To undiagnosed adults or those diagnosed in adulthood: How did you realize you might be autistic?

My 19-year-old daughter had the suggestion that she might be autistic from her CBT counsellor; on researching adult autistic traits, I found that I ticked almost all of the boxes too.

when I realised that the camouflaging (ie longing to be like everyone else and sometimes achieving that) was an illusion and that consantly failing to achieve tasks and projects (because there is noone to support me in my disorganisation) is inevitable. It is profoundly dark to give in to that horrible realisation that loneliness, anxiety and the physical pain are the only constant in your life. 

ThunderFunk9000 said:

it was like I had been given the brochure to my own life

I love that, I couldnt have put it better myself. thats exactly how I felt 

I can see that. 

I'm new here but it was my psychiatrist who flagged it up after diagnosing and stabilising my bipolar. I've just got my asd diagnosis today at the age of 49 . It still took 4 years after the psychiatrist mentioning it though due to backlogs and psychiatrists not being able to diagnose. As I'm female and older I was lucky she picked it up at all.

I'm glad it's making some sense of things for you .

I think dishonest and unethical are more accurate adjectives than bad to describe it, Juniper. Dishonest because it is circumventing the safeguards the NAS has put in place to protect members. Unethical because it is collecting people's personal experiences for research without first obtaining their consent.

Much like most, I spent years not thinking about autist as a possibility due to the sterotypical mute kids with the foreheads being the only 'autists' around but as each attempt to work out why *situation* happened failed over the years I eventually fell onto the ASD trail and like any good treasure hunt I found myself feeling like I was onto something, took an AQ test I found on the internet which returned a high score then pressed forward with my GP who put me in front of a psychiatrist and after a fairly long session she confirmed my suspicions and said she actually had me pinned as autist after about 5 minutes.

From here it was like I had been given the brochure to my own life, suddenly I knew why I suffered the frustrations I did, why people always said I was 'creepy' or 'weird' why I struggled in any situation outside of physical self-defense that required an intense interaction with a normal (oddly I found self defense and martial arts really easy given its all rules and techniques mixed with imaginative flair.

Someone suggesting I try an AQ test some time ago and thought nothing of it believing I could not possibly be autistic. I revisited recently and scored high enough where autism would be possibility. I work in healthcare science so understand a bit around Questionnaires used for outcomes etc.. so I took this more seriously.   I then reflected on various issues I have had and still have, also back into childhood too.  It was a lightbulb moment!  

I had to wait 5 years for an assessment. But you can go privately and get it done. For me it was clinical dipression and cripleing anexity and repetitive behivhior. Living life like I was stuck in limbo and couldn't break my cycle. Then dealing with melt downs and the majority of my freinds a shrink and a therapist assesed me with it. I hate being ASD personally as it's a real head *** at times but hey if you can hide it do it as life Only gets harder when your on the spectrum and there isn't really much help after getting assesed to make it worth pursuing anyway.

Is it bad tho? Many of complain research doesn't include or ask autists...

For myself. 

These posts feel very much like survey/research questions. Are you asking for yourself or as part of some 'group'?

Thanks for sharing! For me it was befriending an autistic person. I had started to read what they sent to me and later research it myself, so I can better understand and support them. Eventually as I read I realized that I have similar experience… I remember clearly the first time I related to autistic experience was learning about the term “sensory overload,” I excitedly exclaimed, “So that's what it's called! That's what I experience, I finally understand.” Bit by bit I had started to understand better not just my friend, but myself. 

I started wondering about autism when I got a job as a Teaching Assistant for SEN school and I started to notice that alot  of the autistic kids were a lot like me. 

I was in a controlling relationship at the time so I did not follow it up. About a year ago I was struggling socially more than ever, and I was really struggling to cope with life so I started to properly research it. It was like a light turned on in my head and my whole life finally made sense. Reading the experiences of other autistic people felt like reading my own thoughts and life story, it was incredible. I took a lot of autism tests and scored very very highly on all of them. I decided to leave it at that and not apply for a formal diagnosis as I didnt know if my mental health could cope with the assesment. Then in September I had a massive falling out with my now ex best friend and was struggling at work. I decided I couldnt cope without support anymore and on my 34th birthday I was referred for an offical diagnosis which I am currently waiting for

How did it happen for you?