How are adults diagnosed with Aspergers helped?

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Hi, I would like to know when adults get diagnosed with Aspergers, How are they helped and what are they required to do to help themselves? I know i havnt said any specifications but i would like to know in general.Thanks.

Services are heavily skewed towards children and adolescents. "Help" comes from learning as much as you can about Asperger's and autism and applying it to your own situation.

Connection to the autism community is a good place to start.

-Accommodations: You get get accommodations at work and school because of your diagnosis.
-Seeing specialists: Some counselors and such specialize in working with people with ASDs, without a diagnosis they're unlikely to take you on as a patient (because of having too many people trying to see them with diagnoses). It is sometimes possible to do this without a diagnosis, but much more difficult.
-Monetary help: Sometimes people can get disability payments for an ASD. This is dependent on otherwise meeting criteria for it.
-Vocational Rehab: If you're being unable to find and hold a job, state vocational rehab groups will work with you if you have a diagnosis of an ASD. The quality of this varies by location.

-Others understanding you better: Whether parents, friends, partners or whatever, a diagnosis gives people the reassurance that you are that way, and lets them research what they can do to help or what they can avoid. (It was not until my diagnosis that my dad stopped trying to pressure me to be on anxiety medication for traits of my Asperger's that were not due to anxiety)

And then there is of course just knowing what traits do match your weaknesses and working to minimize the negative effect of this on your life.

Having a diagnosis as an adult means for me:

* I have greater self-understanding (the diagnostician was able to tell me things about myself - e.g. about my mannerisms and about how I spoke - that I was not aware of)

* others whom I tell (my spouse, my boss, my friends) may have a better understanding of me (though that will also depend on their knowledge of AS and willingness to learn)

* my psychologist understands me better when working with me about emotions and sensory sensitivity

I qualify for health insurance cover in so far as I am referred by my GP for help with stress, anxiety, or depression. To the extent that having AS makes the risk of those things more obvious, having a diagnosis may help me a little with getting a referral for psychological services.

I guess it depends on where you live and what services are available. But as wavefreak58 said, services are mostly aimed at children and adolescents (and adults at the severe end of the spectrum who were diagnosed as children). I hope that services for newly diagnosed adults will improve as surely there must be more and more of us.

For me personally, the only "help" I get are the sessions with my psychologist, and I'm getting them more so because I suffer from depression. I don't get any more because I have AS, although that would be very useful.

(ETA, my psych mentioned I could probably also get access to an OT to help with my clumsiness. I don't think it's necessary at this point though.)

I have staff through the PA Adult Autism Waiver... they make it possible for me to live independently.

It surprised me a little that even here in Eastern-Europe (Hungary) they can provide help for adults like I am. Well, I'm not getting it yet, I have to finish the evaluation first. My biggest problem is with relationships with the opposite gender. I wonder what kind of help they can offer me, though...

If you are high functioning - do not expect much.

I got "free" dental (reduced cost: "Högkostnadskort" in Swedish) for a few years since my teeth took severe damage from a depression i was in earlier. Most of it was fixed with my own money before i got the card, so - well, not much help there.

Then there are some social gathering (help groups) i can apply for, but they mainly focus on helping low functioning aspies how to cook, make their bed (etc)... not very useful for me at all.

What i really wanted was sort of help to form relationships, even a free membership on a dating site would be appreciated - even if they are the way they are.

I have read a lot of comments so far that I definitely relate to on getting diagnosed with Asperger's as an adult. One of the biggest things for me was that I finally knew what it was that made me so different/eccentric all of these years. I then joined WrongPlanet and am continuing to learn more and more about the autism spectrum.

My experience so far is that if you've managed to survive without becoming homeless for many years, managed to get married and stay married for many years, and have managed to raise three children without anyone in the government feeling they would be better off somewhere else...

Yer screwed and on your own.

I do hear there are some groups though, and that depends a lot on where you are. I haven't looked into any in my own area yet, so I've no idea how much help they would be. I'm pretty accepting of who I am, so I really don't need much in the way of emotional support.

What I need is more in the way of a life coach, but without any funding to pay for it, I'm left to flail about. Not much fun I tell you, and a truly stupid waste.

I'm in subsidized housing, on Foodstamps, and all my kids are on medicaid because I cannot manage my life well enough to change this situation. I can guarantee that the cost of a life coach to help me improve my situation would, in the long run, cost a hell of a lot less that it has and will to continue on this course.