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Hello, just diagnosed, and how to connect with other older autistic adults?

Martin H

Hi everyone, I just got diagnosed (last month) with ASD after 66 years. It is a bit of a shock. I’d appreciate any help about making connections with other autistic adults, preferably in my area (north of Leeds). I haven’t  had brilliant times with (non autistic) forums in the past and don’t do social media but I don’t want to rule anything out too quickly . I keep watching you tube videos and finding podcasts, looking at websites which seem relevant, to an extent, but there isn’t that much that I feel I can join in with so far.  I think it may be easier if I could find an autism group for older people who have been (very) late diagnosed, perhaps where people meet face to face?  I haven’t done that much reading of previous posts here so I apologise if there is something utterly appropriate and obvious that I have missed, mentioned already on this forum.

  • in reply to Martin H

    That's a good idea starting your own group. I started an asd group at school and am up to 4 members now x

  • Thanks for these answers. Yes my life is starting to make more sense but with the caveat ‘how has this not been seen before?’. Also I will check out the Autistic Empathy app. Martin, sounds like it isn’t just me who is looking for a group, it makes me think that I probably need to start one, if I feel up to it.

  • I would like to know this too. I was diagnosed a couple of years ago, aged 50. There doesn't seem to be any groups at all in my area. The nearest one, which is for adults of any age, is over 50 miles away.

    Like you I don't do social media.

    The only thing I have found so far is on a relatively new app called Autistic Empathy. There was a post on here about it recently. Once signed up you can join various groups. One of the groups on there is called 'Late Diagnosis' and the description states it is for people over 45.

  • I wish I knew. I was diagnosed last year and I'm now 61. The only autistic person I have met since diagnosis is my daughter and she was diagnosed the day after me. On investigation, I found that there was a social 'club' for autistic adults in my area limited to 30 places. Considering that my town has a population of 100,000 and that a conservative estimate of the prevalence autism is around 1%, there is a shortfall of at least 600 places (if we exclude autistic children).

  • Hiya, I just joined as well. I'm a bit younger so you probably won't learn much from me as I'm still at school in my final year. 

    I just wanted to say I'm happy for you that you finally have your diagnosis and hopefully some better understanding of who you are. I was diagnosed when I was 11 and it made a lot more sense of my life.

    I hope you can find the answers here.