Whats the point of Adult Diagnosis

Post Reply New Topic

So I want to know what the point of adult diagnosis is?

There's no treatment, no surgery, no brain rewiring, no biofeedback or holistic remedy, no therapeutic respite, no medication...pretty much nothing but Doctor bills and some diagnosis that you have it.

I am not understanding the value in confirming it medically?

I am thinking about it only because my son is showing signs - but I am not sure what it helps?

You can't get social security for it can you?
You can't get a handicap classification can you?

Now that I have figured out what is wrong with me (I think its down to Aspie and Schizophrenia) it sucks because nothing can be done for it.

Why did you bother to get diagnosed and then what did you do with that knowledge?

My husband said the same thing. He's struggled is whole life to keep up with the NT world's pace. He's managed it admirably but when he comes home after a day's work he's exhausted. And his work is now beginning to be more difficult to do as well as he did before. If he had a diagnosis, he could explain why it's deteriorating, and perhaps receive understanding but now he's more vulnerable.

Well you can get disability with an adult diagnoses........but other then that I don't think it does much other than confirm you have a specified mental disorder and maybe accomidations at jobs are possible.

It can help doctors to determine what medications might be effective.

Yes. You aren't. And thus the question.

Treatment can't happen until one knows there is a problem, and exactly what the problem is. Your statement that there is no treatment etc. isn't quite correct. There are treatments available, there just isn't any consensus on what the best ones are. There may never be, considering how differently Autism affects from one idividual to another. But treatments are being developed based on increasing understanding of Autism.

It's a slow process, and not much is available for me, as I have found unfortunately, but is is happening.

For me, the advantage of diagnosis is that, if treatment does become available, I'm already a huge step ahead in getting started with it. I have the diagnosis. It took a long time to get it too, so I don't recommend, if you can get it done, wasting time getting it done.

If somebody can't work because of their ASD (or can't find and keep and/or manage-enough-hours-of employment to support themselves independently), then in some places a diagnosis helps them to get needed social security benefits. A diagnosis can also provide access to vocational supports (training, workplace accomodations, help with finding suitable jobs) which might remove some or all of the barriers that are preventing a person with an ASD from acheiving financial independence.

If somebody wants to seek the help of doctors/therapists to deal with their problems, having a diagnosis helps doctors/therapists understand the problem and provide help that is actually helpful.

If somebody is enrolled in post-secondary education and having a lot of difficulty because of their ASD (e.g. slow processing, issues with reading comprehension), then having a diagnosis qualifies them for reasonable accommodations and tutoring/support services that remove barriers to their successful completion of a degree or other qualification.

Having a diagnosis helps some people to understand their ASD-related strengths and weaknesses better, which can be helpful when it comes to making life plans (e.g. career choices) and to managing problems.

Having a diagnosis can help a person socially in any number of situations, because it validates their difficulties. (Others are often more understanding of unusual behavior or functional difficulties when they understand that those behaviors/difficulties are part of a neurological condition--as opposed to part of "laziness" "bad attitude" "attention-seeking" or "lack of concern for others.")

It depends where you live. In Germany you qualify as 50%-80% disabled if you have an ASD diagnosis, or so I'm informed. And it's probably even an accurate assessment in purely economic terms, at least for me.

Even without that you want the confirmation that that is probably why certain problems arose which otherwise don't make much sense.

But I see your point.

I'm on a pension and on disability services. I've had help with finding work.
I'm on medication for ADHD and it helps with some autism symptoms and other medications have helped too.

A diagnosis helps you understand why you are the way you are and you get to connect to others like you. You can build skills in a way you would have never thought possible. It's a relief because you finally realise why you behave and think in the way that you do.
People are a lot more understanding of my differences since I was diagnosed. I have an extreme dislike of change which I constantly work on trying not to explode at other people every time it happens. I have extreme sensory issues which I now know the reason for and can make steps to lessening them.
I no longer try to fit in with people and just work on my strengths.
I have a routine each day to follow and allow it to be changed around if i gets interrupted.

A few months after being diagnosed for some reason I started to learn every thing I had always wanted to know. I was never that knowledgeable but I fixed that.

And finally if I wasn't diagnosed with both autism and ADHD I would not be the writer I am today. One, I needed the 12,000 interests I have obsessed over at different periods of my life and I needed the medication to help me organise my thoughts to write it all down and continue to write for more than three days.

diagnosed myself at 55. now i understand me better. plus, i have the WP community.

I don't know much about it, but if he is school-aged there are IEP's and such (educational accommodations, basically).



A diagnosis alone won't guarantee qualifying for SSD/SSI/etc., but having no diagnosis will probably guarantee not qualifying. IOW, it's necessary, but not sufficient.





I didn't, but I have qualified for SSD+SSI for secondary, stress-related reasons, so there is no real need, now. For depression I get antidepressants, and I don't see how an ASD dx is doing to affect that (except maybe that lower starting doses would have been nice). And I have no need nor desire for Risperdal (it is the only ASD-specific drug; it's indication is "pediatric autistic irritability").

My diagnosis came at age 40, I now know what is wrong with me. I know I am not inferior just different if not better in a few ways. I can get disability since I cannot find a job and can show a history of disability since I was in special education. I can get help acquiring grants to further my education since I have a disability. My disability gives me some protections in the work force if I ever find a job. There is a lot an adult diagnosis can do for an aspie, you would find this out if just stopped whinning long enough to do some research.

My official diagnosis answered a lot of questions, and freed me from labels like "ret*d", and "Crazy, whacked-out nutjob".

Now that I know why I am the way that I am, my life has become more enjoyable.

I'm also able to use my Aspie strengths to an even greater advantage over my Entie counterparts.

Why should it make a difference if you are an adult or not? If you suspect you have ASD, you should go out and get assessed. There are many adult services available (at least there are here in Toronto) and many require proof of diagnosis before they accept you (believe it or not, there are people who fake disabilities in this world).

It can help you through college, through your work so you can't get fired for your issues but that depends really, getting social security, getting employment through voc rehab or something like that. It's also to get treatment.

I have gotten Social Security with my AS but it was also with my anxiety and OCD too.

The reasons I'm doing it:

1) originally, just to shut up people who didn't believe me when I told them
2) documentation for accommodations at work

Of course I already know that I'm on the spectrum, and in that regard no diagnosis is needed. But I might need the paperwork at some point in the future.

Services. I have community inclusion staff about 25 hours a week that make it possible for me to be far more independent.