Seeking diagnosis as a functioning adult

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Apparently as a child I had difficulty maintaining eye contact and recognizing anger in adults. I recall being quit evoluble to the extent that names like "professor" and lawyer were bandied about. Imaginative play was unusually intense. I would construct entire fantasy scapes with my vast collection of toys ranging them in rank and file and pitting opposing sides against each other in childhood simulations of war. I dont however remember the kind of play where a pen lid becomes a warp capable spacecraft or an mpty jar becomes a portal to faerie. In term sof special interests ive always switched between various interests. Basketball football pokemon etc I developed obsessive and all consuming devotions to these things to the point where my mother describes them as projects. At teh moment im absorbed by tranhsumanism musical harmony and neuroscience.

Meltdowns are a little more complex, I dont remmeber melting dwon as a child but since I turned 14 I started to experience episodes where I withdraw completely refusing all social contact and becoming quite mentally disturbed. Im highly paranoid/hypochondriac and these issues inform the "vegetative state" as my mum called it. This all lead to drug abuse (opiates/cannabis) to self medicate - both are still issues.

The last typical aspie meltdown I had was at work where I burst into tears with rocking etc in the changing rooms. I also only recently started making eye contact and come to think of it im sure that I simply centre my gaze around the nose and mouth area as I find it intensely uncomfortable looking people in the eye. In fact I find people in general to be discomfort inducing - any extended period in their company leads to me needing to retreat to my own self made world where the only universal constant is me.

Im wondering whether I fit the profile - I have other symptoms including rather severe OCD difficulty communicating (probably social anxiety related as it is only really in person or with people im not familiar/friendly with) there's also the hypersensitivity to various sounds and the fact that I tend to establish rather rigid routines such as eating more or less the same thing in the same order day in day out.

It certainly sounds like you have enough symptoms to consult a professional.

Be warned: Not every psychologist or psychiatrist is qualified to diagnose Asperger's, especially in adults. Do your research before you commit to anyone, or you may spend your time and money for nothing.

Im in Britain and posessing limited financial means im relying on the NHS so I get what im given more or less. My worry is that ive worked round alot of my issues and can present fairly normally at times. The stimming type behaviours I dont really do in public all that much anymore for instance. Other things like clumsiness mumbling seeming rudeness and failure to recognise cues are still problems however. Oh my AQ was 32-33 - this was with me responding not at all to questions relating to things ive recognised and since corrected.

I scod 34 on the Baorn Cohen mind eye test! I believe that that's well well above average. I spend inordinate amounts of time watching tv however. Ive watched every single episode of every single star trek around 3 times as well as having seen 40+ entire shows (If its 4-5 seasons or more with 45 min + episodes) I wonder if through that ive come to be able to put expressions into context. This was an issue for me as a child so it seems that I may have intellectualised it in the same way that we intellectualise humour.
On the phenotypal test I scored 127 aloof, 83 rigid and 97 pragmatic I think rigid was below the cutoff as im pretty flexible. I'm the type of person who enjoys devising unusual solutions to problems. I am quite rigid in other aspects however. For instance I tend to eat the same things in the same order day in day out I also wear the same clothes (financial concerns dictate this but even when I have alternatives I will often choose a favourite combination and stick with it come what may)
Overall I both love and loath familiarity. I dream of picking up sticks and moving out to Latin America and experiencing new fantastic sensations every day - but I wonder if thats simply escapism as in my actual day to day life I construct set routines and rarely go out of my way to change things up

I'm a functioning adult and in the UK also. From what I gather, the first step is to go to your general practitioner "family doctor" and ask to be referred to specialists for assessment for Asperger's/high functioning autism, as you have learned that the traits seem to be strongly indicated in yourself. That would be your first step.

I've read on this site that people suggest gathering up your evidence, more or less simply in the manner in which you have done so here in your OP. It's helpful to write down your traits, bits of your history as relating to possible HFA behaviour, etc. It's grist for the mill to make a case to your GP as to why you think investigation may be worthwhile.

But also, from what I gather, there may be some doctors who will say to you "why bother?" or words to that effect; even though it's the NHS they are probably still always looking for ways to save the system money and put off a person who might be in pursuit of an expensive evaluation. I've also read of people whose local area did not diagnose adults and they had to pay £2,000 themselves for an out of area evaluation process.

I havve a telephone consultation with my mental health primary care trust next friday morning which is the first step. My guess is that i ll be best served by writing out or brainstorming the main issues ive been having. Im aware that the DSM V revises aspergers as a distinct form of autism and merges it with ASD - this was done to avoid inconsistent diagnostic practises.

My concern is that this lack of concensus could mean that in the luck of the draw I end up with the psych who believes that AS is a childhood disease or cannot be diagnosed in adults. The other issue and perhaps the main one is that ive adjusted alot* of my behaviours through trial and error. I have what I call social cataclysms. I'll be dropped into a social environment and usually end up leaving prematurely to avoid the inevitable eruption (caused by some social faux pas on my part) or end up leaving in disgrace. Through these experiences ive been able to deconstruct the source of my difficulties and modify my behaviour. This is very recent however. When I was 18 I still didnt understand that my inner world and the "real world" were a far remove from each other.

I invented my own highly idiosyncratic writing style based around impressionistic language use archaic words and creative syntax - I then used this style (language essentially given how alien it was to readers) in essays to the confusion and dismay of my A level teachers - I was actually called in by the headteacher as a result! Madness or genius was the general tenor of that conversation. It never occurred to me that it might be impossible to decode - it was clear to me and thus ought to be clear to everyone else. Many of the words were of my oqwn creation using Greek Latin roots etc for instance.

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