Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi. I am waiting to be assessed for high functioning autism after being told by my GP and 2 mental health professionals that I likely have it. I am in my late 30s and am not I guess your “typical” possible autistic.. I have been in my job 20 years and married for almost 20 years.. without going into it all, I do identify with a lot of the traits that have been presented to me but I am struggling to accept this possible diagnosis because I don’t want to get mis-diagnosed and I don’t want to be a fraud or like seem to minimise diagnosed autistic people’s struggles.. does that make sense?
I’ve had severe mental health issues since my early teens and so much of this is making sense and making me feel like maybe I’m not crazy or some alien or something.. but then like I say there are other parts which are a definite “no, that’s not me at all”. I know there’s a huge spectrum so it’s likely that I’ll identify with some parts and not others, I guess I’m just struggling to come to terms with it all.
Has anyone else had a diagnosis /possible diagnosis later in life and struggled with it? How did you get past the worries and just focus on yourself and figuring things out?
Hi and welcome to the community!
Many of us here were diagnosed later in adulthood (and in many cases much later than our 30s).
As you mention, with autism being a spectrum condition we are each unique - so please don't worry about maybe not being a "typical autistic" person, as there's no such thing. It's perfectly normal and OK for our mixtures and extents of traits to differ.
Some of us here also either are or have been in employment and/or long-term relationships or marriages. And many of us have experienced mental health issues (in my case also over the long term, and as a consequence of difficulties relating to my as-yet-undiagnosed autism).
So you're definitely in the right place and among new friends :)
If you haven't yet done so, then - in order to get a better personal feel for / reassurance about the likelihood of being autistic - you can complete either or both of the AQ-10 and AQ-50 tests. They're available on the website linked below in a format where you can complete them online and see your results. The pages also include explanations and discussion of the scoring criteria:
AQ-10 AQ-50
Just a quick word on terminology: "high functioning" autism has only ever been an informal term, never an official diagnostic one. The use of high / low functioning terms is now also considered inappropriate by many in the autistic community.
Under both of the major classification systems, you would instead be diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Under DSM-V, this would also include the specifier Level 1, which recognises that you have support needs (versus 2 and 3 with greater needs).
For more information and advice about the pre-diagnosis stage and assessment process, you might find the articles here helpful: Autism diagnosis.