Adult diagnosis

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Am a 40 year old male who is currently trying to obtain a diagnosis.

Has anybody else had an adult diagnosis and if so did it make a difference to their life once they had obtained it?

I am currently going through diagnosis. I am 38. The difference that it's making to my life is two fold. One side is that I'm now in the position to understand why it's sucked to be all these years, and it is and isn't because I'm a weirdo freak. What I mean is that yes, I'm weird, but it's not all my fault. Most of it is just the way my brain is wired. Which I can't really do anything about. I do have the responsibility to figure out how to work with it, however. I do have to learn to deal with it as much as in my control to do so.
The other benefit is that I have a teenage son who was recently diagnosed (kinna the inspiration for me to go through with it) and it has made a huge difference in his life for me to understand that there isn't anything you can do about being weird and all you can do is be happy with yourself or be unhappy with lots of doctors, psychiatric and mental health personnel, and medications involved. The second route is like being some one else, so not a good route at all. Better to just be happy with yourself and move on. So, instead of making him miserable because he can't be like everyone else, I've always just told him to be himself. Sooner or later, the fact is that us weirdos are procreating and the world is going to have to learn how to deal with us on some level.

Also, on a big picture stand point...I've never been good with jobs. I lose alot of them. Well, I don't really lose them, I know where they are, but when I go back there a different girl is doing them. (Hey, that's what happened with my ex husband, too). So, for me it will be some ADA protection for those things that I don't have much control over and that employers have often complained about and used as an excuse to fire me in the past. Another good point to that is, that if I lose my current job, I now understand that I am eligible for Vocational Rehabilitation Services which would be able to help me find a job that is more in tune to my personality and my abilities without making me do all the BS socializing stuff that usually gets me deleted from other jobs. Maybe they can figure out a way for me to use this damn teaching degree!

Last edited by Liverbird on 06 Nov 2007, 11:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

I was diagnosed at age 42 (by CLASS in Cambridge).
I wanted a professional diagnosis to confirm my own suspicions from reading up on AS. Having a confirmed professional diagnosis has given me confidence in who I am.

With hindsight, I can see so many ASD traits in myself throughout my life. I am quite amazed that when I was in in therapy for depression a few years ago, ASD wasn't considered then - I'm sure I must have showed some signs during my sessions.

Last edited by whitbywoof on 07 Nov 2007, 3:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm not too sure on whether I count as much. I'm 21 and I've been diagnosed not more then a few months ago I can't really say how much of a difference it's made, but it sure cleared a few things up as to why I'm so different.

fangfarrier,
the question should not be what it does for others,but what would it do for self?
for instance,do need accomodations in work? education? support? or are managing perfectly well in life?
it's a personal choice with assessment,as ASD is an individual experience and complexity,needs and abilities all vary.

There is risk to having official diagnosis' [the person would be defaultly labelled with disability which can wrongly label and even regress the most able and NT-like ASDers],it can lead to more discrimination in work,general public and in family,social services can be very discriminative against ASD parents,and have threatened removal of children from them,and some insurance companies [inc. holiday] are against insuring auties and aspies.

the good things an official diagnosis gives is:
support-in many different ways depending on level of autism and support needs,including residential home placement,supported living-in own flat,sheltered housing,support staff in education,support to go out with,access to courses for people with disabilities,access to autistic and aspie day centres and support groups,better understanding,accomodations in work etc.

As with a lot of things,it's only worth it if benefit from official diagnosis is stronger than risk.

KingdomofRats is right - what do you hope diagnosis will do for you?

I'm a 40 year old undiagnosed 'unspecified weirdo', although I strongly suspect I have AS. Having researched it, too much in my past and my personality makes sense, and I score within the AS range on online tests. Plus WP feels like home

However, I am not chasing a diagnosis for the reasons KingdomofRats stated, and also because there's no cure, I'll still be freaky old me and I've managed okay so far. I suspect that if someone told me I definitely have AS I'd stop pushing myself to speak to people and indulge my Aspieness even more than I do already.

I was recently diagnosed at age 24, and ITA with what Liverbird said.

Diagnosed at 47, all it did was confirm what problems I'd had in the past and why they happened.

Ed Almos

Thanks for the replies.

I am quite open at work about my suspected diagnosis and I think it helps others deal with me. It probably helps that I'm not at the bottom of an organisation.

Am not entirely sure why I want an offical diagnosis. I go through periods when it seems important to me and other times when it slips out of my mind.

As to managing perfectly well in life that's a difficult one though I am unsure what support would help. Because of the location I live in I usually find that through my own reading and occupation that I am far more knowledgable on ASD than must others.

It's worth saying it again, I think...

I chose to get an official diagnosis mainly because I got tired of saying to friends, relations and selected others: "Well, I seem to have Asperger's Syndrome, which is <blah, blah>, but although I know that I'm sure about it, I haven't actually been officially diagnosed, so you only have my word for it."

Stated a different way, I'm a stickler for getting my facts right (no surprise there). If I have have the slightest doubt about something, I'll root around to get at least a dozen reliable sources to either confirm what I thought, or correct my error.

I did.

It didn't make a difference because by then I was 100% sure I had it. In fact the psych only evaluated me for it because I told her I believed I had it. She disagreed - until she started giving me the assesments

Fangfarrier,

I am 60, and it was a recent discovery. To me WP is education enough, and once I find questions without answers, I might just hit the books. General reading is useless till I learn my way around.

