Any point in being diagnosed as an adult?

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I am not sure if this is the correct thread for this question. I am a 25yo woman and have felt quite "out of step" with the rest of the world my whole life.
As an adult, I have learned a lot about ASD and feel that I fit so many of the "high functioning female aspergers" traits to a T, and can see in retrospect that as a child I fit many other characteristics as well. Although I am not sure whether or not I am on the spectrum, learning about this has actually helped a lot with understanding myself, having compassion for myself, and learning to deal with and accept some of the ways that I feel different / out of sync with the people around me.
I was thinking about following up a diagnosis (I have never discussed this with anyone before), but I am wondering, is there any point? I am already functioning fine in my adult life for the most part, and I am not sure whether it would change anything or bring a sense of closure or further complicate things. What are other people's experiences with being diagnosed as an adult? How did you even broach the topic with your GP? What kind of positive / negative impacts did it have on your life?
Thanks in advance.

I'm going through a similar experience to you so while I can't offer you advice, I would echo your calls for others to share their experiences and thoughts. I have recently self-identified with having mild AS and my partner of 5.5 years whole-heartedly agrees. It certainly explains a lot about past experiences, interactions, behaviours, etc. if I do indeed have it...but if not, learning about it in the least gives me ways to better understand myself, adjust and cope moving forward...pretty much exactly how you feel!

I was seeing a therapist for a bit last year who suggested I might have AS and referred me to a more specialised psychologist but at the time I dismissed it because it all seemed too hard to deal with. I have been seeing someone new for about 3 months and she is fantastic but as I have only very recently self-identified - and accepted - the possibility of AS, I haven't had a chance to bring it up with her. i worry that she might think I'm over-reacting or taking things too far, but I know how I feel and that is all that matters....in which case would a diagnosis be beneficial or is it ok to self-diagnosis (with plenty of research) and carry on?

Thanks for your reply, I feel just the same. I also have a fear that a specialist will think I am just one of the many people who self-diagnose on web MD and come in to their office trying to tell them how to do their job. This makes me feel almost embarrassed to bring it up seeing as it has never been suggested to me by a professional.
I also feel that my parents would scoff at the idea as I am very functional, hold down a job etc and they may have quite a narrow view of what it means to be on the autism spectrum. This makes me wonder if I would even bother to tell anybody, even if I did get diagnosed. :/
Let me know how you go!

I didn't go for a diagnosis, as there would be nothing i would gain if I had one, while the cost is significant.
Learning about ASD gave me a mental structure to understand myself. That was very helpful. But the rest is about getting help with anxiety, mental exhaustion, depression – which I can have without a piece of paper confirming my ASD with the right stamp.

As I recently came to the point of "expectations exceeding coping abilities", I may one day reconsider this and seek more help... but understanding autism is poor in my country even among the professionals, so I may stick to help from my family and friends, and some professionals who proved helpful and whose help I can afford anyway.
I wouldn't like to risk being misdiagnosed and put on heavy medication again.

Well, I got diagnosed about 6 months ago, but I'm not sure what kind of advice to give you.
At the time, I really wanted the diagnosis, just to be certain it really was ASD and not feel that I was deluding myself, or others. In that sense, it was a good thing.
The post-diagnosis period was not comfortable, though, because I became obsessive about reading about ASD and analysing my own behaviour (past and present). That might just be me, I don't know.
And right now I'm feeling a bit down. I've come to realise that the diagnosis itself hasn't actually helped with any of my issues, that I'm still having to deal with everything as best I can by myself, without feeling that anybody else understands. Self-knowledge just hasn't been enough.
Overall, I guess I'd say I'm glad I got the diagnosis, but you do need to be aware that the post-diagnosis period can be turbulent. Use it to access further support if you need it.

One good thing about a diagnosis is that it enables us to change these kind of perceptions of autism.
I have met with quite a lot of skepticism when I say I'm on the spectrum because I have a family and a good job, but I feel it's an opportunity to educate people.

I pursued a diagnosis between ages 52 and 53 years. I could have stopped when the first diagnostician told me that I have GAD and OCPD, but "not Auutism Spectrum Disorder" (ASD), but I persisted. More than a year later, my university ASD clinic diagnosed me, and apologized that much of the autism diagnostic community still didn't know adult autism very well.

Another reason I pursued a diagnosis is that I like finding ways to quantify myself.

It depends on your location.

If it costs quite a bit of money, and it would not materially benefit you, I wouldn't go for the diagnosis.

