if you were diagnosed at age 25 or over did it help?

Post Reply New Topic

if you were diagnosed at age 25 or over have overall your social relationships improved?

do you have more friends now? higher quality of relationships?

(if you can, put aside the higher confidence you may have gained from the diagnosis, because in some cases that makes aspies even more disagreeable after being diagnosed-- they care less since they feel nothing can be done).

You focus on friendship and relationships. This is only one facet of life. You could gain no improvement along these lines and still be better off if other areas of your life improve.

I was 53 when diagnosed. Someone aged 25 at diagnosis has 28 more years than I to work things out.

Regardless of your age your future has vastly more possibilities than before the diagnosis.

Last edited by wavefreak58 on 07 Nov 2011, 7:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, I believe my life has better relationships since I was diagnosed with Asperger's as an adult. For one, I felt as though I could now acquire (through books and WrongPlanet) a sort of owner's manual for my life. My eccentricities now made sense. Another thing was that I underwent some therapy for some issues. My family went along on occasion. And they now understand me better, and that has made a great difference in ourselves.

I got an appointment to get diagnosis tomorrow morning (I'm 36.)

Had no interest in getting DX until I learned that I might be able to get adderal or dexedrine to help with my "vehicular narcolepsy," which I understand may be related to the AS from this here forum. Would be nice to be able to drive for more that 15 minutes at a stretch.

As for whether it will help with social situations ... I seriously doubt it.

Having more friends wouldn't help a damn thing for me.

Wouldn't it be better to ask about specific treatments and therapies and whether or not they actually work for people?

I mean, a diagnosis doesn't necessarily mean anyone gets any treatment. Many of us are diagnosed, yet insurance will not cover treatment, we cannot afford it, and don't qualify for any assistance in getting treatment. I fall into that category. Diagnosis doesn't change anything other than our own awareness.

It helps me to know for sure what he problem has been all these years, but lack of treatment means I'm on my own as far as dealing with it.

I can, but am fast to consistently choosing not to. Not that I believe nothing can be done. Far from it. I believe there are a lot of strategies that can help, but I'm fairly convinced most of them won't help much without "higher confidence." If I become disagreeable, it's usually because I believe I'm dealing with people who don't understand Autism as well as they think they do. When those people are professionals dealing with me and my kids, I believe it is incumbent upon me to disagree with them and do what I can to help them understand it better. When they don't listen, I become extremely disagreeable. I become very insulted when people who do not live with Autism (either themselves or as a parent of an Autistic), start telling me they "know what it's like," or "know what works."

I'm sorry, but if you don't live with it, you DON'T know. You can't compare dealing with any number of students with Autism daily in class with living with it for fifty years, and having three kids aged 12 - 15 who have also had it all of their lives. You just CAN'T.