Too high-functioning?

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I'd really appreciate your comments please. I'm a 43 year old female and have been having therapy to deal with anxiety and depression. During this we explored the question of whether I am high functioning autistic. I'd done the online screening tests - AQ, EQ, etc plus the aspie quiz, and my results suggest that it's highly likely I am on the autistic spectrum/an aspie. This makes sense to me and answers a whole lot of questions I had about the way I am and the way I behave etc.

My therapist encouraged me to request a referral via my doctor, as I felt I needed to have a formal diagnosis - I'm the sort of person who needs answers! The referral went forward, but my doctor has just told me that the Community Adult Asperger's Team won't be pursuing it on the basis that I'm too high functioning and they cannot offer me any support services etc. The service is apparently vastly over-subscribed.

I'm now thoroughly confused, and also very upset. Does this mean they acknowledge that I am on the spectrum, but can't help me? Or that they think I'm wasting their time perhaps? Comments please.

Congratulations, you've just learned first-hand why functioning labels suck.

Either you're "too high-functioning" and don't need help, or you're "too low-functioning" and they think of you as basically incapable.

What it means, probably, is that the services they have are mostly things like adult day-care, things you don't need because you're independent. It's the typical gap: People who need a lot of help will get it; people who don't need much help won't. And then ironically it's the "high-functioning" people who are functioning worse, because the small things they'd need aren't available.

This is why I don't see the point of getting the DX as an adult if you are a high-functioning Aspie.

and I'm not still sure not what's going to happen with the new DSM but as last I understood it, many of the "normal" Aspies here are going to instead be diagnosed with something called Social Communication Disorder because doctors are deicing they're too normal to have AS.

And I'm not sure what kind of services will be available with that diagnosis. Basically many adults have been DXed in the last few years, those services really are over subscribed, as they told you. The APA has said they believe many recent diagnoses to be questionable and want to narrow the criteria for this reason.

At 43 you have had many years to learn to adapt on your own. Because of this it was not evident that you could use some type of diagnosis.

So because you have learned to mask it that means it doesn't matter

Ahh I'm sorry that fell through... Good luck, I hope you can find the answers you seek elsewhere!

They can see the duck, but they can't see that under the water he is paddling like hell. This is my situation as well. I grew up being easily insulted. Could never take a joke. Thinking that most of the world was populated by primitive barbarians, blinded by monetary selfishness, that cannot see that they would be so much richer if they would or could understand the power of synergy, working together instead of against each other. All of us are in the same boat together, planet earth. If we destroy our planet, the next live able planet/boat/parachute is light years away. The last thing we want to do is sink the boat. Maybe this is a lesson of sticking together, or falling apart ? As a child no one understood me, as an adult when I try to help, I get treated like they would rather drown, than be rescued by me. I am not good at social chit chat. When I talk I usually have something to say. I have lots to say. I'd like to fall in love like I did as a child.

Great thread lundygirl! I don't have any answers, but I know how you feel...

Zener I love the analogy of the duck, that is brilliant insight!

That's why I've never been a fan of functioning labels.

Maybe you can look for someone else for services. Are you able to hold down a job? I am as well high functioning autistic. I am not Asperger's. Now a days though I am closer to Aspergers because I am more high functioning than when I was a child. Sad to say I am not able to hold down a job but its more based on my anxiety (very severe... in fact when I went to the state doctor for SSI payments he said I was one of the worst cases he has seen), depression, and schizoaffective disorder. I am now able to socialize and actually enjoy it (when i was a kid I didn't care and didn't do it at all). My brother just went in for a diagnosis for autism as well to get services and he is high functioning. I don't know the full results at this moment but the doctor (who is also my psychologist and she specializes in autism) says it looks like he is on the spectrum. This means in my family alone I have 3 (out of 4) people who are on the spectrum. In some ways I am the highest functioning because I am able to socialize but my brother and my dad have trouble. Just because you are older doesn't mean its too late to get a diagnosis because if you are struggling at work and can't work or something then it might be beneficial to get a diagnosis no matter the age. My brother is 26 and went for a diagnosis. What is weird is the day after he went in, the autism rate is now 1 in 88. I wonder how much longer before autism is the new normal.