If it doesn't cost you quite a bit of money, and it would gain you accommodations in school/university/employment, etc., then I'd go for it.

A "peace of mind" diagnosis is not worth $1,500 in my opinion--unless you have that much disposable income.

That's a good point.
I went private for mine, but it did not cost a lot in the end because it only took 2 sessions with the psychologist. Just a few hundred Aussie dollars.
There seems to be a lot of variation in how long it can take and how much it costs.

I totally agree. On paper and at face value, no one would suspect anything. I am independent with a good job and can completely take care of myself, but what I’ve learned from identifying with AS is that I’m very good at learning social etiquette so I know what I “should” do in certain situations (e.g. comfort a friend if they are going through a hard time) but I might not actually feel it the way an NT person would...but to that friend, I was emotionally supporting them so they wouldn’t know.

It’s only after living with my partner for 5 years and him being able to pick up how I make him feel (he’s very emotionally perceptive) that we can reflect on my last behaviours and how they have qualities of AS. I expect a similar response if/when I tell family and friends...particularly from my father who I suspect (now that I know!) further along the spectrum than me!

I don’t think seeking a diagnosis will make me feel different either way. As long as it’s what I believe and can use the resources available to improve my life, that’s all that matters to me right now!

I was diagnosed last year at age 53. There were several reasons why I put the effort into this; it was not easy. I'm apparently one of the females who learned to "camouflage" quite well. I hold a job, maybe a little underemployed but that keeps stress tolerable for me. I've had various issues like ptsd, depression etc. that have been influenced by my autism. Some problems were totally caused by my autism but I blamed them on ptsd.

Helping therapy work better for me
The therapy for ptsd that I'd been in for many years was only somewhat helpful, and I continued to have a lot of issues. Without typing a book here, I'd just like to try to get across that being autistic really affects how I respond to therapy!! ! Eye contact! Difficulty figuring my emotions out, esp. in real time while talking. Generally not being able to feel deep emotions while talking to a therapist-- "camouflaging" took too much of my bandwidth. Just awareness of this has let me start to work on it, and I think my therapist has been adapting some things for working with me too -- though I'm not totally sure what. I'm not talking about "autism therapy" by which some people mean, let's figure out how to get autistics to act properly allistic and make eye contact exactly right etc.... We may have other issues and lives, things that matter to us that we want to work on in some cases at least. Some therapeutic techniques need modification for us. Therapy for autistics is a huge field that should be researched!! ! Imho.

Potentially helping medical care communication (I hope)
I think it's important that my doctors know that I'm autistic. For them to believe that I am, an official written diagnosis was crucial. I learned to "pass" way too well for most clinicians to believe that I am, apparently...

However. For me, stress can make my usual "normal-looking" ability to talk, vanish. If my doctor doesn't know that, and I get quite ill in the future, I could be in a lot of trouble. A diagnosis has also helped me feel confident in taking relevant articles to my therapist, doctor, etc. This includes the very recent stuff about "camouflaging".

There are some odd physical issues I have, muscle tension, lack of feeling pain sometimes, that at least I can point to in other autistics' writings with a doctor. It feels like doctors are encouraged by our society to disbelieve females , so anything that helps a doctor avoid going down that path is great imho.

Helping my self-confidence in working on communication with people I'm "out" to about my autism
It's apparently pretty hard for allistics to understand camouflaging!! ! A diagnosis at least provided a valid way to talk about camouflaging and sensory issues; a framework, and I don't have to worry that people think I'm totally making every bit of it up. I had way too much of that in numerous situations and it now triggers nasty shutdown-like episodes for me.

For me, "camouflaging" and my normal-looking communication have limits in scope that allistics (and I) don't necessarily understand... I learned to do certain things quite well, but other whole areas of communication I just didn't learn. Maybe the key is, I had to learn specifically how to talk about emotions and issues in ways that allistics just... do. Or something. So I look fluent etc. but people don't realize I just don't know how to communicate certain topics that can be important. I learned that I had to hide being upset or overwhelmed, for instance.

My supervisor ahas been great about this too, it helps there for me also. Subtley; I am doing well overall at work. Except for some executive function stuff! Ugh. That is a whole separate book. I'll stop now.

