Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm not sure if this is appropriate to post and I am not asking for medical advice. I would just like to hear from adults who were diagnosed with ASD later in life. I am in my early 30s. I am not sure what I should do as I have been reading up a lot more on ASD lately and some of my behaviours and feelings do match some descriptions but some of these can also overlap with things like depression or anxiety disorders. For example some things like understanding how others feel come naturally to me, but I did have to teach myself how to socialise with people to seem "normal". There are more things as well that keep adding up, but won't elaborate in order to try and keep this as short as possible. I'm just a bit confused as to if I should seek a diagnosis or not as life has been a bit hard for me lately. I know that people on the internet can't tell me if I have ASD, I just feel a bit vulnerable at the moment and don't feel like I have anyone to talk to. How does one even get a diagnosis? Does it help?
One of the things they do in a diagnosis is try to see whether there could be another explanation (depression, anxiety, trauma, etc).
What are the symptoms which you have noticed in yourself? As others said, try the AQ50. It can have false positives, but if you score low then you are unlikely to be autistic.
I’m in my middle thirties. Realised some time ago, that ASD Asperger describes me and my life and explains a lot of my struggles. I have some strong evidence that I’m right, but I’m also not diagnosed. I was picked by teachers at school, but my mom refused having me tested saying that I’m normal just like her. Here is a site with tests that I find helpful: embrace-autism.com there are tests such as AQ, RAADS, aspie quiz, Catq about masking etc. take your time, answer the questions honestly without thinking too much and it will give you some insight. Autism is a wide spectrum of many traits and everyone is different. As for getting diagnosed- everyone must decide for themselves. You can also discuss it with your therapist. I stay self dx as for now for various reasons, one of them is the price of getting diagnosed.
Hey
Im about where you are pretty much accept I’m nearly 50!
I feel the same as sometimes socially I can manage but it does depend on who it is and how many of them there are. I hope to seek an assessment in the future but for the moment I’m putting all my efforts into my youngest son who has 2 months left to wait for his. Once we get that and hopefully a EHCP for a bit of support at school I can get on with mine. Im not saying this is right for everyone but I take my son for therapy sessions who specialise in neurodiversity before seeking assessment. We wanted to just get the opinion of a professional as a sort of screening before hand. That is the route I want to go down also and I have started contacting some therapists. It’s been great for my son and he communicates his feelings so much better now as he recognises what is going on.
Just a suggestion but ultimately it’s your decision as to weather you need a diagnosis or not.
Good luck on your journey
I didn't find out until I was in my fifties. I didn't think my behaviours could be autistic, but then I had practically no knowledge. So I asked Dr Google, who directed me to this site, where I felt very much 'at home ', and also gave me the AQ50 diagnostic test for adults, which is a screening test used by professionals and created by an autism expert (Dr Baron-Cohen) - it's not being diagnosed by the internet!
Here is the link to.the test: https://psychology-tools.com/test/autism-spectrum-quotient
If you score highly on this test, it's a good indicator that you are probably autistic. If so, you can then contact your doctor to.discuss whether to pursue a formal.diagnosis. Some of us decide not to do that and stay 'self diagnosed ' - it's a very personal decision, but everyone is welcome here.
Hope you enjoy chatting with us.
Giant duck said:some of my behaviours and feelings do match some descriptions but some of these can also overlap with things like depression or anxiety disorders.
These are often linked to autistic traits but they also exist for plenty of other "conditions" so I would spend some time to confirm if you are looking in the right areas.
To start I would consider doing a free online test to see if you score highish in the spectrum. A good test is here:
https://www.thevividmind.org/blog/test/autism-test-online/
Bare in mind that this is a spectrum condition so while you may have a number of traits that are evident, you need to have them at a severe enough level to be labelled as autistic - it just means that you have to be affected seriously enough to get the lable to define you as disabled.
This spectrum is the neurodivergent spectrum and includes areas such as ADHD and bipolar, all of which have overlapping traits.
Rather than worry about labels and official diagnoses you may find it more helpful to look at the traits which are causing you issues and read here about others experiences and approaches to them. There is a wealth of information on the discussion boards that is easily searchable using the magnifying glass on the top right.
Actually getting a diagnosis is of limited use unless you plan to use it to get some benefit - typically to request something called Reasonable Adjustments in the workplace or to support a disability claim. Wait times are in terms of years now so you need to be patient or pay to go private.
In summary - do the test, confirm if you are on the spectrum then look for help with what is troubling you would be my recommendation.
Have you done the AQ50 test? It’s not a diagnosis but it is a good indicator.
https://embrace-autism.com/autism-spectrum-quotient/
I was told the waiting list for an adult assessment on the NHS was 3+ years in my area so I used one of the private clinics listed on the NAS website. Sadly this was quite expensive.