Diane, 7:42am, December 13th. Entering the Wrong Planet.

Post Reply New Topic

Recently think I might be on the spectrum. Can't seem to get a diagnosis because I'm an adult. It sucks.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome to the forum!

Hi Reggae, welcome aboard.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome to WP! I hope you like it here.

Do you live in the U.S.? If "YES" then you could probably get an Adult Autism Assessment to determine if you are Autistic. Being an adult would not disqualify you from being tested. It is for testing adults. I was 64 when I got my assessment...and my diagnosis:

Autism Spectrum Disorder, Level1 (Mild)
with an additional note that I also satisfied the criteria previously associated with Asperger's Syndrome.

Yes, usually it is children being assessed for Autism so parts of the assessment were clearly designed for children. I don't think my age invalidated the results but it did make the assessment kind of fun.

The assessment should be performed by a licensed Psychologist who works with Autism and takes patients your age. They will know if they can assess you. You can look for licensed Psychologists here and perhaps your state has a web page listing licensed psychologists.

CAUTION: I think Adult Autism Assessments must be uncommon. I did not find a listing for a psychologist in my area who did them. I figure it must be a small market so they don't waste space on their listing or on their practice's web page mentioning it.

And, when I called a local practice to ask if they could do the assessment the office-staff-person who answered the phone did not know (and thought they did not). Fortunately they checked and one of their psychologists did my assessment.

Start with your insurance, however. If your insurance will help with the cost then you want to follow their rules!

Complicating factors:
● "Broad Autism Phenotype" is a possible diagnosis, too. That's for folk who have some Autistic traits but not enough to qualify for an Autism diagnosis.
● Many of the traits of Autism are not unique to Autism. So, someone could have traits of Autism but not be Autistic.

Please remember, though, Wrong Planet does not require an Autism Diagnosis. You can "belong" on WP even if you know for a fact you are not Autistic. A polite interest in the topic, however, would be very appropriate.

Good hunting!

Yes. I am in the United States.




Thank you for the link. I've already contacted some of the same people found there just from Google searching my area, and haven't had much success with them. I only have Medicare Part B, which has never been good for much.




I could speak early and use complex words, but I hated speaking and never wanted to do so. I still don't really like talking much, unless it's about something I'm interested in. Strong dislike for casual chit-chat in person.

I just want to and do eat the same food types for weeks or months. Only soft, mushy things or hard, crunchy things. Never soft, crunchy things or wet, slimy things. Even drink the same drinks, at the same time of day, for years.

Certain clothing textures make me angry. Certain physical textures gross me out.

I like to wear the same outfit every day.

Absolutely HATE last minute changes to plans, especially if I've put a lot of mental effort into planning out exactly how things are going to go.

Usually watch the same genre or type of television shows for months, before rotating back to a previous favourite.

The same with music. I'll listen to the same albums or genres for months, sometimes a year straight before rotating back to a previous favourite.

I've been told that I don't speak very loud and people will have trouble understanding me at that volume, but if I speak any louder I feel like I'm yelling.

Obsessive collecting, very specific things that I feel compelled to learn about as much as I can.

Perfectionism to the point of ruining things.

Completely shutting down when I get overwhelmed.

Needing several hours of alone time after going out and doing anything from mailing a letter at the post office to grocery shopping.

Also absolutely HATE strong smells of any kind. Like, air fresheners will make me irrationally angry.

Any little bit of fat on meat will make me want to vomit.

Treatment resistant depression and bad social anxiety.

Trypanophobia.

Getting overwhelmed dealing with people.

Using the same words frequently or repeating phrases, usually to myself.

Making lists.

I had a random cashier tell me I should do ASMR videos because my voice is so monotone.

Not being able to tell if people are being genuinely nice or viciously cruel when giving me a compliment.

Also, also, absolutely HATE fluorescent lighting.

Wish people would be completely direct and to the point instead of side stepping around what they mean.

Difficulty with shoelaces as a child.

Never using anyone's name when addressing them directly. Only using a person's name when speaking about them to someone else.

Feeling angry as a child if we drove past a McDonald's that I'd never been in before, because I felt I needed to go inside it to collect it, and then being irritated for the rest of the day over it. Like something was missing that couldn't ever be replaced.

Perpetually feeling like I'm still a child, even though I've been an adult for decades.

Much happier being surrounded by my things than being around most people.

Feeling sad about crumpling up a piece of trash paper because the paper deserved better.

Being told I'm rude and inconsiderate for being honest and speaking the truth.

Hating making eye contact with people but slowly forcing myself to do it over the years after enough people said I never looked them in the eyes.

Shaking my leg very quickly when sitting after getting overwhelmed speaking to another adult.

