Why do many clinicians have trouble diagnosing adults?

Post Reply New Topic

I've noticed a lot of variability in members stories about their experience with diagnosis. Some are good, but others report the experience as being confusing, disappointing or even invalidating and humiliating.

My best guess is lack of knowledge. In a lot of places there just aren't many people who specialize in autism in general, and the ones that do...well, I'm betting they know about autism with children and not so much adults. For a long time now, autism in adults hasnt really been represented well. It's like we vanish once we turn 18 and get out school or something. The focus is usually on kids. And if we don't get that diagnosis as a child, it seems it would be harder to get that dx as an adult, I dunno. A knowledgeable clinician would help, but again, how many are there? Some people luck out with their professionals, others not so much.

It's not diagnosing adults that is difficult; it's diagnosing people who aren't obviously autistic that is difficult.

To diagnose autism, the clinician has to verify that a person has certain traits (and that those traits have been present since childhood). Autistic people who have made it to adulthood (or even adolescence) without having been diagnosed tend to hide certain autistic traits and/or don't display the traits in a way that is obvious or easy to notice in just a few diagnostic sessions. So the clinicians can't verify that the traits are present and therefore can't easily make the correct diagnosis.