I think I may have Autism

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Greetings! I must say to begin with that, this makes me nervous, but I need to be with people like me. I need to discuss things with people who understand. I've taken all the tests, and you could say I passed with flying colors! I was incorrectly diagnosed bipolar and spent years on drugs I didn't need for ten years. I got mistakenly diagnosed because of questions like "Have you ever.." Well, I am literal and logical; if you ask me if I've ever had a period where I needed less sleep, I would say yes. That doesn't mean I'm manic! I do have multiple sclerosis, which is releasing remitting, so I have good periods and bad periods. When I got tired of being drugged and missing out on my children growing, I got up on my nerve and confronted my psychiatrist with the information that I might be autistic. He gave me a few tests and said, "You're probably right. Go to -insert name of yet another place to go and feel like an alien- and get a diagnosis." That place told me that while I sounded autistic, they could not diagnose me, and I was supposed to be diagnosed as a child.

So here I am; I'm 47, technically undiagnosed, but as far as I'm concerned, I AM on the spectrum. I have four teenagers, two of whom have been diagnosed on the spectrum. I wonder where they got it from. jk
Everyone in my immediate family thinks I am autistic as well; it explains SO much. I'm going to close this before I overthink everything and run away.

In closing, I've written two books on life with multiple sclerosis, love playing hunt-and-find games, reading Terry Pratchett, and gardening. My music taste is all over the place. I thank you for your understanding and for giving me a chance.

Welcome to WP! It sounds like you belong here.

Note that you do not need an Autism diagnosis to belong here. You can even know for certain that you are not Autistic and belong here. All that is required is an interest in the topic and some manners.

You said "I've taken all the tests", I hope that includes at least one of these:
=><1> Autism-Spectrum Quotient Test (AQ)
=><2> Aspie Quiz ^{Registering is optional!}
After some months reading up on the topic on the Internet, my bride and I both thought I was probably on the Autism spectrum—but it was my score on the first of those two tests that convinced me to seek an Adult Autism Spectrum.

Which brings me to the part where you received a useless referral for an assessment. Your psychiatrist apparently did not exercise due diligence in making the referral.

You are not too old to receive an Adult Autism Assessment and possibly a diagnosis. I was 64 when I was assessed and diagnosed! And others on WP were even older. You were apparently given a bad referral.

I recommend you start by checking your health insurance to see if it will, even partially, cover an Autism Assessment. When I called my insurance provider they said my insurance would help with the cost and they gave me a referral...a bad referral. And after that a few more bad referrals. I think Adult Autism Assessments must be uncommon enough the insurance folk were unfamiliar with them.

Finally they said I could find a provider myself to do the assessment and told me what I should look for. Again, they were wrong!

The incorrect information from my insurance company delayed things by months. You just need a licensed psychologist who is willing to do an Adult Autism Assessment, likely using the DSM. (A licensed psychologist should know whether or not they can assess you.)

You can use https://www.findapsychologist.org to look for a nearby psychologist who works with Autism and takes patients your age. If possible, it'd be even better to use your insurance provider's resources to find such a psychologist who is in the insurance company's network. You can probably confirm a psychologist is licensed on some website of your state's government.

When I did my search I got off-track because of the bad referrals from my insurance company and ended up with an out-of-network provider to do the assessment; that probably cost me some money—but I don't care because I was so happy with the diagnosis.

And while the website for a psychologist will likely mention whether they "do" Autism and what age group clients they take, I did not see any whose website said they did Adult Autism Assessments. I think Adult Autism Assessments must be uncommon enough that they don't think it's worth mentioning on their website! To find out if they do assessments you'll probably have to call and ask—and whoever answers the phone might not know the answer to that without checking!

So, if you so choose, I think you could seek a formal Adult Autism Assessment. If you so choose.

Good luck! And, in any event, welcome to WP!

You're in the right place. Welcome.

thank you so much for this topic. i am in my 30s and i have spent my adult life collecting mental health diagnoses like pokémon to attempt to explain all of my quirks and symptoms, i’ve been on all of the drugs that have rarely ever helped me, and i am finally realizing i likely have autism. it just makes so much more
sense. i resonated SOOOO much with the OP. autism is clearly present in close relatives of mine, and when i finally got up the courage to tell my mother this week that i think i’m autistic (my parents are typically very invalidating about these things) she actually said she has thought this herself since i was a small child but never sought testing.

so i’m efforts to figure out how/if to go about getting tested, i have been perusing the internet for information and support groups. THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH for sharing these stories and resources. i am also on disability and have a brain tumor, so the insurance issue is very real for me since i certainly cannot afford to pay for anything out of pocket.

this is my first time interacting on here and i already feel seen. you guys rock.

Thank you to everyone who has responded to my post. I took the two tests Double Retired suggested, and the results were as expected. On the Autism Spectrum Quotient, I scored 42/50. On the Aspie quiz, the broader autism cluster was 136 out of 200. It said I am likely on the broader autism cluster.

I researched Adult Autism Assessment and got two results near me. One costs money ($2500), and the other uses language I disagree with, so I'm back to square one. I am starting to wonder if I NEED a diagnosis when I, and my immediate family, already know it.

That price is plausible. I saved a bit because neither I nor the psychologist saw any point in doing an IQ test as part of my assessment (I'm in Mensa). The question is, though, would your health insurance cover an assessment? Even though I was out-of-network my insurance covered about half the cost.

P.S. I thought the assessment was kind of fun!
You would know if you needed it. If you need accommodations somewhere because of it, you'd probably need a formal assessment.

In my case I needed it only due to personal choice—I wanted to know, without an assessment I would've wondered whether I was almost Autistic or barely Autistic. If you are surer than I was, then maybe you don't need an assessment.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome to WP!

"multiple sclerosis?". I think my father's twin sister had that condition. It sounds like you are in the right spot. Many of the people on this site have autism but we also have a variety of other conditions. So, Welcome.

Tell me if this has ever happened to you. I re-read my post and noticed it must have auto-corrected because it put in an incorrect word and I didn't notice. Now it's driving me nuts. It reads that my multiple sclerosis is releasing remitting. This is wrong. I am relapsing/remitting. I'm an author about this, so it really irked me to see an error in my first post! So noticing an error or difference and then going crazy trying to fix it?

Tell me your stories...

You wrote: "It reads that my multiple sclerosis is releasing remitting. This is wrong. I am relapsing/remitting."

Don't worry about it. I think anyone who knows about multiple sclerosis would understand.

I might add that I suffered a massive stroke about 2 years ago. I lost all my words but I was able to recover many of them back. But when I type anything on the site, I always reread what I have written. Some of my words became opposites. I would write CAT, but I was writing DOG. So I always make it a point to reread everything that I write.

In general, you have around 24 hours to correct any mistakes you make or the system makes before it is frozen.

One of the reasons I... um... shy away from writing... I have to edit all of what I just "vomited" out. It's really annoying lol

welcome, glad you are with us!