Was anyone here diagnosed as an adult?
southwestforests
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Joined: 18 Jul 2009
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Location: A little ways south of the river
Diagnosed six months ago at age 46 here in the middle of farm country.
Pretty big life crisis was required before Psychiatrist I was already seeing said I have this, all the pieces finally added up.
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I got diagnosed unexpectedly at the age of 22, when I had been seeing a psychotherapist for a few years for issues dealing with depression and anxiety related to low self esteem. Even though he took a long time to diagnose me, he seemed sure that I have AS, and said that he had seen a lot of autistic children.
The funny thing is that I had always felt different somehow from everyone else as a kid. I even looked up the DSM criteria for Asperger's, but after looking at it I wouldn't have ever diagnosed myself. Half of the other autistic people I meet don't think I'm autistic, but over the years I have improved with my eye contact and social skills.
But I guess it's not too surprising, considering that I was diagnosed as having PDD-NOS several years ago when I was in a special day class or inclusion program because of my learning delay; even though my parents took me to another child psychologist after that, who undiagnosed me.
princesseli
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ColdBlooded
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Location: New Bern, North Carolina
I got diagnosed this past year, at age 21. I had always had issues with social things, being obsessive, and all of that... Previously everyone involved in therapy, prescribing me antidepressants, and everything had just seemed to assume that i had depression and a bunch of anxiety issues(except my first therapist when i was 13-ish who suggested that i could have AS.. but never referred me to anywhere to get evaluated or anything.. everyone just focused on the anxiety issues).. without ever really getting an official diagnosis for anything. I was already going to the therapist i'm at now for a little while when i brought up the possibility that maybe i have asperger's, and after we talked about it during a few sessions she seemed to agree. I asked about how i would go about getting an official diagnosis, because i thought it would probably help if i had an explanation to fall back on for whatever future incidents when certain aspie behaviors may get me into trouble. She said that her and another psychologist at the same place could do a full evaluation if i wanted them to. A little bit after that, my parents and i had started really worrying about how i'd get health insurance once their insurance dropped me at age 22... So, that's when i really decided to hurry up and go through with the evaluation, because if i got a diagnosis then i'd be able to stay on my parents' insurance.. and if i was diagnosable as an aspie then i needed it to be official before turning 22. And, so, yeah, i got diagnosed.
tektek
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Joined: 24 Nov 2009
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,814
Location: Brisbane, Australia.
hi SilentScream, i was diagnosed as an adult. i am 29 years old and i live in brisbane, australia.
apologies for appearance of laziness, the following quote of another response explains nicely
from (click)
my initial referral to said psychiatrist was not so much to satisfy my curiosity for diagnosis with AS as it was to address some ongoing issues with anxiety and depression. the referring GP had identified me as being a likely candidate for AS, but i had no formal diagnosis to that point.
on first consultation the psychiatrist commented that i presented with "striking" AS mannerisms and that my speech patterns were very much in-line with how an individual with AS may communicate. as part of my evaluation and at a following appointment, as arranged, i was diagnosed with AS against DSM IV criteria.
truth be known i did have suspicion of my having AS for some time. in 2001 wired.com posted the Baron-Cohen AQ test ( http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html ) and i scored highly (45). i do remember following up on the wired AQ test with a more defined test ( http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php ), again scoring highly in the AS ranges. you can complete the latter test and post your score if you like ( http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt5906.html ).
perhaps some of the reason for my not being diagnosed with AS as a child or adolescent has to do with attending 10 different schools from k-12 (we around moved quite a bit). also worth considering is that AS was not widely recognised or known in the mid-late eighties and nineties when i was attending school.
the behaviours that you mention could be considered symptomatic (or typical) of someone with AS, i can identify with a lot of what you have listed. in saying that, i suggest that it is better to seek professional diagnosis against DSM IV criteria rather than in a forum or from an online test Smile. you may need to speak with a GP and seek a referral to see a behavioural psychologist - in Australia a referral from a GP would be needed to see a psychologist (or any specialist).