I have my own business due to AS. Back in the day when I worked, my personality fit management. It is a machine, I want it to run well, my thoughts fit. I was blind to many things, and the blind do not know what they cannot see.

As you are in an organisation, and not at the bottom, the lives, well being, and sanity of all around you are at stake, and you owe them the best. Like the boss in a Repographics company denying he is color blind, the problems you are unaware of, are the ones you cannot fix.

AS is a sneeky little thing, no telling where it may pop out.

I would say both, or all three, or more, I'm Aspie. Reading is good, but general, books, one size fits all. WP can bring you closer to age group, degree, life situation, all kinds here. A lot of what is said here is true, not in any of the books, and a shrink, username and job, came here for information on relationship problems in adults, for that has not made the medical texts yet.

It is all general, helpful for an overview, good background, but only one on one with a professional can you be defined in the context of your life. One thing we know, AS=A Culture of One.

We share traits, understand each other, but no two alike here.

Your life, and the lives of others dependant on your function, the health of the organisation, all call for giving it a best effort.

Just knowing was liberating, it's not just me, and it explains reactions, the meaning of which had always evaded me. I accomadate better now, and have less strange reactions from others. I humor them.

More important to me was it defined my strong suits, places where I do stand head and shoulders above the rest. I was eighteen when an older friend listened to me saying how I just did not connect with people.
He asked if I knew my IQ, and I had been tested, 137. And normal he asked? 90 to 110, and why do you not connect? I am talking over their heads, but to them, and stripping their gears, so all they have is anger.

I am not dumb, just stupid. In my IT work, I told people I was not very good as a person, but I could understand machines. It made them feel better about paying me. I could never do the important office work they did, but I could unclog a toilet. I made more than a plumber.

Everything is simple, once someone shows you the trick. Smart people are resented, but those who share the tricks are worth keeping. I have only a minor talent, I can spot the one problem in a room full of machines, I troubleshoot well. Once the problem is defined, anybody could fix it.

I do not use my Super Powers to rule, but to support. I get calls from people who have been working on it for hours, and we find the problem. People give me work that others could do, so they can pay me more than it is worth, so they will feel better about calling me at 10PM, and getting my help.

I write business plans, for going businesses. They got there by hard work, and have lost track of what business they are in, what is profitable, and their direction of growth. I can see what they should get rid of, what should expand, and what business they should be in in five years. I am often called Wizard.

Our vision of a logical future is denied others, but once shown, they see it.

I learned to get by the hard way, an expert is someone who has failed at everything, knows all the wrong ways, and keeps working. I charge based on the amount of damage I did learning not to do damage.

The fool who persists in his folly soon becomes wise.

What do you call a person with AS in school? Loser ret*d.

What do you call someone with AS at work? The Boss.

Weird geeks have risen in this era, that is no excuse to not become the most well rounded person you can.

The Universe has granted you skills no business school can impart.

Learning what is different, where you excel, and using those skills to support those around you, is the path to a better world for all.

At 40 I was still a kid, half way through the 40's I started doing real work, got a lot better in my 50's, and have the pace now. Time for your adult education.

Welcome to your planet!

I was diagnosed as an adult and what it did for me was to make the wondering about what was wrong with me go away. I suppose that had I learned about AS before ever seeing a psychiatrist I would have likely diagnosed myself, but to my mind that wouldn't have seemed "tidy" enough. I don't like loose ends. So now I'm convinced that I have it, and having AS explains why my life has gone the way it has.

I'm 30, and going in next Tuesday. I have no idea if the guy is any good, but supposedly he has two adult AS patients, so we'll see. I don't have all the sterotypical things with AS, but it still seems to fit me better than anything else I've ever heard of.

Hopefully getting a diagnosis won't hurt me in any way, and I hope to be able to get help because of it. I needed this twenty years ago

i'm 21 and would really like to be diagnosed. i think it would really help in college.. because if i have a problem, i have a hard time bringing it up to my teacher... also, i don't like being put on the spot, and i don't like when teachers think i'm not paying attention or don't care when i don't want to answer questions or don't make eye-contact. i think it would really help if my teachers had an explanation that would help them understand my behavior.. so they don't misinterpret it. also, it would be something i could show to my dad to prove to him that forcing me into stressful situations won't miraculously "cure" me by making me "get over it." honestly, i wondered if i was autistic years and years ago, when i was about 11 or 12. but when i brought it up to my mom, she immediately shot down the idea. i think because she had the viewpoint most ignorant people have about autism. but then, much later, she ended up working in a facility that helped mentally and psychologically handicapped individuals become more independent, and she spent some time with some autistic people there. about a year or so ago, she came up to me and was like "i think you might be autistic." go figure. so, i've been doing a lot of research, and i'd have to agree. i'm pretty much positive that i have AS, but i would still like a diagnosis. i'm just not sure how to go about getting one.. is it expensive??

I was just diagnosed and I have been trying to learn more about Aspergers. I don't see myself having many autistic traits but I do seem to be and have been an odd person. I am married and have kids and that is a huge step for some in parts of the spectrum. I think I have learned to compensate alot in many ways however, not completely. My wife is mostly relieved that there is something that she can label me with for my oddities.
I have always tried to be a marketable person in the workforce but now it seems more obvious that because of a lack of understandings I have not been able to keep a job very long. So the diagnosis gives me something to work with now and move forward.

I don't think any diagnosis will be the same as anyone else's and the spectrum is wide.
Use the diagnoses to your best advantage and to help others understand you. As I type that I feel like I am still somewhat in denial about myself...