Adults are harder to diagnose?

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I am a 21 yo guy that is having some difficulty finding a formal diagnosis...

Since I am a child schools ask my parents to send me to a specialised mental professional, we considered it insulting and ignored, until in late childhood (ie: after 16 years old) my parents noticed that I really had some severe social problems (my parents noticed it when they noticed how bad I fail to get a girlfriend), and I started a treatment (without any diagnosis... just treating the symptoms).

Later (already having 21 yo I think... or I was 20...) my father saw a news article about Asperger and noticed that my grandpa had much of the behavior described, then I went to research and found articles that looked like were describing me...

So I asked several professionals if I am a Aspie, and got awnsers like:

"You are not ret*d!" or "But you look in my eyes!" or "You are not Autistic! Autism is a really bad and ugly disease!" or several other stuff, and all them refused to even try...

After some more research, I figured that the reason may that I am already adult, and I already had some treatment and I "fixed" my behavior much myself (in fact I developed a more or less clever way, I developed a sort of theatrical character, a NT version of myself, and I go relating to other people acting, instead of really being myself).

So the question is: Adults are harder to diagnose? I ask that because I noticed that usually all the discussion is about diagnosing kids, how to make kids life better at school, and whatnot, and I saw not much focus on adults but the fact that adults lack friends and girlfriends (something that apply to me too).

Yes, Speeder, it really is harder for an adult to get diagnosed. It is even harder for an adult woman to get diagnosed because women tend to be more socially adept anyway. I spent most of my life using self-help books to learn how to interact with people and now my diagnosis is Schizoid Personality Disorder. The only difference in the definition of that and Asperger's is that one you're born with and one you develop. It makes me laugh (in a sad sort of way) since I'm actually BETTER now than I was as a child, but they go with the "disorder" diagnosis rather than the fact that I was born that way. (I also have a cousin with classic Autism and a grandson with classic Autism, but it doesn't run in families either, does it?)

I think that the Aspie quiz also if not a formal DX can make you understand something better, give it a shot.
P.S.
Usually Aspergers have average/above average intelligence so what they said to you doesn't make sense. Psicologist always refused a DX to me because I'm "too good at NT theater" and "too intelligent", actually I think I'm only very well adapted to NT. By the way, my daughter is Autistic and when talking about our family I've asked that psicologist if I can be an Aspe she said "yes, but you are successfull in your life so there is no meaning for a DX".

I think that also if you don't get a professional DX it can toss some light on yourself and your history, by the way, Welcome to WP!! !

The Aspie Quiz: http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php

(If you don't mind can you post the graph link? Just curious).

The problem is that most psychologists barely know the first thing about AS. They see that it's related to Autism, and therefore AS and low-functioning autism must be identical. Every person with AS must fit every stereotype in popular culture, or else they merely have depression and anxiety. After all, it would take a depressed person with no friends to think they have and *gasp* autism spectrum disorder

I wouldn't waste my time with these people. If you live close to a campus that provides comprehensive training to graduate psychology students, you might want to try signing up to be a "practice patient" for a graduate student. Those services are usually free, and if you have free space in your schedule, appointements can be weekly. If all you want is a diagnosis, it should take less than five appointments. Students tend to have open minds, and stereotypes aren't as ingrained as in many seasoned practitioners.

The problem with "autism specialists" is that many of them only focus on children, the waiting lists are long, and often cost a boatload if you're in the US.

In fact I see really no reason to have a formal diagnostic... The only reason that I bother is that sometimes people on AS communities are: "Hey, you are talking to us, do you have a DX?"

Btw: I did several quiz, all them I ended being AS, even if mildly (sometimes not so mild, but never severe).
Also I applied (but later gave up because lack of money to pay the fee) for the High IQ Society, and even with the test including questions about the US history (and I am not from the US, I am not even a english speaker, I learned english on my own playing games...) and other culture specific things, I scored nearly the highest possible (in that particular test 5% of the highest IQ population was 124, I scored 148)

The only thing that I think that I still need a doc to fix is that I am REALLY bad at finding a girlfriend, and I really want one, my employers think that I am too bizarre, and sometimes I get depressed (happily for me this is not really permanent... if I am not much depressed and make my mind busy the depression go away, also if someone start to talk something that is not smalltalk with me I get really happy, specially if that person let me teach them stuff... I love to talk about my intersts, and I love even more when someone pay attention to it, instead of geting bored to death).


EDIT: (after I posted I saw that someone posted while I was typing).

Here there are the same problem (the guy that I fuound is specialized in children, has a full schedule and is hell expensive).


