poll for women on the spectrum about diagnosis age

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Born in '65, diagnosed in '09.

I was diagnosed at 19. I had a previous diagnosis of depression when I was 15.

I was just 5 months shy of my 60th birthday. It's a shame that it couldn't have been done 57 years sooner. I do believe that my life would have been very much different. Probably much better.

Diagnosed age 32, 1997. It wasn't possible for someone like me to get a diagnosis earlier. (I self diagnosed in school - I think age 13, which would have been 1978.)

Previously informally diagnosed with PTSD, in my 20s (and still with PTSD). Nothing else, though I think it was assumed I was depressed in my late units/teens. Good girls don't have disorders.

I was diagnosed this year at the age of 25. My diagnosis was AS and Anxiety Disorder - NOS.

I'd seen two psychiatrists for varying issues in my youth, but only briefly, and was never given a diagnosis prior to this year.

[quote="Anemone"]Diagnosed age 32, 1997. It wasn't possible for someone like me to get a diagnosis earlier. (I self diagnosed in school - I think age 13, which would have been 1978.)

Previously informally diagnosed with PTSD, in my 20s (and still with PTSD). Nothing else, though I think it was assumed I was depressed in my late units/teens. Good girls don't have disorders.[/quote


How did you self diagnose in 1978 if the whole autism spectrum wasn't known?

We were watching films in class at the end of the school year, and they showed a film of people using food to shape behaviour in autistic kids in an institution. I knew, as soon as I saw them, that I was like them. I also knew that, of course, I wasn't allowed to be. People like me (higher functioning) weren't allowed to have problems back then. So that's why I didn't get my diagnosis until adulthood (after many years of welfare) when I'd been having problems all along (and was a late talker to boot). Mostly I knew but had to wait for the establishment to catch up. I think I got my diagnosis as early as was technically possible. I know I was the first adult the psychiatrist had diagnosed.

I was diagnosed with AS at age 2. My parents knew nothing about AS until my aunt, who is a special ed teacher, told them about it. My aunt unofficially diagnosed me before the doctors. I have no memory of being diagnosed, but my parents told me a little bit about it.

I can't help but agree that girls are probably harder to diagnose. All the guys I know with ASD seem more... Well my special ed teacher had to teach me how to give social ques to them... Doing so felt odd...

I have been misdiagnosed with ADD, ADHD, ODD, OCD, O... (can't remember the rest), Dyslexia, anxiety disorder, communitive disorder, and depression.

After a good two weeks of IQ testing and other strange psycological tests, I was diagnosed with a very high-functioning case of Aspergers in the 6th grade.

I was diagnosed at age 20 this month. I had been previously diagnosed with depression and anxiety. I had to seek out a diagnosis, though. After doing research, I found somebody who could deliver a diagnosis and I went in and asked if it was possible if I could have AS. At the end of the appointment, she said "I really, really, really, really believe that you have Aspergers." It was such a relief to hear an answer that finally made sense.

i do not have an official diagnosis. my mom and aunt ~5 years ago were talking together, since my cousin was diagnosed with AS, and compared him growing up, with how i was when i was growing up and concluded that i also must have AS. when i tried to get an official diagnosis a couple years after that they said i wasn't AS. i do have a diagnosis of depression. i tried again recently to get diagnosed. the place i was referred wanted the first time $150 to get tested. when i went back they wanted $400 to get tested. who knows how much they want now and with not having a job for the last 3 years, i can't afford to go somewhere to get tested. i had wanted to get an official diagnosis so maybe i could get on disability, but without that i can't get approved.

I am turning 26 next month.
Asperger's.
Found out when I was 21.
My doctor thought PPD-NOS at first.

I was diagnosed with moderate to severe PDD-with classic autistic traits in 1986-87 at the age of nine.
Also diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, shaken baby syndrome, OCD, rapid cycling bipolar disorder, multiple personality disorder, sensory issues, executive functioning dysfunction. They even thought I had childhood schizophrenia for a while and thought I had borderline personality disorder for a few years too.
I also have status eplylepus seizures which are life threatening and can cause brain injury due to a lack of oxigen to the brain during the seizure.
I am also legally deaf.

However the only dx's that are true are PDD-with classic autistic traits, traumatic brain injury, shaken baby syndrome and OCD, the seizures, and the deafness, executive functioning dysfunction, and sensory issues.
Much of what they thought was bipolar, or BPD was a combination of autism and untreated OCD run amok.
As far as the childhood schizophrenia....alot of kids on the spectrum in the 80's and before were given the childhood schizophrenia dx...many were sent to institutions and just now they are starting to re-evalute these people for autism and discovered than many people labled schizophrenic and spent decades in institutions are in fact autistic. Due to a loving and dedicated mother, I avoided that fate cause she moved heaven and earth to find out what was going on with me. Unlike those with AS, I had severe speech delays, and did not really understand much of what ppl said until I was in middle school. She knew something was up when I scored in the moderately MR range in a traditional IQ test, but scored in the gifted range in the non-verbal IQ test. However, I did manage to go to college and mostly stayed on the deans list, until I developed a medication related sleep disorder. I plan to go back and someday hope to be an art therapist for those with autism to help give ppl on the spectrum a voice..as art and poetry have been my voice and my saving grace.
Creativity has amazing healing power.

Jojo

My parents were discussing this at dinner on Wednesday evening and said this appears to be the case. But, in my case, I have other disabilities and don't have some of the issues my brother had when he was younger.

23 and waiting for a diagnosis. I will hopefully get one next week.

1991 diagnosed with autistic tendencies at age 15

March 2012, aged exactly 50. Luckily I live in the UK and getting a diagnosis was very straightforward – an understanding general practitioner immediately referred me to a National Health Service consultant specialising in autism and Asperger's. I feel extremely angry about the fact that there are so many in the US who desperately want/need a formal diagnosis but just haven't got the relevant insurance.