Anyone else undiagnosed as an adult?

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When I was a child, I had a father who didn't believe in doctors. My parents were divorced but then I stayed with my mom after a while who repeated the same things her mother did to her on me at times and that included trying to get me diagnosed with something out of a misunderstanding.

I was always treated differently, didn't know why. I could never do the prim and proper thing. Still can't. I didn't have friends until 1st grade and my bestfriend came to me out of luck but then once I had to move away from her I had difficulty making new friends. When it came to general math, that was great. When it came to advanced algebra, it was not okay. The rules confused me and did not make sense. After I got out of school however, it clicked and figured out the problem was overthinking about the rules and now it's okay but it used to be a hair pulling event.

I used to get comments about wearing the same clothing alot. My wardrobe consists now of mostly black, cotton or silk. This still drives my mother crazy and embarrasses her which she too displays signs of aspergers but in different ways. For example, you could tell her a whale is knocking at the door and she will believe you. I learned to take things like that not literally after several embarassing moments growing up over it.

My emotions are on and off. Sometimes I feel too much, other times I don't feel enough. Certain sounds bother me and I try really hard to not lash out.

Someone told me as an adult all your symptoms vanish but if that were true, wouldn't life be easier?

Driving is a horrible task for me. I do it forcing myself to but the whole time it's not a pleasant experience. I wonder how other people can drive with the greatest of ease and I'm freaking out on the inside?

There are also contradictory what I think of as "switches". For example, when someone makes plans and tells me those plans, I get extremely dissappointed if there were parts of the plans they sprung on me spur of the moment however, there are times when I just spontaneously do stuff and sometimes I like that approach better so that there won't be the dissapointment with plans.

Is there a way through this without getting a diagnosis considering most docs in my area focus on children only? I don't think psychiatrists understand that your life doesn't become magically better when you turn 18.

I am an undiagnosed adult, awaiting diagnosis.

I'm undiagnosed. I've got a son at 7 with an AS diagnosis, and I'm pretty sure I've more or less got it as well. But at my age I cant see much point in getting a diagnose.

I was an undiagnosed adult, I didn't get diagnosed until I was 19, I'm almost 23 now.

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Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

My brother and I are both undiagnosed adult Aspies. Our father was probably an undiagnosed Aspie (before he committed suicide). Our mother and other brother definitely at least have some Aspie traits.

I'm an undiagnosed 18 year old. I'm very mild, and my mom knew I had some ticks even though I hid them well. She finally really confronted me, and I admitted I had autistic tendencies. She accepted that, but I haven't said outright that I've known I have it for years. I don't know whether to get a diagnosis. I'll use it as an excuse, but at least I'll have an excuse.

Still not diagnosed at 50. It's not a big deal.
I told my therapist awhile back that I believe I'm ASpie.
She was surprised, got the DX textbook off the shelf, do you ever do blah de blah?
Oh, yeah, all the time.
If you do three of the following, blah blah.

Here's the point, and people all over this board will agree: IF you feel the diagnosis of being ASpie fits, then go with that. Learn about what that means. Post here on these boards with questions, comments, laments, whatevers. Don't fret about being different. And please don't fret over yer mum.
When I saw the movie "The Prince of Tides", there was a line to the effect of "my mother would have done better at raising cobras than raising children", I was the only one in the theater to laugh out loud!! !(??)

Welcome to WP, and make yerself at home, as it were...

But on the scale from ADHD to Asperger's, to whatever else I am still not sure where I am at. I think I am finding my place in this world finally, of course it is not a paying position. I write like a madman, I can churn out articles in ten minutes or less, my editor had no idea that I was actually sending my first drafts off to him until finally admitted that the reason for the spelling boo-boos was that I typed it out, sent it, forgot about it. Turns out I was close enough, unfortunately my run with that paper only lasted until the local religious nuts decided to start calling on advertisers to boycott the paper until I was pulled. Having no concept of limits too good taste has both advantages and shortcomings. I really wish that I could understand people better, I just don't have any idea what they are trying to get at when they talk to me. Just spell it out dammit, stop all of this alluding and wink and nod crap. Have you not noticed that I have to concentrate to even appear that I am gazing in your general direction while I am speaking to you?
I go back to the doc on Friday, this ought to be interesting, haven't slept in a few days, I should look totally cracked out by then!
I love the looks I get when I explain to people that I am this way without drugs, and that is why I steer away from them....

I'm 33 and undiagnosed; can't affort an official diagnosis.

I'm 25 and not diagnosed, nor do I plan to be any time in the near future. I don't really see the point now. I honestly don't need someone to sign a certificate or something to say that these criteria fit me or that my brain operates like theirs does. When I first read about it I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz when the color turned on. Now and again I will read some criteria or anecdote that doesn't describe me and I will question my self diagnosis. Then I will read something that someone else writes and it will describe perfectly. That is when I know my self diagnosis is correct because I had gone through my entire life not knowing anyone else who thinks like me, behaves like me, acts like me etc until I read WP or some other form of Asperger's discussion and see hundreds, thousands of people who are just like me.

Regardless, I have a good job, I'm reasonably happy, I have learned to cope with normal society so whats the point in labeling myself? Why bother to get a dx?

I think the main purpose for a diagnoses would be that I would rather be treated for the right things than the wrong things, where am I , what am I and what can I do to cope? Is there help avaliable? Is going to that help appropriate? I think that is the most important reason.

I myself am self diagnosed at 48.

You sound quite a bit like me, though not quite exactly. Clothes, driving, emotionally weird, weird sensory issues, being generally different... I'm 34, and I'll add my voice to the chorus of folks who are self-diagnosed, and are not that terribly concerned with getting an "official" diagnosis. I can read and understand the diagnosis criteria well enough myself, and making it official is just a bunch of hassle I don't need towards and end of dubious value (for me anyway). I take the condition as neither necessarily good nor bad, and tend to look at it in terms of gifts and challenges; it's just a yardstick which might help me measure certain things about myself, and measure myself relative to others; that which I am, I am. My 10 year old son is LFA, and I see myself reflected in him in many ways.

I don't think AS is a thing that ever goes away; the traits within myself that I consider to fall under the description of AS have been with me pretty consistently throughout my entire life; the only real thing that has changed is perhaps gaining an increased understanding of myself, both through introspection and through the study of various mental conditions, such as AS and schizophrenia. I know there are folks here who are much older than myself who have said similar things.

My best to you in seeking to better understand and cope with yourself.

Good fortune,

- Icarus Understands Oblio

Yeah, I'm self diagnosed also. I have ENOUGH debt right now, and bad luck with doctors.