Diagnosed late in life

Hi, I'm 55 and was diagnosed earlier this year. I've always felt like an outsider. The trigger for me was realising how much I enjoyed lock down and how much I've struggled since the return to 'normal'.  I've spent a few months trying to process it all, but I've realised that if I look at my life through the lens of autism a lot of things make so much more sense. I've spent most of my life trying to fit in, hide aspects of myself and beating myself up for struggling with things other people find easy. My diagnosis is one of the most positive things to happen in my life.  As others have said, what little support there is appears to be geared towards children. I haven't got the facts to back this up, but I can't help thinking that we are likely to be the last, or close to last generation where late diagnosis occurs.  Schools seem to be much better at picking it up now - before we learn to 'mask up'. Take your own time to get used to your diagnosis - you are still the same person, but you now know yourself a lot more. I've just started telling people and, in the main, I've been met with complete indifference and an unwillingness to listen - so be really careful who you open up to.  We are all here to support you as best we can.  Welcome to the club! 

Hi, I'm 55 and was diagnosed earlier this year. I've always felt like an outsider. The trigger for me was realising how much I enjoyed lock down and how much I've struggled since the return to 'normal'.  I've spent a few months trying to process it all, but I've realised that if I look at my life through the lens of autism a lot of things make so much more sense. I've spent most of my life trying to fit in, hide aspects of myself and beating myself up for struggling with things other people find easy. My diagnosis is one of the most positive things to happen in my life.  As others have said, what little support there is appears to be geared towards children. I haven't got the facts to back this up, but I can't help thinking that we are likely to be the last, or close to last generation where late diagnosis occurs.  Schools seem to be much better at picking it up now - before we learn to 'mask up'. Take your own time to get used to your diagnosis - you are still the same person, but you now know yourself a lot more. I've just started telling people and, in the main, I've been met with complete indifference and an unwillingness to listen - so be really careful who you open up to.  We are all here to support you as best we can.  Welcome to the club! 

Hi, you have very much mirrored my journey, I was 53 when lockdown started, it was the perfect world. I had always known I was different but just didn’t know what it was. After lockdown I was struggling massively, just by an absolute chance the radio was on in my workshop, two people were being interviewed who had been late diagnosed with asd at the age of 18. They explained how autism affects their lives, nearly everything they said was my life.

I was very ignorant to autism, I had the stereotypical view of it, I think I was elated, shocked and then sad. I went to my GP and explained how I felt, 10 minutes later I was referred for an assessment.

Im 56 now and still on the waiting list, hopefully only 6 months to go. A diagnosis in the 70’s or 80’s at school would have been of little use. There was no understanding of autism and the bullies would have made life even worse.