...will a diagnosis provide peace of mind or offer some benefit? these are questions that only you can answer. from my own experience it was a little daunting to receive diagnosis, even though it was a fair bet. since diagnosis, over the last 10 days, i have began to research AS, the more i read the more having AS explains who i am, how i interact with others, and how others react to, interact with, and why they may may tend to avoid me.
certainty in everything, for me, is everything - having been diagnosed places a lot of puzzle pieces and gives me something to work with. maybe it will do the same for you.
if you have any other questions please ask away
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"see without looking, hear without listening, breathe without asking" - W.H Auden
RampionRampage
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Location: Greater Philly Area, PA
Two years ago.
My biological sister was diagnosed. Keeping in mind that I was adopted and didn't meet her until I was 17, and we lived in totally diff situations and /still/ are eerie similar in tons of ways, I figured I'd better look into it. Especially since this unnamed Thing was preventing me from really getting anywhere in life, and nothing seemed to be helping.
I was where I am now, suburbs about 20 mins from Philadelphia. I got diagnosed at UPenn. UPenn is renowned for it's absolute fail at patient services, so I had to jump through a bunch of hoops, over a pool of sharks, and juggle poodles to get the appointment I was after, but it was ultimately worth it to go somewhere that specialized in this sort of thing. Since then, I've found better places to take my business. Because while I was all about hunting these people down to get the diagnosis, doing thus on a regular basis with a doctor there was not my idea of fun and actually prevented me from getting the help I needed for almost two years.
I shrink in the face of the twin evils: Phone menus and bureaucracy.
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As of 2-06-08 --- Axis I: Asperger's Disorder | Axis III: Hearing Impaired
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Four years ago.. I am in Pennsylvania, USA.
Autism/AS runs in my family, but I never considered that I might have it. I had a lot of trouble socially in school, but never knew why. I never even questioned why I had such intense obsessions. When my daughter was being seen for Rett Syndrome, two of her neurologists made comments and notes about believing the mother (me) had AS. It was also mentioned by a family doctor. I then found out that a teacher had talked to my father about getting me some sort of help,and he insisted that such disorders weren't real.
Later found out that he had rather severe AS.
PlatedDrake
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I got Dx'ed Nov 2008. For some reason, the "autistic" tendencies i had for years came up again and i decided to look up Autism on the net. These tendencies were mentioned a lot as i was growing up, but because i did well in school, my parent's didnt know what was up (granted, they went to a child psychologist who wasnt worth crap and was no help at all to them. thought it was childhood depression).
I was informally diagnosed by a psychologist who also happened to be my counsellor. We were talking about my best friend and my brother having just been diagnosed with AS and various other famly members having AS and Autism. She started asking me a whole bunch of questions and then asked me if I'd ever been diagnosed with AS before which I hadn't and then she told me she thought that I had it.
That was about 2 months ago. I'm going to try and get a formal diagnosis if I can get referred by my Doc.
My path to diagnosis started with a book called "Loneliness" by John Cacioppo, which used the phrase "socially disconnected" - causing bells to go off in my head. I did some searching on the interwebs & found dozens of links relating to Asperger's Syndrome, including this website.
What followed was several days of intense research into AS - during which time, it became abundantly clear that I possessed all the characteristics necessary for a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome. I joined WP & over the next few weeks, read hundreds of posts that I could have written myself - describing my entire life, from early childhood to the present.
I also took the Aspie Quiz a couple times, which further convinced me that AS was a perfect fit.
About four months after first seriously considering that I might have AS, I asked my GP how I might go about getting evaluated. She determined that it was a job for a psychologist & referred me to a local psychological clinic (which just happened to have a staff psychologist who specializes in adults & adolescents with AS.)
I made an appointment & four sessions with the psychologist later, received the diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome - at the age of 50. (It was covered by my health insurance - so there was just a $20 co-pay per session.)
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RampionRampage
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...Envy.
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As of 2-06-08 --- Axis I: Asperger's Disorder | Axis III: Hearing Impaired
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