Diagnosis as adult - for or against?

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If it is causig significant problems in daily life or you just want to know why you are so different from those around you, it can be beneficial to get in touch with those who may help find a diagnosis, be it ASD or not. If you really do not want to know, then that's your perogative.

Yes, sorry, Norway. Not Sweden. My bad. Either way, a long way from Australia.

I was diagnosed as an adult. Getting a diagnosis for me has been a neutral experience. It hasn't really effected my life one way or the other.

Apologies for resurrecting a somewhat old thread, however I just wanted to say that I've gone for it.

My diagnosis journey has begun.

This morning I presented my GP with 7 typed pages of reasons of why I think I might be on the autism spectrum, and the referral process has begun. The first page was just online autism test results, the rest of it detail of things I think might be significant. I told the GP I'm happy for her to send on the information I've given her. She was very pleased as this will make her life easier

My understanding in my area is that the GP refers to the community mental health team and then it will be picked up by the local adult autism assessment centre.

No problems at all with referral from my GP - but then I know her well - she's very understanding and gets my award for best GP ever...I guess it might have been more difficult if I did not already have a good relationship with her.

And so it begins...

Good luck with your quest! I am an older female (almost 49) and I was just diagnosed this year. It has been a very introspective experience and I am currently looking for a good counselor/therapist, but not 100% sure I need one for long. I have coped this long, and like you, I am high functioning, very intelligent, and have managed my family and household successfully for many years.

But I KNEW I was different. I think like a man in many aspects, mostly that I totally don't "get" girl-talk. I have few friends because I hate socialization and I get obsessively fixated on my special interest to the point that I don't know what to talk about with people if that is not the topic.

Good for you!! ! I really think that was the right course of action - both starting and using the typed pages. I also did that, and I think it was very helpful. It can be really hard to express yourself on the spot, remember all the things you want to say, and answer all questions fully and accurately as they come at you.

I finish on Tuesday and should get my answer then. If I recall correctly, you've said you're following my blog. I'll post as soon as I can process it all and get down to typing it out, probably later on in the week. I hope you'll blog about your experiences, if you feel able. Post here if you do, so I'm alerted to follow it.

Good luck!

Good luck! I don't know much about how that journey unfolds where you live, but in Norway it took me 7 months to get my first session with the experts.


Hehe, I wrote 9 pages of significant info about my life, and also lots of ICD-10 diagnostic criteria printouts I almost fit in, but not quite, just to rule other things out, together with the Aspergers criterias of course. It seems to be a common denominator among Aspies, we write essays instead of explaining it verbally.

I was diagnosed about a month ago (I am 36). My psychiatrist sent me to a specialist because he suspected that I may have Asperger's. I had not heard much about it before that, and what I had heard was erroneous information.

The diagnosis has been helpful since I am now seeing a specialist every week who has experience dealing with autism/asperger's. I am highly functional, yet there are aspects of my life where I am completely lost, and it does affect my day to day living.

Please excuse any grammatical errors (or otherwise) in this post, as I just finished working a night shift and am beyond tired.

Good luck for this next step on your journey... and PATIENCE at times (nhs wheels can grind slow at times )

My reasons for wanting to get diagnosed is to get extra help for when I go to college and to finally know why I'm so different, to have it all settled. Nothing will really change but I'll feel like I'm more entitled for support relating to AS. I'll know why I act the way I act.

Thanks for the replies, support and good wishes.

I'm expecting this to be a slow process, 6 months absolute minimum, probably longer; I'm in no rush and happy to be patient.

I will keep you updated via the blog feature here and post back in this thread when I have news.

I was as diagnosed recently at 36. Once I stumbled on AS, I felt I needed a professional evaluation. Now that I have one, I know for sure and can work from there to understand my past and prepare for the future. I still worry secretly and very silently that someone is going to take it away from me. Its the first time I have ever fit into a group in my life without being anything but me.

No one mentioned it yet so I will, be prepared for a phase of 'a-ha' moments that may not be very pleasant... it is odd how the mind doesn't fully accept something until it's undeniable, well, our minds anyway. You have good support so you will be fine, just a lot of things will fall into place if in fact you are diagnosed. This obviously entirely depends on how you've treated others in your life and also how you've been treated. Most of us have been bullied and those of us who went undiagnosed never knew why people picked on us so much... just being awkward certainly didn't seem like reason enough. Woops, /soapbox.

Wish you the best on this journey of self-discovery.

I second what Kirayng said. I am still having those "ah-ha" moments. At first, the barrage of realizations was almost overwhelming. I have processed most of it now, but there are still random moments when something else will click into place.

I highly encourage you to document these "thoughts" as the mystery clicks into place. They will be very helpful to you as you continue to process, alone and with your therapist.

I feel it's a sort of difficult necessity that should be provided for because of cases like mine.

Basically, my mom consistently told me that "oh, you were gifted" and because of this I mirrored the problems of an ASD. When I was in preschool they claimed that I had PDD but she rejected the diagnosis and basically scooted me along with my life, using my IQ score as motivation to do well in class.

Well, things got worse, I didn't really have any friends until high school, I felt depressed ect. I mean, I really just didn't get why I wasn't making friends with people. When I got into college I was kinda at the point where I realized I was doing stupid things but at the time I wasn't aware of it until later, causing for a lot of guilt in my life. Well, someone suggested to me that there might be some sort of issue in the brain, so I started to do some investigation and discovered AS.

My family, because of their first experience with the school, was very negative on any ASD and considered it almost taboo, and that only "rainman types" were the real ASD's. My mom in particular seemed to have this belief. It was difficult because I felt like I had to go behind her back because of this idea.

I recently received an evaluation result and I need to discuss it with the evaluator, but it said that I had an unidentified ASD (non-AS). Dad helped participate for the early childhood development stuff. I might be getting reevaluated later to get a more succinct result but it feels good to know that my issues weren't just me being stupid or being unwilling to learn, but more because a fundamental way that I was.

Thanks, I do anticipate significant 'aha' moments, whether being on the autism spectrum is ruled in or ruled out. I'm hoping that they'll be able to tell me you are / are not on the spectrum; what will be hardest I guess is if they are unable to give a definitive answer, I think I might find that frustrating so I'm trying to mentally pre-prepare for that too.

In some ways I'm sort of prepared as I've been though this once before when I was finally diagnosed with a very rare mild chronic genetic physical condition in my early 30s. I had to change a number of behaviours to lessen the impact of the condition, and learn to accept that some things I was maybe stuck with and could not make accommodations for. That had a lot of impact on my self-identity too, so in some ways this is well worn territory for me, I'm kind of lucky as I've been through something a bit like this before.

And, corvuscorax, I strongly identify with your experience of struggling to connect with others at school.

I have been trying to understand why this happened to me too. For a long time I could not understand what went wrong, and was not just able to
'put it behind me' no matter how much I really really wanted to.

I have a lot of pieces in place now, and feel like I have a much greater self-understanding and self-acceptance. I no longer feel wrong or bad which is a big step forward for me, finding WP has helped with this, but a professional autism assessment (which hopefully I will get) would also help a lot with completing the self-jigsaw as it were.