Any point in being diagnosed as an adult?

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Well, I chose to not share my diagnosis. Honestly more cons or no change than pros. Have considered to share if I meet someone that becomes a partner, but as far as current family and friends I'm good like this. I'm fully functioning so no one can tell and as far as I know, they just think I'm socially awkward. I also became more worried of actually not being in the spectrum during my diagnose process because I felt very related to everything I read and hearing I wasn't would be worrying because of "so, what now??". Apparently I'm also an overthinker.

Btw, you're not a weirdo. You're just different and that's alright. If you've been able to be fully functioning in life with ASD then the difficulties you may have are something you can deal with. And if you aren't, you can too choose to seek help for that. If is bothering you too much and you're able to get a diagnosis, do it.

If you don't want a diagnosis per se, but you want answers, you can go to a local university or autism research center and take an assessment there. That's what I did. I took a "gold standard" diagnostic tool that stated that I'm very likely on the spectrum, but due to the context of the diagnosis, it will not show up on my health record.

Depending on how you look at it, getting a diagnosis may or may not make sense, but it feels good to any doubt to rest.

I know this is a little late, but hopefully this helps. I’m halfway between where you are and post-diagnosis at the moment.

You don’t HAVE to get a diagnosis to make a positive impact on your life - just understanding my quirks better helped me to cope with them, and be less hard on myself. Lots of people decide not to get an official diagnosis, either bc they don’t feel they need one, or it’s not worth the cost, or or or

After sitting on it for 4 years, I decided I’m going to chase an answer. I’m currently waiting for my assessment, and I have a number of reasons why the cost is worth it for me.
First, I can’t seem to get rid of that voice that doubts my self-diagnosis, and honestly it’s driving me nuts.
Second, I want to know 100%, either this is the reason I cry when I hear a spoon scraping on a metal pot, or I need to look elsewhere for the answer (maybe a cousin chased me with a pot as a child? Who knows?)
Third, if the assessment come back Aspie-side-up, it will also include lots more information about me, how I work and that will help me figure out how to cope better with those damned pots.

I know it won’t fix the things I have wrong in my life. At best it will give me more information to cope with those things, but many people say they go through a rough patch after because they feel “whelp, never gonna be able to fix this, I’m broke for life!” This is obviously not true, because we’re not broken people (we’re GD glorious).... but I’ve spent my life trying to fix myself through practice, hoping if I get through one more coffee date, maybe I’ll suddenly have more friends and no social anxiety. The possibility of being neurotypical has been a weird, masochistic, self-loathing form of hope, and I’m not sure how I’ll react to it being gone if I am officially diagnosed with Aspergers. On the flip side, if I find out I’m actually neurotypical, does that mean I’m just really bad at being a person? Are my family right, and I’m just some strange, bumbling house-gnome? It’s scary. I’m scared right now. But I can’t stand not knowing anymore, and I’m the kind of person who, once I know something is definite, I figure out ways to deal with it.

Whatever you decide to do, you’ll have made the right call for you. Remember, if you decide not to get one, you can always change your mind later!

I think being diagnosed has probably saved my life, as everything had just gotten completely horrible before then. But I'll always be depressed and angry at the many psychiatrists for not doing so sooner, just shoving pills down my throat and forcing me back out into the hallway. I wish I could sue sue them into poverty.

That's why I did it.
I think I went through something similar as you and for years put the idea of being aspie away because I thought I was over reacting. I thought I was a regular person who just didn't want to make an effort to be social. Despite all the anxiety, stress, physical pain it could bring me, I just thought I was exaggerating. One day after a big crisis I knew I had to know, but even then I still put it away for a few more months, I couldn't bare the idea of being actually diagnosed. I basically let it go until I couldn't anymore and decided to do it. Here the cost is way lower that what I've read in this thread and even at that I used help because I didn't have the money to do it. They were kind enough to offer financing without interests. Anyway, after I knew they told me I was very high functioning and only would need help if I chose to or if there was anything that really bothered me. The thing is, while being interviewed I started understanding a lot about myself and how many situations in my life were related to Aspergers, it felt like a big join the dots game.

I know some people have no use for it, but in my case I needed to know. Like Lizzy said, I had to know if I was awfully bad at being a person. If a lot of the things that happened to me or didn't happened to me were just because I'm only awful at interaction or was there something else? And if there was, is there anything I can do not necessarily to fix it, but to be able to live better with it.

