Getting adults diagnosed still a problem

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It wasn't until Ashley Marchuck started experiencing frequent anxiety attacks at work — almost every day — that she started to suspect she might be autistic.

Working at Starbucks, she was bombarded with loud noises such as the whirr of the coffee machines, the music playing, and the conversations among customers. The sensory overload was too much. The anxiety attacks, leaving her sweaty and panicked, wouldn't stop.

Marchuck took a leave of absence to figure out what was going on. At 31 years old, she was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Marchuck realized that her anxiety attacks were a symptom of sensory issues related to autism, she said.

"It basically takes a mental crisis to get diagnosed," Marchuk, now 32, said. "And that's how it was with me, unfortunately, you know, having those anxiety attacks for months."

While autism is traditionally associated with diagnosis in childhood, more and more adults on social media say they are autistic. But data on adult diagnoses in the U.S. does not appear to exist.

Women and people of color have often been overlooked in diagnoses and in stereotypical depictions of autism in media, said advocates and autistic adults. And those missed diagnoses have left some for decades without help in higher education or the workplace.

Toby Kellk, a clinical psychologist in Huntington Woods, Michigan, started working with children but more recently has begun evaluating adults for autism spectrum disorder. In many cases, she has evaluated adults who likely had fewer support needs as children and who flew under the radar until they were older.

"Our conceptualization (of autism) really was geared towards more of a population that had higher support needs," Kellk said. "This idea of adults who have functioned incredibly well didn't really align with our idea."

But adults diagnosed past childhood said they wished they'd known sooner, because they would have had a better understanding of social issues.

23-year-old Leah Wathen said she spent much of her life masking autistic traits and feeling uncomfortable in social circumstances but never knowing why. For Wathen and others, masking autistic traits can be exhausting and research suggests may be linked to anxiet

Women and people of color have often been overlooked in diagnoses and in stereotypical depictions of autism in media, said advocates and autistic adults. And those missed diagnoses have left some for decades without help in higher education or the workplace.

Calley, who is the father of a child with autism, added that society also needs to reduce the stigma around the condition. He remembers feeling unsure about seeking a diagnosis at first for his child, fearing what a diagnosis could mean.

"There's still some of that, that happens where people might notice that there's issues challenges, problems, delays, and not ready to seek a diagnosis because of societal stigma," he said.

For Wathen, the benefits of a diagnosis far outweighed any discomfort, she said. She is actively working to raise awareness against the stigma that comes with being neurodivergent.

I think a big part of the problem comes from the fact that unless someone is profoundly affected, spectrum disorders magically disappear in adulthood. I've had medical professionals tell me that ADHD would go away as I got older, that I couldn't be autistic because I cope well enough to get by, have a job or any number of silly, stupid reasons.

I've also had professionals refuse to take me as a client because they have only ever worked with children or have no experience working with adults. I think that until society gets past the fact that Autism and ADHD don't just magically disappear at the age of 18, it will continue to be a problem.