And ironic stuff: Professionals (like I said) say that I am not AS, but common people (like co-workers, family, people from university, strangers...) call me sometimes "autistic guy". And at work it happened more than once to a co-worker go near me and say: "Hey, you are so bizarre! You looks like have autism!"

I don't really get it (ie: professionals think that I am really far from having autism, and common people think that I have "common" stereotypycal autism...)

EDIT2: I saw my join date, and indeed, I was 20 (I joined wrongplanet the day that I found out that I maybe are AS, and my birthday is 22 dec, while I joined 20 dec, so I turned 21 2 days later.).

My response to this quote is another quote:

Welcome to Wrong Planet, even if it's a year and change later.


There are handful of us here that score in that range consistently. My AS score is always in the 130s and my NT score is usually in the 70s.


A doctor can't really help you with that. The best advice I can give you is for you to find things that you like to do, and do them emphatically with your whole soul. Maybe you will meet some people along the way that share those interests. That provides at least a foundation for meeting people. Don't be too eager; when the time is right, you will know. At least that's been my experience.

I don't know if you go at University but usually common interest are a good way to find a girl. Have you tried with MENSA (an high IQ society)? It could be another spot to find someone similar to you.

If you can live your life (and the need for a girl is not "symtomatic") I'll not waste my money with a DX but if it make you feel better go straight to that route.

Yeah. God forbid a doctor actually have to do some work to evaluate a person when easy DSM-IV criteria should be all they need to establish.

Yes it can be a lot more difficult to detect AS in an adult, because of the coping strategies they develop. Also some "professionals" tend to think that anybody who has survived to adulthood can't have an impairment (you're not Aspie, apparently, unless the impairments seriously impact on your life).

I suppose logically it would be a lot easier for an older person to fake AS, to get out of their responsibilities, though I find it hard to understand why a neurotypical would expect to be so much happier in an AS-adjusted environment that they'd find it worth the trouble of faking it.

I suspect it's important to get a diagnostician who is really interested in AS.......if you get one who's into schizophrenia then they'll possibly think you're a a schizophrenic. Like somebody on WP once said: to a hammer, every problem is a nail. A lot of diagnosticians are mentioned on the Web, along with their professional activities, so it's often possible to find out what their main interests are.

My parents and I always that it was harder to diagnose KIDS, because it's harder to get info from them.

Hey! Thank you for the welcomes

Hey Speeder, one think, very important. I tell you that because I've "played NT" for a lot of time and found many cool girls. If you want sex, do that, but if you want a REAL girlfriend and/or someone to build up something together, she must accept you for what you are, pros and cons.

Thank you Nightsun! In fact this I already noticed, in fact the girls that I attract "playing NT" bore me to death, specially because the majority of them cannot maintain a conversation that is not small talk...

One of the reasons that I want a girlfriend is that I want to have a relationship with someone that I can be me true self, that I do not have to think rationally all the time when interacting to look less strange, it is tiresome to think all the time (yes, I figured how to look NT by rationalizing it, the emotion detection problems are not fully solved of course, but many of other problems are, but this mean that I must think all the time, I don't think that this is good for my head O.O)

hey speeder, I met my husband when he was 20 (I'm a lot older). we both worked at a software company and I was instantly attracted to his intelligence. his mannerisms are very AS and he goes into sensory overload sometimes. we're very compatible, and we ended up deciding to get married. since learning about AS, our relationship has become even easier because we both confused each other because we didn't know about AS.

I also got the line "you can't have AS, your eye contact skills are too good". I told my therapist that I remember the day that I realized eye contact was important to people so I studied it, and learned how I should behave based on whether I got a positive response in job interviews.

I think it is harder to get Dx'd as an adult, even if you find a well-educated therapist because of the coping skills that can be developed.

I had seen my therapist for a couple of years regarding difficulties at work and it had never crossed her mind. So we were having a hard time figuring out what the H*** was going on. Then this last spring I came across an article about ASD running in families--my brother is profoundly autistic--so I asked her the next time I saw her, "Do you think I might be Asperger's?" and got a spectacular jaw drop in response! Almost immediately she identified 3 or 4 behaviors that were very indicative... and we went on to questionaires to friends and family, etc. to confirm.

And it explained a lot about my work situation.

But I got very lucky... not only is she a very good therapist, but her own brother is AS, so she knows what it looks like in adults. Because I'm a woman, my presentation is a little different, but there's enough similarity to be obvious... once it was mentioned.

She's still terribly confused by my excellent sense of humor, though. LOL

Normally, that can be true if it's an emotional issue at stake that will only be revealed if the kid opens up to the therapist, but AS is easier to spot in kids because they've not learned to adapt to hide the outward symptoms as adults with AS have likely adapted.