There is no specialist of adult-autism in my country!

I believe that is also the case in the country where I am now live. 

I have found here only specialists who work with children and young people. I can only guess that is because it cannot be admitted that certain high status adults are anything other than 'supreme'. Politicians here seem to create a situation in which no one can discuss adulthood autism. They are obviously trying to protect their own 'elite' role in the system, and are most unempathetic to anyone above or below them who even considers that they might be autistic. I reckon many specialists believe that it is more trouble for them than it is worth to update their skills for use with adults; And so they also go out of their way to make sure that no local adult will ever admit in public that she or he might be autistic. If individuals were identified as autistic when young, they are thus expected to forget it as adults. It is essential that they should seen as 'cured'. Autism in young people is undoubtedly present in numbers roughly comparable to other countries, so it is almost inevitable that there are similar 'silenced' percentages in the adult population.

Even as an expat I am also reluctant to talk about this issue in public. I have actually seen specialists become visibly angry because people persevered in discussing their own issues without an official diagnosis. And such specialists will also invent (somewhat fictive) alternative diagnoses like General Anxiety Disorder; perhaps thinking to themselves that a course of anti-depressants will suppress any desire to self-diagnose. I also see similar forces at work within local families. I even see some evidence that local specialists are also increasingly being 'asked' to gloss over their work with autistic young people.

Apologies for the coded post! Local firewalls definitely have ears!

I'm just wondering if in Turkey, something similar is happening. I left this country to get a diagnosis to confirm my own self-identification. I'm glad I did, but I still live here very much alone and with very little support. But I'm very  used to it! :-)

Hi Senor, thank you for your 'coded' respond :) I wonder which country is this you live in if its okey for you to share. 

In Turkey, what happening is mostly related to ignorance actually. Its just unknown. Increadibly! The first one who i asked was my ex therapist. When i told him that i was suspecious of autism for myself, he immediately tried to ''protect'' me from formal diagnoses. Regarding to him, diagnoses are all for professionals and they might made people ignoring their uniqueness. After that he told me, the traits of mine could be the traits of narcissistic personality disorder or obsessive personality disorder at the same time. 

After that, i told it to my psychologist friend who is working with teenagers. She asked me if i can make eye contact. I said yes and she said you are just fine!... It was just the same when i called to national autism society. The guy who is teaching autistic kids ask me the same question. When i insist on there is another subject called adult-autism and when i search it in English, i saw too many typical stories like me, he surprised and told me that i should call him and give feedback if i learn something. 

I even reached one of the most famous psychologist of Turkey and he confessed that this is a dark zone in the country and they are disgussed it with his collagues sometime. And he told the same thing, tell us if you find something :D 

Long story short, they just don't know about adult-autism at all. 

As for the politicians... I don't want to use any word or expression because there would be some ears just like you said and i prefer to shut my mouth than i tell the truth about them. 

King regards

Tolga

Cheers Tolga! I will try to be a bit less paranoid today. The country I am talking about is Thailand. The reactions you have received are really quite similar to many reactions I have experienced here. So I have largely given up on the idea of ever having a constructive conversation with my local family, doctors and specialists about autism. There are probably some specialists who are a bit ignorant of the subject; perhaps because they have deliberately not gone looking for knowledge updates since they graduated. They might well also have a real need to recoup their investment in expensive medical education. However, I believe they sometimes feign a degree of ignorance just to avoid a real dialogue ever taking place. It seems this is a subject that is politically inconvenient right now; but I am in no mood to indicate how this has come about. It seems you, Tolga, also have some fears about speaking out too much; so I imagine you can guess the reasons for yourself.

As Aidie already suggested, you could just self-identify as autistic; but I daresay that might lead to a rather solitary existence. Do you think that there might be places in Turkey where some adult autistics might congregate or work; such as perhaps the local equivalent of Silicon Valley. If there are, you might eventually discover individuals there who have found ways to partially circumvent this local lack of 'interest'. That's what I have already decided to do here; but a long-running Covid lockdown has prevented me from getting out and about to find such individuals. (I guess there is no such thing as a support group for adults in Turkey. There aren't any here either.)

I have found it is best to completely avoid local psychology, psychiatry and therapeutic specialists. These sectors are not particularly fashionable in the local medical world. I suppose you might say these sectors don't attract the most highly motivated graduates; they could earn a lot more elsewhere without ever having to deal with people who like to ask inconvenient questions.

Cheers Tolga! I will try to be a bit less paranoid today. The country I am talking about is Thailand. The reactions you have received are really quite similar to many reactions I have experienced here. So I have largely given up on the idea of ever having a constructive conversation with my local family, doctors and specialists about autism. There are probably some specialists who are a bit ignorant of the subject; perhaps because they have deliberately not gone looking for knowledge updates since they graduated. They might well also have a real need to recoup their investment in expensive medical education. However, I believe they sometimes feign a degree of ignorance just to avoid a real dialogue ever taking place. It seems this is a subject that is politically inconvenient right now; but I am in no mood to indicate how this has come about. It seems you, Tolga, also have some fears about speaking out too much; so I imagine you can guess the reasons for yourself.

As Aidie already suggested, you could just self-identify as autistic; but I daresay that might lead to a rather solitary existence. Do you think that there might be places in Turkey where some adult autistics might congregate or work; such as perhaps the local equivalent of Silicon Valley. If there are, you might eventually discover individuals there who have found ways to partially circumvent this local lack of 'interest'. That's what I have already decided to do here; but a long-running Covid lockdown has prevented me from getting out and about to find such individuals. (I guess there is no such thing as a support group for adults in Turkey. There aren't any here either.)

I have found it is best to completely avoid local psychology, psychiatry and therapeutic specialists. These sectors are not particularly fashionable in the local medical world. I suppose you might say these sectors don't attract the most highly motivated graduates; they could earn a lot more elsewhere without ever having to deal with people who like to ask inconvenient questions.