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Newly diagnosed age 50

MartinW

I thought I should pop in and say hello. Earlier this week, after many years wondering, and a long process of diagnosis, I received a diagnosis of autism (at the age of 50). I regard that as positive, as it is a bit of a relief to know what is going on, and hopefully I can use that knowledge to help understand and manage anxiety, and the depression that sometimes / often causes for me. Anyway, it's good to be here, somewhere where hopefully I don't need to worry about being myself, and I look forward to popping in to speak to other people who will understand.

Parents

  • Hello and welcome.

    I also received my diagnosis at the age of 50. It took around 5 years from when I first approached my GP to request a referral. I was fobbed off far too much at first.

    Like you my initial reaction was positive and definitely a relief. For years I'd been feeling a failure for not being able to do things other people seemed to find easy and not being able to tolerate things that others didn't seem to notice. At last I realised it wasn't my fault and it helped to explain so many things that had happened in my life.

    However in the two years since my diagnosis I've been going through a rollercoaster of emotions, that I wasn't expecting and have found hard to deal with. I just wanted to forewarn you in case it happens to you. At my post diagnostic support sessions they said it is quite common to react this way.

    For me the initial relief turned to anger, to an extent I have never experienced in my life before. I am not normally an angry person. Maybe it was bringing up events from the past during the assessment process. I think mainly it was an anger at why hadn't anyone recognised and diagnosed my autism earlier in my life. How different my life could have turned out if I had known earlier. All the signs were there, even at a very early age, but nobody picked it up.

    I've suffered severe anxiety all my life and never known what has been causing it. I tried all the NHS therapies for anxiety without any effect. Most of them actually made it worse. Finally when I was diagnosed I understood it was due to my autism. I naively thought that with a diagnosis I would now be able to access some specialist support. I was wrong and specialist support is non existent, in my area at least. That's been hard to accept as it feels as if I've just been written off by mental health services. The seem to take the view that as I'm autistic I will suffer anxiety and there isn't anything that can be done. I've given up trying to access any support now as it's not worth the stress. That's a whole other subject and I don't want to hijack this discussion with a rant about mental health services.

  • in reply to Autonomistic

    Thanks Autonomistic for sharing your experiences, it's useful to have that insight.

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