has anyone been diagnosed as an adult?

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(I am using my on-screen keyboard, as my keyboard is broken, so please forgive any typos I may miss. Thanks)
okay, my friends(well, the whole one I can confide in) and family think I tilt at the proverbial windmill when it comes to my health, so I have ceased discussing things with them. To be fair to me, I almost died from a perforated appendix as a teenager because my mother thought I was faking and went undiagnosed as hyperthyoid (for which they have yet to find an underlying cause) because I was asymptomatic (and in fact am symptomatically hypo) for years. I do admit I obsess about my health. I believe I do so because no one else will, and my health has never felt 100%.
The beginning of May I fell while working for the US Census Bureau. When I fell, I hit the bottom half of my face on the side of my car hard enough to break the door handle. When I was taken to the ER, I informed them 3 times that I had hit my face, but my knee was so badly swollen, he neglected to run any tests on my head. (they also negleced to give me antibiotics for the deep abrasion on my other knee, but that's another story). When I went to industrial medicine, I started getting horrible headaches, seeing auras as though I had been staring at the sun, got unbearable tinitus, double vision, and worst of all started feeling spatially distorted, as though my brain were not in my body. The doctor ordered a CT scan 2 weeks after the accident, but it only showed that I had a brain (still inside my skull, thankfully!)... She hadn't thought it would show anything that long after the accident anyway if it was only a mild or moderate traumatic brain injury. She has since diagnosed me with post concussion syndrome (PCS) and referred me to a neuroloist (whom I meet with tomorow)
True to form, I immediately went home and Googled PCS (doctors must hate Google) devouring all the information I could find. I read all the common reasons certain people are more prone to PCS, and at the time I assumed it was because I am a woman and suffer the occasional migraine. Now, I am no longer sure.
I just finished reading "Second Opinion" by Michael Palmer (a superb book, by the way, with a somewhat ironic name, considering this post) and as I read, I started to see a lot of myself and my little brother (who passed away from a medulablastoma last year) in the characters. And I recalled that one of the articles I read on PCS linked Asperger's to an increased probabilty of suffering its effects. So again I returned to my old friend Google. The more I read, the more I began to feel that this was no windmill.
So I took the Aspie-Quiz just to satisfy myself. My aspie score was 127/200 and my neurotypical was 67/200. It said I am very likely aspie, which at my age terrifies me. I really have no one I can talk to in the real world, and don't know if I should mention it to the neuro. Has anyone had an adulthood diagnosis? Am I just being paranoid and having at a poor helpless windmill? I am going to write a blog about the characteristics I think my brother had and I have. (Also, I had a second cousin who seemed to have normal development, but shut down at 4 when his parents had another baby. He was diagnosed with severe autism.)

Last edited by MysteryChild on 01 Jun 2009, 8:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

I was DXed at 57. I have been able to use the FMLA* for intermittent Leave of Absence so when my job gets too much to handle, or I get too much to handle when I am at my job, I slip away for aspirin and water and sit in a dark room for a while, or just pack it in and go home for the rest of the day.

When I first heard about Asperger's Syndrome I knew it was me, but I was terrified that others may find out. I was relieved to find out that others had always known that something was up with me, even though they couldn't quite put their finger on it.

Relax, and welcome to WrongPlanet. there is a lot to learn about your unique self!

(*Family Medical Leave Act, I live in the States.)

thank you. that makes me feel less crazy. I finished my blog listing what I could think of as possible characteritics. should I discuss this with the neuro as a possible underlying cause of the PCS?

I wouldn't know, however there are others on WP that are far more versed on what that all means. I do know that the first few medical professionals did not take easily to my insistance of the symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome. So I finally just had to schedule a complete psychological work up of me without letting them know what I thought, first. It went quite well when they thought they discovered it.

haha that's very typical of doctors. my gp only ran bloodwork on me for the thyroid thing because I badgered him to figure out what was wrong with me. He was baffled when I came back hyper. He was epecting it to just be hormonal (a 'woman thing). Though doctor's always seem baffled by my bloodwork. My favorite was my allergy screening. my total said I was having a massive allergic reaction to whatever it was I was obviously allergic to, but ALL the regional allergies were negative. That's the first time I ever had a doctor they had no idea what something meant. didn't get her to refer me to an allergist though

I was diagnosed with Asperger's last year at the age of fifty-eight. Welcome aboard the Wrong Planet, MysteryChild.

Hi MysteryChild - welcome to WP!

I was diagnosed at the age of 50.