I'm very knew to this anyway, but I'm really glad I did it. It really depends on why you think you should do it and what's the reason behind it. (This is a question to yourself not something that I'm asking you to share, just clarifying).

I received my diagnosis 1 month ago. At this point it has made my life worse/more exhausting. I found the diagnostic process exhausting and the turning over of childhood experiences has meant that I'm doing a lot of mental processing. I already struggle with poor metal health/generally not coping, but I'm really not coping at all at the moment. At first it felt good knowing why, but very soon the realisation hits that it's still the case that no one else understands you and no one understands asd unless you explain in great detail (and we all know how NTs love that!).

For me I wanted a proper diagnosis because my daughter is almost certainly on the spectrum, and for me my experience of growing up not known what was "wrong" with me caused a lot of mental health problems at an early age. I'm hoping that my having a diagnosis will help to normalise ASD as a valid way to be, and hopefully will help us learn some coping strategies as a family. Between her melt downs and my inability to "deal", our house is very chaotic at the moment.

Part of me hopes that having a proper diagnosis will help my psychologist give me actual help, but I'm very pessimistic at the moment.

I do hope that all this will help my daughter get a better shot at coping in the real world.

I was diagnosed with AS last year and I am 69 yrs old.

Suddenly my whole life made sense. My partner of 25yrs and my sister agreed with the AS diagnosis 100% but now I am questioning it as I also have Complex PTSD and I have recently read that if you have CPTSD then you cannot be diagnosed with Aspergers.

This has really thrown me. Has anyone else been diagnosed with both?

It doesn't matter what doctors or assessors say. If you want to go for a diagnosis, then just go for one. It's your decision and nothing should stop you or stand in your way. It's also important to note, that yes a label or stigma will be attached as it has been for the rest of your life, only this time, you will need to be open to the fact it will be made public, not just in your records, but through any contact you have in life. If you can live with the impact it will have on your identity, then affront the diagnosis. I wouldn't be too hard on yourself or your judgements though, it can be really hard to sink in at first. If you find someone who can help you therapeutically after, then its a good thing.

Same here - my husband who has known me 26 years since aged 18 agrees

Same here - I’m worried that I mask too well. But then I worry that if I drop the mask, will they think I’m putting on an aspergers act. I know of someone that went for a diagnosis and the first psychologist said they were faking. She persevered and eventually got her diagnosis elsewhere.

Me too

I'm currently waiting for a full formal assessment by my primary care trust but l was just told it could take me a whole year and I need my diagnosis to be able to go to University this year.

I've already had a preliminary test which puts me in the upper quartile for ASD but I'm wondering if this would be enough for Student Finance along with a letter from my GP or Behavioural psychologist. So I am considering private practice which is looking to be about £2,000. So if I'd got this checked out earlier I could be in a much better position.

I would say if you can wait for a free diagnosis you should get one. You don't have to tell anyone that you don't trust about your diagnosis if you don't want to. I've told a handful of people and only 20% of people have been accommodating or accepting.

Your partner sounds great and if you're thinking to have kids or already have some the diagnosis could help with parenting also.

I think being diagnosed in my late 20's probably saved my life. That and the fact that I'm really quite a fighter. Or maybe just plain stubborn when people don't see things my way.

And me, I think a frantic cyber hunt for information is common after a dx. I avoided learning too much before the dx in case I mimicked it. I thought I had hypochondria, but the hypochondria turned out to be something in my head in the first place.

I have ASD and CPTSD, both diagnosed professionally. Autism and its associated anxiety / isolation paves the way for a lifetime of trauma and manipulation. In my case there were other specific incidents that led to CPTSD, but I was definitely born on the spectrum. It was difficult for doctors to see past my "traumatic" experiences and realize that Autism also played a role. I was formally diagnosed with both this year by an expert in Adult ASD.

My autistic personality was evident as a toddler, but I clearly wasn't "born with CPTSD". I was born with Autism and developed PTSD through a lifetime of experiences.

Sheesh, if you have a good job, relationship etc, why in the world would you go digging around? Many so-called Aspies brag about their social abilities and so forth. If you're not significantly impaired, mosey along.

Take the coolness factor away and see ASD for what it really is. After all you don't see people flocking to be dx'd with borderline diabetes. That's because it's a sh!t disease to have. Aspie just sounds cool.