For those 40+ diagnosed with AS

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Does it aggravate you when you read about AS and the benefits of being diagnosed with AS? Like I was reading where it said the good thing about a diagnosis is you have a name for your condition and you can then get support and treatment. That kind of makes me mad because there is very little or no support and treatment for older Aspies out there.

I don't know about others, but I was pretty much told here's your diagnosis, good luck! The doctor that diagnosed me did try to set me up with a therapist who didn't specialize in AS but would be there to listen but not long after my DX I lost my insurance because my job ended. If I can ever get a job with insurance again I am going to try to see if I can get with a therapist but for now, and since my DX 2 years ago, I'm on my own. Do others feel this way or am I alone in that too?

well, I haven't been officially diagnosed, but the symptomology and characteristics are the simplest explanation.

I guess it depends on how severe the symptoms are. I've always felt wierd, but until about 2 years ago I had no idea why. Finding out that not only was there a name for what I was going through, but also that there are other people like me came more as a relief than anything else.

I've been trying to find ways to cope with it. Knowing what the 'weaknesses' are, I'm trying to learn to compensate for that. I have to do a lot of things consciously that other people do by instinct, but I think I'm making some progress. I'll never be 100%, but I take it more of a challenge than an obstacle.

Now that the mental parity act went through recently, there's a chance that you might get some help on the insurance end. But you might ask and see if it's considered a 'preexisting condition', which would mean that they wouldn't cover it. Your call...

Yes, I had just got my job when I heard about AS on a All Things Considered segment and I used my insurance to find some sort of evaluation. The first was three meetings with a social worker that the company paid for that was USELESS as she had never heard of AS and she said I had to go through her to get a referral to a clinical psychologist. By the time I got to HIM, he wasn't interested much in learning about 'some new condition' I had heard about on the radio. Seven months later I still had the job and transferred to another larger city, and through my supervisor and her manager got a referral to a good evaluating psychologist and got diagnosed. On the AS I got a 39 when 32 was the cut off for definite AS, but as I went to the clinical psychologist he suggested, he had nothing for my AS. Indeed, he wanted to work on only what dealing with the AS had done to me all my life. I was OK with that, but he seemed to work with me like I had caused all the anxiety and had I just reacted differently to various stimuli (like beatings, molestations, my attempted murder, etc.) I could have avoided all that nasty PTSD and anxiety that has warped me as a person. When ever I mention AS he waves it away as in consequential because he tells me there is nothing anyone can do about that. I guess when your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

So, what ever good you get out of your DX . . . I chuckle when I read posts on WP where people are insulted and disgusted of people saying they are Asperger's Syndrome but have paid for no little certificate of passing through someone with the credentials' rubber stamp on it. All I can say is "phfffffff". People had disease, disorders and conditions long before there were doctors.

Merle
Merle

Same here. I'm supposed to be going to counseling for depression and anxiety (as well as a whole host of other things), but I haven't gone because I can no longer afford it. Unfortunately, unless you join a local autism support group on your own (and they're usually full of kids 18 an under with ignorant NT moms, as I recently found out), there's not much out there for 40+ Aspies.

Someone should start a support group network for older Aspies. They have a different set of problems than the younger ones do.

Roger N. Meyer has been very helpful to me with Adult Asperger's issues.
http://www.rogernmeyer.com/index.htm

I just got dumped onto the welfare system - I was a physical and mental wreck after trying to be self supporting and bearing the costs of living alone for 20 years, local autism ass'ns didn't want to know about people with Asperger's unless they were under 21. That was 10 years ago but I don't think anythings changed.

I did get referred to vocational rehab but they were useless, I had chronic fatigue anyway so they 'closed my case'.

I don't have any support services either. But really, all I'd like them to do is raise welfare rates high enough so I can afford to live somewhere built to code and to eat properly. I can do the rest myself. Apparently, though, that is too much to ask for.

Thanks for the link, SB - interesting stuff!

Merle, that's what I say about therapists too: that they see my problems as nails because all they have is a hammer. They indeed try to make me "take responsibility" for the effects of all the abuse I got all my life for not being socially smart enough to manipulate my way into being respected. Therapists are NOT the most clever of people, contrary to popular belief. After decades of putting their kids (instead of myself) through university, I see a therapist and I feel like swatting their heads.

Well, I'm well over forty and I wasn't diagnosed with AS until I was about 45. After that there was a profound Ahhhhhh! moment when I suddenly realised why things had been going wrong since I was a kid. After some discussion with a psychiatrist I've come to terms with all of this and I just get on with the rest of my life.

VS

It's just there to boost an Aspie's self esteem. There are positive traits in the Asperger's diagnosis, I agree with that. But how is that going to help you in life? We all love a special interest, but you can never master them. Why waste your time on something you'll never be good at? How is being 'smart' going to help you when you're 20? You're not street smart, and you're easy targets for scams and sexual solicitation.

Yes. It aggrivates me a lot.

All I seem to get from psychologists is that "there appears to be something odd about you, but I'm not quite sure what it is." I know I have taken the DSM IV & did not get either a bi-polar or schizophrenia diagnosis. Would that AS was more recognizable in adults. I think part of the problem for me is being adopted & not having a true family history. It just muddles things up more.


Very frustrating indeed!

I lerv your avatar, it's got me drooling.

ah! so you 'had a life' before you found out! Now I realize my problem!

Merle

This is true for adult aspies of all ages- there is almost no support at all.

In Britain people should check out both the National Autistic Society and the branch local to their area. They can and do offer support but it is limited and intermittent as they are charities with inadequate resources.

As for 'treatment'- we need something different from that, more like a long term education and exploration of social relations, but this process has not yet been fully defined by anyone.

We must define this ourselves- We are explorers!


Magliabechi.

He is an idiot.

Magliabechi.