Just been to see my GP - and had a surprise.

I was diagnosed last year at age 55, so it isnt that unusual.

I think the problem is that when our generation were kids, few people had even heard of Aspergers, so unless you displayed quite extreme symptoms it was rarely identified. Once we became adults, it was easier to compensate for problems or dismiss them as being other things, so I just ended up thinking I was somewhere between highly eccentric & probably crazy .

Welcome, Meccano Man.

As you can see already from the previous posts, this situation is quite typical for autistic adults. Like you, I had a shopping list of mental health conditions stretching back to my late teenage years, and it wasn't until a mental health worker started looking through my previous history in my mid-forties that anyone thought to look into why my mental health problems should have been so persistent and untreatable for so long. Unfortunately, once you have other diagnoses on your medical records, it is all too easy for other medical staff to make no effort to look beyond them, and reported traits often get ascribed to one or another existing diagnosis. Aside from staff who specifically deal with developmental conditions, understanding of autism is generally very poor, even up to the level of senior psychologists. Ironically, autistic people are often much more objective in their insights into their own state of mind than they are given credit for, and it's not unusual for the things which we notice to be put down to delusional thinking, especially the "negative thinking" associated with depression.

Meccano Man said:

I know I shouldn't have but I read up on Asbergers

There is no reason that you shouldn't do this; in fact, I recommend that you do. Since my assessment, I have realised that there are many behaviours and events in my life which I could have reported to the psychologist who assessed me, but didn't because I had no idea that they were autism related. To a well trained assessor, autism isn't something that is easily faked; the behaviour might be simulated to some extent, but not the invisible perceptual and cognitive differences in which they are most interested. Talking to people here will give you a much better idea of how you fit (or don't fit) the diagnosis of autism than any description of easily observed stereotypical autistic behaviours. It is no so much about what you do as about why and how your perceptions and cognition lead you to behave the way that you do. Not all of us experience all of the typical traits, or we may cover them up for the sake of an easier time with other people, and after many decades, may not even realise that we are doing this.

Pre-diagnosis (and even post-diagnosis) doubts and "imposter syndrome" are very common; most of us late-diagnosed adults have been there before. Don't let them put you off seeking the truth, whether that be autism or anything else. It's better to be assessed and proved wrong than to spend decades more with the desperation to know eating away at you.

Wow, I like the sound of your GP. As others have said there are a lot of misconceptions about autism. This has resulted in a significant number of people being mis-diagnosed with MH labels instead so getting a late diagnosis is common. I was diagnosed at 33.

I did a lot of reading up before my referral and took lots of notes to my assessment where I'd documented examples of how I met the criteria for autism - the notes equated to 8 sides of A3!

Well, I told a couple of people I trust about all this. Their response? "Not surprised." O.o

Hi MM,

There are lost generations of people on the autistic spectrum: age groups pre-wide awareness of ASC(so people now in their 30s, 40's +, women, girls and those with a subtle presentation). Many posts in this forum from adults receiving a late diagnosis so you are not alone and not so unusual. 

Saz

It's not uncommon for people to get into even late adulthood before Aspergers/Autism is even considered (by them or other people). 'Milder' forms of autism weren't really recognised until the 90s, and even then often only in terms of quite a narrow stereotype (it's only been recognised recently for example that traits often manifest differently in women). A lot of people, including professionals, don't really know a lot about autism, so it's perfectly possible for it to be missed.

It's perfectly fine, and a good idea, to read up about Aspergers and see if anything resonates. You might want to read through some posts on the forum, and there are some good groups on reddit. Reading about actual experiences of people on the spectrum will probably give you a better idea whether there's anything that sounds like it fits you than just looking at symptom lists (it's also difficult to see how a list of diagnostic traits translates into real life).