've gathered more life experience than some others have, but are still in the dark regarding elements of ASD and Autism. A light will be shone on that here.

Glad you find the diagnosis a relief.

I was diagnosed at age 49. It was like someone switched on football stadium night game floodlights inside my head. My performance at work rocketed so much I was asked to coach and counsel my local colleagues to enable them to keep up with me. A year on I was asked to coach and counsel national colleagues and the year after that, global colleagues. And I received salary increments back to back, for those three years running and ended up the highest paid worker in my specialty world wide. From coaching and counselling my colleagues, I became their negotiator of early retirement / voluntary redundancy / golden handshake packages for winding our profession up, as the UN wanted that. We all lost our jobs, but the others left on a high, whilst I was asked to stay on and sew up all the loose ends and train others to do what we had been doing for the previous 100 years or so.

Welcome, I am happy you found the island of autism after a long time drifting, it is a very thick liquid we are surrounded by and can take a long time to see in this cunning topsy turvy maze of life!

Welcome, Sun Beam! I'm glad you found us.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Thank your so much for all of the love support and advice everyone!

I'm so glad to hear that your diagnosis led to some self discovery and improvement. That's what I'm hoping for as well.

Yes I'm hoping after I stabilize more I can eventually talk to my doctor about weaning me off of my medication. I have always hated sales. I have always felt that it's just clever lying and stealing.

It makes me very happy hearing that your diagnosis was a open door to better days. My family has been incredibly supportive.

Also anther pleasant surprise has happened from my diagnosis. It has also led my cousin to investigate possible Autism Spectrum Disorder for himself. We believe very strongly that this runs through our family and I was just the first to be diagnosed. Specifically on my mother's side. My mother is not interested in pursuing a diagnosis but she is looking forward to learning more about mine because she feels she has all the signs of aspergers that I've been struggling with day in and day out. My cousin has been very depressed and he requested my permission to share my diagnosis with his therapist and I happily obliged. I hope that he gets the help and information that he needs and deserves! I'm so happy that my revelation could help him.

I have two other cousins who show signs of more severe aspergers as they are both adults and have never been able to hold down jobs or develop meaningful relationships. I have told their mother who is my aunt and she is extremely interested in asking their doctors about it.

Welcome! Sorry this was late .

Congratulation, welcome to the club. I was 53 when when I was diagnosed although I had self diagnosed and identified as autisitic for a couple of years before that. I worked with children with classic autism for 20 years and those in the know told me that they have know for over a decade and presumed I knew too. Then I changed jobs and when to another service near by chasing money and struggled straight away, 3 people in 6 months asked me straight-out was I an aspie, then 2 more so I began to put the pieces together,,,like you did too I guess. It better to know, there is no question there. You may need to take some time to let things settle and makes sense of things, you have after all just gained a new identity. Now you can claim it and be you...pheeeew!

Pretty much all developmental conditions run in families, so don't be surprised if multiple members of your family are found to be autistic too. If I were you I'd also check for signs of ADD, dyspraxia, dyslexia, etc. in the family, as it's more likely than not that someone there has one of these conditions as well. Check the symptoms of them and see if any of them match up.

In any case, welcome.

This is true. My eldest is an aspie and my youngest has dyslexia and dyspraxia