Adult diagnosis

Post Reply New Topic

I've thought for many years that I'm probably autistic, with Asperger's Syndrome. Finally this year at 43 years old I started doing the official testing and on Dec 15th I got my diagnosis...of Autism Spectrum Disorder. That's apparently what they call everything now.
I was always hoping something would seem different if I get diagnosed, but this is just nothing. There's something wrong with me, just like there's something wrong with everyone else.
I'm just wondering if anyone else got diagnosed and it wasn't a life-changing thing for them either.

Finally this year at 43 years old I started doing the official testing and on Dec 15th I got my diagnosis...of Autism Spectrum Disorder. That's apparently what they call everything now.

Congratulations. I self diagnosed when I was in my mid-50's and was clinically diagnosed when I was 59. You are correct regarding Asperger's. Asperger's was withdrawn as a diagnosis in the States starting in 2013 with the publication of the DSM-5. As you likely know, there are three levels of autism. I'm at level 1.

I was always hoping something would seem different if I get diagnosed, but this is just nothing
I was relieved to find out why I was the way I was. Although reading part of my diagnosis was a bit emotionally painful since I didn't particularly enjoy reading about my weaknesses, I sucked it up and read all 8 pages. I then worked to offset my weaknesses.

For example, I used to live in a large city. After learning I was autistic, I moved to a rural community. There's far less traffic out in the country. There's less pollution. While I miss the dining and shopping options, I think the trade off has been good for me. Housing prices were a lot better. I used to rent a one bedroom, one bathroom 900 square foot condo for $1100 per month. I now OWN a 2,400 square foot 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2 story house and pay $900/month in mortgage fees. Last summer I had solar panels installed on my roof. During the height of the summer, I paid $200/month for electricity - primarily because of the A/C. Now that it's winter, my monthly bill has dropped to $13 which is the minimum the utility company will charge to maintain a connection to the grid.

I also "came out" as autistic. I used my diagnosis to leverage workplace accommodations. I'm a high school teacher and while there has been an unwritten expectation that teachers are supposed to attend local games, to attend PTO meetings, and to chaperone proms; no such expectations apply to me. I am also excused from attending noisy pep rallies and school assemblies. When we have faculty meetings, I have the option of attending these meetings virtually.

My life has improved since my diagnosis - but I had to advocate for myself.

it took a while (years) for my autism diagnosis to dawn on me, to understand how it had worked while hidden from all of us for so long, and to understand how truly impaired my autism made me to attempt to live up to all the expectations from others in my life. Give yourself some time... its a lot to process, to find self understanding and to see things from this new perspective. And the older we are (age) at diagnosis the more "stuff from the past" we have to sort and to put into new perspective. I suspected my autism almost 9 years ago, am starting on my 5th year after diagnosis, and still learning new stuff, seeing stuff in a new light and having "aha" moments.

Super congrats on your diagnosis.

There really isn't any reason to feel different after getting diagnosed because you are still the exact same person that you have always been. Nothing about that changes just because you can now identify the neurology that you have.

What I felt, I was diagnosed nine years ago at the age of 47, I just turned 57, I was diagnosed right before I turned 48m, was a sense of liberation and validation. What I was able to feel was the ability to finally understand myself and my authenticity and to no longer have to feel like I was broken or abnormal. But other than that, I did not change. If anything, I am now living much more authentically than I was ever able to before because I now understand who and what I authentically am.

Don't worry about how you feel about finally officiating that you are Autistic. As you get to know yourself better and understand how your brain works, your feelings may evolve. It's fine to feel whatever you feel or nothing at all. You are exactly the same person you were before you were diagnosed. As you grow as a person, your feelings will grow as well but it's not a set thing. Everyone is different so don't worry about it and just enjoy the journey of self discovery.

You will find a number of folk on WP who got a diagnosis later in life and are delighted by how much of their life it explained. I'm one of those folk. I was diagnosed when I was 64, did not need or want therapy, did not need any adjustments at work because I retired when I was 56.

But I was delighted by the diagnosis and the self-understanding it gives me.
(I think my bride understands me better, too.)

But I can only think of three benefits coming from the diagnosis:

1. Wrong Planet

2. Perhaps more of a hoped-for benefit, I found:
□ The Academic Autism Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (AASPIRE)
□ Their HEALTHCARE TOOLKIT: Patient Centered Care Tools for Autistic Adults
□ And it's "How Autism Can Affect Healthcare"
There appear to be quite a few other potentially useful things there...though, frankly, even when I bring it to the attention of my healthcare providers they seem disinterested.

3. When my bride bumps up against one of my Autism traits I get to say:
^{I have a doctor's note for that!} _{This amuses me more than it amuses her.}

I was 43 when I was diagnosed, too. My daughter had just been diagnosed on the spectrum 14 years ago, and so I decided to read up on autism. That was when I had started recognizing a great deal of myself in the description, especially from back when I was a kid. So, I went to the same psychologist, and he diagnosed me with what had until recently been referred to as Asperger's. Did it change my life? Well, if anything, my life made a great deal more sense to me, and I felt it less necessary to hide my weirdness and quirks behind a façade of "normalcy."

Not everything needs to have a feeling attached.
You gained insight, and that's often enough.
We all want insight or we wouldn't bother being assessed.

Hello to everyone!

It has only been a few days since I realized, in my 54th, that there is a very high probability that I am a high masking autistic women..and I would lie if I say that right now I am not in a state of shock.

I knew I was always different, an introvert maybe. But an autistic person? No. I am still in shock from realizing, not so long ago, that I was raised by a narcissistic, mother like, older sister and I came up with recognizing myself in all symptoms of CPTSD. And I thought that's it, I have finally find what is wrong with me and why I act the way I act.

But further research suggested that I probably have both - ctspd and autism.

In my country there is no community that gathers or supports adults with late diagnose of autism. Actually, there is nobody who does autism diagnostics for adults. In this very moment it freaks me out very much - the fact that I don't have anybody to talk with about this. I have contacted local associations, but nobody replied, probably because their primary concerns are children with autism. So please, forgive my English, I write the best I can.

I think that my father was a classic case of Aspergers syndrome.

And as for me I don't know what to say, I love the way I am, but, yes, myself on some completely other planet would be much better. With people like myself.

@Kraichgauer, Thank you!!

That's the reason I don't have any bias towards the undiagnosed because the undiagnosed end up diagnosed at one point or another.