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Asperger's Diagnosis in Adult Life

Jon

I was only diagnosed with Asperger's last year at the age of 39. When I think about this I can sometimes feel both angry and frustrated. I don't really blame anyone. When I did start to understand and seek help it was a real struggle and I think that this is partly what make me angry. Even now I don't get so much help or understanding.

There is a 'lost generation' of people with Asperger's who were born before Asperger's Syndrome was acknowleged:

  • A description of a condition labeled "Asperger's syndrome" by Lorna Wing first appeared in 1981.
  • In 1994, Asperger's Syndrome was added to the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).

How do other people who recieved a late diagnosis feel about this?

Parents

  • Hi Jon,

    I was just diagnosed with asperger's yesterday at the age of 63. Trying to get a diagnosis was tricky to say the least as it took me some weeks of being (probably unintentionally patronised) before I found out my County could not diagnose. So I paid and travelled. Initially I was relieved (it was a hell of a job pushing past obstacles not even sure what the eventual diagnosis might be).

    Then came the realisation (of course) that nothing was 'different' and I was a fool for not knowing that I was AS anyway. Then anger that too much of my life had been a catalogue of being bullied, ignored or abused.

      My compensation is one I took for myself, as being of the generation to access drugs I took some steps to treat myself - and I believe many other people did the same including some of the more famous. But it was and is a potentially dangerous strategem though not, I believe, a more dangerous one than misdiagnosis or the 'pushing' of many of the modern legal medications. The problem with these issues is another one which is rarely properly addressed, and that is the abuse to which all poeple who are vulnerable in our society for all sorts of reasons are likely to come across. This surely is the real reason why obtaining a diagnosis is not just a good idea but vitally necessary to prevent further harm.

Reply

  • Hi Jon,

    I was just diagnosed with asperger's yesterday at the age of 63. Trying to get a diagnosis was tricky to say the least as it took me some weeks of being (probably unintentionally patronised) before I found out my County could not diagnose. So I paid and travelled. Initially I was relieved (it was a hell of a job pushing past obstacles not even sure what the eventual diagnosis might be).

    Then came the realisation (of course) that nothing was 'different' and I was a fool for not knowing that I was AS anyway. Then anger that too much of my life had been a catalogue of being bullied, ignored or abused.

      My compensation is one I took for myself, as being of the generation to access drugs I took some steps to treat myself - and I believe many other people did the same including some of the more famous. But it was and is a potentially dangerous strategem though not, I believe, a more dangerous one than misdiagnosis or the 'pushing' of many of the modern legal medications. The problem with these issues is another one which is rarely properly addressed, and that is the abuse to which all poeple who are vulnerable in our society for all sorts of reasons are likely to come across. This surely is the real reason why obtaining a diagnosis is not just a good idea but vitally necessary to prevent further harm.

Children
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