Age of diagnosis link to severity?

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Diagnosed age 31, ASD level 2

It's related to severity and cultural and medical knowledge, among other factors. My grandmother, mother and I all are verbose (less severe in that way) and were DX'd in our 20s but not with ASD (lack of ASD knowledge pre 1990s), so we got schizo, depression, bipolar DXs. Our symptoms were noticeable, but not "recognizable". My grandmother was institutionalized for paying more attention to electrons -a Special Interest- than her kids (too bad tech companies didn't hire women back then). When I used to cry non-stop in my childhood and have fits, my parents merely said I was dramatic, too sensitive and grandiose. So by 1990 rather than learning productive skills, I had learned to hide my difficulties and retreat into shame (but I was self-aware enough to find a nurturing NT husband to pay attention to the kids). I will request diagnosis for my daughter (age sooner than later. Still her teachers and her doctor say "they don't see ASD" b/c of ignorance (which I was a part of less than a year ago; but she didn't "grow out of it" and apparently neither have I ).

Some articles suggest that childhood trauma (e.g. ACE adverse childhood experiences) delay diagnosis or treatment. I am an ACE 4/10 (resilience 8/16).

For what it's worth, I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome (no speech delay) when I was about 10 (and yes, I'm female). These days, though, my functioning level is much closer to moderate than to high.

It seems like the later the diagnosis, the milder the autism. However, there may be some Level 2 and even maybe some Level 3 whose autism was misunderstood and was only recognized and diagnosed in adulthood.

I would say "The later the diagnosis the milder it is" only applies to those born post 1989-1991 . I suppose you could try and say a man getting a dx this year at 35 is more severe than me, as I got mine at 62 . However you'd have to eliminate other reasons why a dx came at a later age for me ,i.e mental illness and everything seen as being connected to that, failure to adopt a holistic approach, incompetency of mental health professionals .


There were obviously signs as a first appointment here with a new pdoc , and the mention of autism , resulted in a letter giving an assessment date about a fortnight later .

Had the signs suddenly appeared at 61? No!! They'd always been there , but it took a more intelligent and observant MH professional to see that they were there .

So far I've tracked: function of severity, comorbidities, cultural awareness (individual, family, community, national, global)...

Firemonkey, that reminds me of my grandmother.

Warning trigger deceased. Thinking of a few individuals in my family whom I miss. For those born in the early 1900's (the Other Millenials), diagnosis would need to be done posthumously. Even for those born closer to 2000, but tragically passed already.

Yes, being born sooner than later definitely had an impact.