Dermatophagia aka Wolf Biting.

Lifelong insomnia where only melatonin seems to help, but doesn't cure.

Planning out and practicing conversations in my head so I will know what to say and still getting flustered and messing it up when I actually have to speak.

Feeling more at ease when I take 15mg of L-Methylfolate.

I enjoy driving but after a while it makes me feel exhausted because I'm paying attention to every other vehicle, their speed, their car type, if they have interesting number/letter combination license plates, the road signs, the angles the other cars take curves and turns, how most people are pretty bad drivers, the bird sitting on the power wires, when is the city ever going to fix that pothole, I HATE LED lights, the woman at the light beside me is knuckle deep in her nostril, that's a stupid bumper sticker, and about a million other things.

I wasn't comfortable trying to diagnose myself so no matter how many Autistic traits you have, I can't diagnose you.

^{I might guess the diagnosis the the psychologist will give, though!}

Yes. I know. I meant the list more as, from my perspective, enough cause for me to seek out getting an actual diagnosis. I seem to have a lot of the specific traits, and not just broad traits, to convince myself that this is something I should look into.

For the record, I don't want to have autism. I'm not excited about this at all. But, now that I am aware I might have it, everything seems to constantly be pointing that way.

REGGAE, Welcome to Wrong Planet. It sounds like you found the right place.

You spoke about many of your traits and they are common traits for those with Autism. I have Asperger's Syndrome and that is a type of Autism. Many of the things you discussed sound similar to several of my traits. Humans are a very complex being because we have multiple brains. One exist on the right side of our skull and the other on the left side. Normally the left side becomes the dominant brain and the right side becomes the night time or sleep brain. But some of us experience a reversal and our brains switch places. So you are describing how the right side of the brain works.

The right side looks at things in two ways, right and wrong, good and evil, black and white. This food is good, this food is bad. Whereas the left side of the brain looks at things across a whole spectrum (all the colors of the rainbow). The two sides of the brain produce very, very different people, like night and day. That is why this site is named the Wrong Planet. It is like we are living on the Wrong Planet.

One of the areas that is visible is that we have unique sensory perception. It affects our smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing. Some smells can drive us crazy. But these are senses. They can be good or bad. We have special abilities to identify threats that other people cannot smell.

You wrote that you "absolutely HATE fluorescent lighting." The same here. Many years ago, I worked in a building that was fully lit be florescent lighting. Some times, when I was working my vision would start to flitter. It would start at the edges and then over the period of about fifteen minutes would slowly condense towards the center of my eyesight. And then I became blind for about an hour. Eventually, my head would begin to hurt very severely. And then slowly over the next hour I would recover from the event. It was cause by the florescent lights. This is knows as Ocular Migraines.

I worked for 40 years and then retired. I made it a point to not allow florescent lights into my home and as a result, I no longer get Ocular Migraines.

Then you wrote, "Perpetually feeling like I'm still a child, even though I've been an adult for decades."
So let me try and explain. I died when I was around age 3 or 4. A large bull that weighed around 100 times my weight at the time attacked me. It was like being struck by a dinosaur. I died and I experience what is commonly called a Near Death Experience. I stood next to my dead body and saw my parents standing next to my dead body in utter fear. So I came back, but rather the right side of my brain came back. Life was find until I reached the age of around 12 when a child turns into an adult and I never made the transition. So even though I am 76 years old, if you look deep inside me, you will see a child, but a very, very smart child.

You hate to make eye contact. So do I. I normally look a little bit off to one side.

My progression (starting quite young) was: I'm just like everyone else; Why am I treated meanly more often than other kids?; I must be different, that is the only explanation.

I would've not guessed Autism but in my early 50s I even pestered my Primary Care Practitioner into getting me a Karyotype Test because I was hoping it would find an extra chromosome (a result I could've used to deny being a human ). But, it said I had the correct number of chromosomes. I was disappointed...and still clueless how to explain a difference I was pretty sure must exist.

In my mid-60s circumstances caused me to at least read about Autism. I knew almost nothing about it and had never heard of high-functioning Autistics but what I read about Autism sounded like me. Then the Adult Autism Assessment said it was me.

Perhaps not as entertaining a result as I hoped for but at least I finally knew that there definitely was a difference and I knew what it was.

Then I made the mistake of searching the Internet for famous Autistics.

It took my ego some time to recover! I've done OK for myself but not that OK.

It took some time for me to accept that not all autistics were that great and that I was doing OK.

Now I accept that Autism is a Spectrum and I'd landed on it at a nice spot: Asperger's green.

And I am still kind of pleased I've been officially distinguished from Allistics.