Obtaining an Adult Diagnosis/Treatment

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Hi all,

Long story short, I have good reason to believe that I have Apsergers (based on my own experience and on what several somewhat knowledgeable people have suggested). I am really struggling though as an adult to even find a place nearby that will be able to give me an official diagnosis and help me find appropriate treatment. Almost all of the places I have been able to find that deal with Aspergers/autism focus exclusively on children, usually about 7 years or younger.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to how to find a place that will do evaluations and/or treatment for adults on the autism spectrum?? If it helps, I am in central New York (Syracuse/Rochester region), but any hints as to what to look for would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Wish i had some info for ya the only thing i can think of is to take an online test. the one i took was 150 questions and it gives a really good diagram of the spectrum of aspergers that you may have also. i don't have the link offhand. as far as talking to a real specialist, i'd either try and goggle someone in your area or call a few of the child specialists and see if they know someone you can talk to.

Do you have anyone else in your family diagnosed?

What about a teaching hospital nearest you?

I am participating in an Autism Genome Project and will be assessed next week.

Perhaps you can look into your local Autism Centre and ask them who they would recommend...

Welcome to the queue, swatthefox.

Just a hint, though: don't expect a lot in the way of treatment. Well, you can learn to read faces, slowly. That stuff always makes me angry, though, which isn't a good space for learning; and the immediate face-to-face stuff still degenerates into a red blur for me.

You can get better at working with moods, more meticulous about tracking down potential confusions. For me the diagnosis triggered a series of avalanches in the areas of self esteem, personality, you name it...

You can do neurofeedback, but be careful. I did that and it made me dumber. Of course, there's a chance that can make it easier to fit in but would you choose it with foreknowledge?

I got tested today as an adult and was disappointed by the tester who normally does under 18 year old testing. I have adapted some mimicing into living and she did not seem to take that into account when running the test so make sure whoever you find has experience testing adults.

That's the thing about us aspies: the good ones among us are smart enough to get by. Just not smart enough to work out the missing pieces by ourselves.

You can get a diagnoses from a licensed marriage and family therapist. If you don't have the money to pay $100 per session, you can find people that pro-rate their services.

To cut a long story short, there have been a number of posts show up recently where adults afflicted by aspergers have shown up, newly diagnosed - or nearly diagnosed - and looking for ways to survive better, We don't do well at helping them.

For the most part, it's "I've had that" and "You think you've had it bad, look at what happened to me", and then they go away. Perhaps they find help somewhere else, but we don't care.

Well, some of us do care, but they've all - or almost all - learned not to care too much about what happens on Wrong Planet.

Hell, I've just been accepted as a "real" aspie by my local autism support organisation. DO they know what its like being an adult aspie? No. Do they have anything to offer? Well, probably not. But that's the best that our local societies have to offer us. Is that enough? Hell, no.

What we need, desperately, are ways to feel real in our communities. But, alas, we're aspies. Bugger.

swatthefox

You are wise to be cautious about going to someone who specializes in diagnosing children. If you currently don't "present" as having severe communication/socialization problems, you will very likely not receive the diagnosis.

The folks at GRASP in New York City have information on diagnosing adults, and maybe someone there could give advice on being evaluated in your area.

Z

I approached a business specializing in work programs for adults with disabilities and injuries. Through them I recieved a fully subsidized diagnosis.

swatthtefox: Don't be disillusioned - you need to find someone who understands adult asperger's, and high functioning at that.

When I first went to my local support group, I couldn't believe how many stages along the spectrum people were. I felt like, inside, I was exactly like them, but I also knew exaactly how to act 'normal'. So i ended up feeling a bit of a fraud.

Does that mean I don't have asperger's? Not according to the psychiatrist. He IS experienced in adults with asperger's and, he believes, there are a lot of high functioning people like us out there slipping through the cracks.
He said high functioning adult aspies tend to go to one of two extremes. Either they have no concept of embarrassment or offence, and hence are easy to spot. Or, they are extremely sensitive to embarrassment, and as such become extremely adept at 'fitting in'. I suspect you are in this camp. But just because you can fit in, doesn't mean it's easy for you, and doesn't mean you don't need support.
(although like peterd says, support for high functioning aspies seems to be very very limited).

I really encourage you to try again. Contact your local autism group, or a group in NYC, and find out who in the city/state specialises in adult asperger's, and talk to them. My city has just 1.3 million people and I found one - in NYC there must be dozens!
Best of luck, and don't be disillusioned!

peterd, you missed one significant part of the conclusion there's nothing we can do about it because "we're Aspies," (actually I'm not an Aspie but an autie), and that is the more important fact that we are ...

VOTERS. Start engaging in a spectrum voting block and demanding gerrymandering for autism and very soon I suspect there would be adult spectrum services available in spades.

VOTES=who gets the constituent services.

Yes, I tend to agree. Seeking to actualise the political power implicit in being a member of a downtrodden minority is an avenue for progress.

Getting the platform right, however, is harder.

I work in an organisation that - for various historical reasons - has an extraordinarily high proportion of workers who seem to me to be disordered in one way or another. I'm the only - as far as I know - diagnosed aspie there, but my boss, and his boss, show an awful lot of autistic traits - as do more than half of my co-workers. The organisational culture has, of course, evolved to deal with this. It's all tacit knowledge, passed on through the generations. The afflicted are ignorant of their affliction. The unafflicted know they have to herd the afflicted, but don't enquire deeply. Their hopes of getting out of here depend on not making waves.

This is one small component of a provincial government's public service. Where should I direct my efforts?