I got diagnosed about 3 months ago and really don't know how to go about it now. But the time leading up to it was very overwhelming. I read a lot of info and have never felt more described than then, it started to mess with my head and decided to get diagnosed. It took me about a year to get to that decision though. It doesn't cost much here (nowhere near $1500 usd) and lasted about a month, had 3 interviews and then they gave me the results. It's given me peace of mind, since it feels like my life has a been a gigantic join the dots game. Suddenly things just started making sense. I've started to recognise situations that overwhelm me since I have difficulty to face them to either work through them or avoid them if it's too much. Not sure if that's what you're supposed to do, but I'm definitely more patient with myself. No clue if that helps at all but that's where I'm at right now.

It depends where you live(costs, lifestyle and benefits differ in different countries/enviorements) and how severe your symptoms are and will potentially be in the future. You seem fine now but how are you going do deal with life if you lose your job or partner? Will you be able to deal with the change? Find a new job? Live on your own?

However if you try getting diagnosed while you have your life in order you might end up not getting any diagnosis or getting a lower level than you actually are.

I were getting my diagnosis when I were at my 2nd college, living a predictable life, depending on my parents and only predicting I will have trouble finding a job when I graduate (because I were unable to find a job for 1,5 year after graduating my 1st college and I couldn't go to 3rd one due to the family finances), hoping diagnosis will help me out a little bit (goverment pays benefits to companies that hire disabled people). I started it by going to an Autism Specialists Office near my college and asking "Where can an adult get an Asperger diagnosis?". They suggested one of their workers, she suggested some psychiatrists and he suggested some psychologist. After 1,5 year long screening/diagnosis process I got a level 1 ASD diagnosis. And even during the diagnosis process I got some benefits too: a teacher stopped bullying me and paid more attention to me when I told him I am getting a ASD diagnosis (I couldn't understand his communicating/teaching style so I kept asking what to do and he was angry with me for "not listening") and Job Centre I was signed in for health insurance (weekend college doesn't give you one) stopped sending me stressing job offers requiring good social skills such as PR worker or Secretary.

After graduating I found myself unable to find a job for a year, despite having my disability prove and 2 degrees and I were abused by parents due to using their finances so I developed depression, anxiety and eating disorder (I refused to eat based on "He who does not work, neither shall he eat") and were able to get on SSI. Which wouldn't be possible if I didn't already have ASD diagnosis (according to the SSI law the disability must be there since you were a child if you never worked - ASD is a lifelong condition, depression isn't).

After getting SSI I were able to move to a bigger city to live on my own (away from abusive parents and not taking their money anymore) and hoped I will be able to get a job there. I am here since more than a half of year and I still were unable to get one though, other than some odd jobs (not enough to live on, I am only getting 100-200PLN off them a month, plus 700PLN SSI most of which - 640PLN - I spend on rent). But I found another school and got some friends that help me with stuff I can't deal with on my own(for example phone calls to book doctor appointments).

My mental health is way better now than it was in the small city in family home and i am more independent (I can use public transport now because it is dependable and i have a monthly ticket so I don't have to think what kind of ticket I should buy in order not to get in trouble) but I live in a fear of losing SSI and being forced to go back to family home.
Therefore I am working on getting a disability level 2 prove. There are companies and assistants that happily help level 2 people get a job and do things but they don't care about level 1 people. It should be a formality because being on SSI equals having disability issues equal to level 2, at least in theory.

As others have mentioned the cost of a diagnosis was a barrier, and having one as an adult hasn't brought any practical support, but getting tailored advice from an expert helped me to understand myself better, this changed my self perception and led me to make healthier choices. What struck me most was having the screening questions explained, till that point I had interpreted some of them incorrectly and it changed my answers.
Having a diagnosis is like a safety net if the unexpected happens, say I fall ill and am reliant on medical/healthcare staff I know that my experience of noises or lights for example will be considered, therapists will be better able to provide a service that works for me and will be less likely to misinterpret a lack of eye contact during sessions.

I can only say for myself that while it eventually gave me some form of closure which took time, it didn’t help in terms of getting support or the help I felt I needed. Where I’m living, I’ve never had many resources in terms of help or support except online. Another issue for me was the cost and trying to find a specialist. The resources for adults on the autism spectrum is very lacking in my opinion and very costly.

I am in the same situation trying to decide whether to go for formal diagnosis. What I am most scared of is that they say I don't have ASD, leaving me with the realisation that I am just a normal person with difficulties that cannot be explained - i.e I am just a wierdo. I am also concerned with being labelled as having a 'disorder' when essentially (at the moment) I am a fully functioning adult with not too many (outward at least) debilitating issues, and this might lead to being treated in a way that I might not like.
Of course part of me thinks maybe I have just made all this up and that's what they would think too!