If this forum is indicative of AS sufferers...

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Then I've been handed membership to a club I don't want to be in. One wonders how many posters here who say they are AS actually are. (I suspect about 20% at most).

If anyone knows where a late diagnosed middle age asperger in the UK can get support and swap problems with real adult AS sufferers then please post a link. Someone in the know throw me some help here. I'm sinking.

Point of order:

AS is not a badge of honour FFS. It is not an excuse as to why you feel a bit lonely sometimes. It i not a source of pride because I it makes you "different". It's a curse and I need some real advice from people who have gone through this. If you mainly dress in black for a fashion statement and believe in aromatherapy then please do not reply to this post. If you have no diagnosis other than taking an internet multiple choice quiz then keep what you want to say to yourself. I need some solid experience here from those who have had post diagnosis experience.

Sorry to be blunt but I find it difficult to sift through the non-AS looking for a clubhouse and the real sufferers here.

Oh really? And who are you to tell everyone on this site what they're going through and what disorder they have or don't have just by quickly glancing through it? Maybe you need to look a little closer. You'll find a lot of extremely supportive people here, of all ages, shapes, sizes and backgrounds.

As you probably know getting dx'ed in middle-age is not trivial, and if you've looked at the ages on this list, the average is rather young. So that's a thin slice of people you're looking for, though there are some here. Also, like a lot of newly diagnosed people, you seem to be assuming that people are either like you, with your problems and circumstances, or not autistic. The range of presentations and personalities and life circumstance is VAST. I'm not sure how many hard facts exist, though there are lots of opinions.

You might want to put some more detailed info. up to get people's attention -- since people's problems can differ, and some might not be sure if they can help unless see something they relate to.

Good luck.

I was diagnosed in 1997 at age 12 before it became a fad.

I don't suffer from AS, I live with AS.

I too learned I was AS in middle-age and I went through something of an identity crisis. There's nothing more counter-productive than a 'poor me' attitude(as my father, also AS can attest to). I'm sorry that you feel you are suffering. In what way, do you suffer? There is always a way forward, maybe it's about choosing the right path. You also need to give yourself time to come to terms with the diagnosis - and have some faith in yourself. You sound very down - I remember being there once, plus with a child newly diagnosed. You can turn it round.

I like your attitude CR

Hi,

I don't know if I can help you........I live in Australia.

I am not middle aged, but getting there......I am 36.

I was dx after 2 years of extremely painful therapy, dissection, and testing......by both a psychologist, psychiatrist and psychometric testing.

It has its own set of problems being dx later in life.......there is a lot more "bad survival habits" to turn around......

I seem to have accrued ALOT of fear, trauma, and terror........due to mismanagement of symptoms, behaviour and so on.

I have been misunderstood and alienated all my life.

There is AS and LFA in my family......

I am a misanthropist.......but tentatively optimistic......and practice healing my spirit

And I would just like to rest......peacefully for one minute in this life......

I am getting there........but keep talking....

It does help occasionally.

My apologies if this hasn't helped........but I sensed your deep frustration......for I sense it in myself.

Take care,

Mics

There are several adult-diagnosed people here who are frequent posters, I'm not sure how many of them are in the UK, but I'm certain there are a few. You might have to try more than once to find them on site. I was formally diagnosed at age 49, but I'm in the US.

I'm sure those of us who have had the experience of discovering the name of our handicap late in life would be happy to offer any insights or information we may have, but please understand that while we appreciate frustration, belligerence does not facilitate helpful communication.

We do have some themes and subgroups that tend to turn up over and over, but there are new folks finding this place all the time, so that's to be expected. The younger members are more prone to hammer on relationship (or lack thereof) woes repeatedly, those of us in older age brackets will more likely raise work and career related themes and questions on public assistance programs, and the newly diagnosed are most often dealing with disturbing reevaluations and the resultant insecurities and depressions that can gnaw at one for quite some time after diagnosis. Then there are NT parents looking for help and insights into the obstacles their Autistic children are experiencing. So we often revisit some of the same issues and talk them to death, but if every retread thread helps somebody understand their condition better, so be it.

I can say that IMO any suffering I do as a result of my AS is (for the most part) not due to my neurological differences themselves, but to the lack of tolerance on the part of average thinkers who cannot abide those who behave differently and have different points of view. I'm not defective - but I'm certainly not normal.

I'm not in the UK either, but I can say that the six years since my original self-diagnosis haven't been littered with breakthrough experiences.

And I agree with the comment above that it's not the aspergers that causes problems, it's that automatic assumption that normals make that everyone is always on the same wavelength as they are.

I used to have automatic assumptions that rivalled theirs of course, but diagnosis put paid to that.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKRIRZEV4B4[/youtube]

@TS:

i'm not in the UK. i'm no sufferer. i'm officially Dx'et at 43 and now a proud certified aspie since 1962 with a totally ruined life... but i have 4 wonderful aspie-kids and a dog called einstein to show the world of fools! nice.

My kids are fine, but I suspect my dog is aspergers.

Sorry if some of my posts are on the terse side. I just hate young people. If you haven't got Electric Ladyland on vinyl then you're not a real person.

Why? Because they ask question.

How young? See "vinyl" comment above.

The last sentence is is supposed to paint the picture that people who are old enough to have bought and owned a "vinyl" of a classic album would be old enough to have life experience form which I could draw.... oh I give up... work it out yourself.