Hello there!

Hi Gaia Bird,

Yes I received a diagnosis as recently as yesterday. I'm 41.

It wasn't a huge surprise to be honest, not for me anyway.

Much like you, I'm a bit undecided how I feel about it all right now but don't see too many reasons for ditiching the coping mechanisms I've developed and used all my life.

It's useful for me to be able to now start to understand why I've reacted to things a certain way all of my life.

Be happy to discuss further if you want to 

I'm a 60 year old bloke, and may be newly diagnosed next week, but feeling a bit stressed out by the wait and uncertainty at the moment.

hi

If anyone is interested?

your.asda.com/.../asda-living-store-manager-introduces-quiet-hour-to-help-autistic-customers

Hello Gaia 

I'm a female aged 55 with aspergers. I only found this out recently and don't have a "formal" diagnosis, as I declined the offer of referral by the GP because I don't need support and felt that my AQ test results and the offer of a referral confirmed what I thought. Reading about it has enabled me to understand myself more and to cope better when I start to get anxious or agitated. 

I only started to think I might be on the spectrum a few months ago when I saw a documentary about autism which featured a woman with aspergers and  I related to some of her issues. I searched the Internet for more information and found the AQ test, which I took and found that my score indicated I probably was.

Then recently I decided to see the GP as I had to take a few days off work suffering with stress and anxiety and although there were several things that had caused me to be stressed in the lead up to this, my reaction to a difficult confrontation with a manager at work - which prompted the sick leave - made me think there was something seriously wrong with me. So realising there was a reason why I react in certain ways to certain situations has helped. 

If you want to talk about it more, I'd be interested to hear about your experiences.

Take care 

Pixie