The path I took was to first educate myself - I read Tony Attwood's The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome, Temple Grandin's Thinking In Pictures, Liane Willey's Pretending to be Normal and Ashley Stanford's Asperger Syndrome and Long Term Relationships (these are just the first in a long reading list I made for myself.) I read this site for weeks. I took the Aspie Quiz several times. Finally (after several months), I decided to ask my primary care physician how one would proceed to get an evaluation for Asperger's Syndrome.

She determined that a psychologist is best suited to do the evaluation & gave me contact info for a nearby psychology clinic where there was a doctor who specializes in adults with AS. I called & made an appointment.

The evaluation took about 4 sessions (over the course of two months.) At the first session, I brought with me a 15-page bio filled with anecdotes from my childhood through the present (I chose incidents that illustrate specific characteristics listed in the DSM-IV for Asperger's Syndrome.) The doctor said he was glad to have the bio, since I had no family members available to provide that sort of information at our sessions. (I mainly brought it because I tend to forget important details when answering questions face-to-face.)

The actual evaluation consisted of questions I recognized from the Aspie Quiz. By the end of the 4th session, the doctor was ready to give his diagnosis (in my case, he said I fit all eight of the criteria listed in sections A & B of the DSM-IV.)

The diagnosis gave me a sense of validation - I was already convinced from my personal research that I had AS, but the Dx added some external authority to that conviction. I continue to see the psychologist because I like his attitude (he is focused on the issues that I would like to address - he isn't trying to "fix" me, but rather wants to help me find ways to get what I want out of life.)

Otherwise, the Dx hasn't really changed my life a whole lot. I don't intend to seek accommodations for my work. We focus on my social difficulties in our sessions - and I find it helps just to have someone to talk with who is accepting & supportive.

I guess the most important thing for me is the ability view my life in the context of AS - to see where my AS tendencies have sometimes made things very difficult for me (it explains an awful lot about my childhood!) - and to watch out for similar situations in the future. I can also see that some characteristics (like the ability to focus on small details & to concentrate on my special interests, to the exclusion of everything else) have led to great successes in my life.

Best of luck MysteryChild! I hope you get the answers you are looking for.

I was dx'ed at 31. Best thing that ever happened to me.

I think there are pros and cons both to being diagnosed older and younger....instead of helping them, I find that a lot of people diagnosed as young kids are put into a box earlier, and less is expected of them, and many of them are saddled with the label of 'disabled' starting in their formative years. Letting diagnosis go till later, however (and I should know), while it might force a bit more adjustment on the part of the Aspie, leaves one with a lot of unanswered, and unanswerable questions. I'd adjusted pretty well by the time I was diagnosed, but was beyond relieved when I was finally given a reason for why I am the way I am, and reassured that I'm not crazy, I'm just wired differently.

I was diagnosed at 36 years old. I have been pigeonholed very early as'disabled' thanks to my neurotic parents who saw some doctor who completely made a balls up of a diagnosis but that was common in the 1960's and previously no one knew aout it. I have experienced discrimination and have been treated like a second class citizen by neurotypicals who always think they are superior. Since I was a child I have only been granted the status of a dog. I should have been diagnosed as having AS back in 1967 and then I may not have not had my civil rights violated by neurotypicals for 40 odd years but I'll never know now

I was diagnosed at 16, if that counts.

i got dx2 at 34 .. there are lots of ppl over 30 that got missed cause the health ppl didnt believe in aspergers till the 1990's

I was diagnosed at 37 and like someone said, it's the best thing that ever happened to me. Finally, I can understand myself and get the right support.

Welcome aboard WP!

I haven't been diagnosed officially, but it was called a "likelihood" by a therapist. I was 58 when she answered my question "is it likely that I have Aspergers?" I was very aspie-like as a child, less so as a teenager and young adult, and became strongly so after a brain aneurysm/stroke a few decades ago. My theory (supported by the therapist) is that I learned compensations over time, but lost them when the stroke wiped out the areas of my brain where they were stored. Something like that may have affected you. It is also pretty plausible that both my father and his father had it as well.

I was diagnosed at 33.

I was di'aged at 23, although I knew I had it since age 14. See my thread about this on the general forum

I was diagnosed in my forties at first a bit of a shock, then my life truly started to make sense. Some of my journey, may help you on yours - Discovering ASD later in life: http://asplanet.info/index.php?option=c ... &Itemid=67 and Making Sense: http://asplanet.info/index.php?option=c ... Itemid=129