Is it possible to get a formal diagnosis of Aspergers as an adult?

I've been back and fourth with psychiatrists and counselors for a while now, trying to get a diagnosis on whatever it is holding me back.

My grandmother said she suspected a type of autism when I was a child, but she never took me to be tested because it didn't seem like much of a problem. I've had social anxiety problems and some sort of nervous disorder ever since I could remember (they've been interfering with life much more lately), and when I first read about AS, it seemed to fit me.

I recently started going to a new psychiatrist, and brought up the idea after a couple of sessions. She gave me a few different tests for many things, and today diagnosed me with schizoid personality disorder, ADD, and Asperger's- but then she said she could not formally diagnose the AS because I am over 18.

I'm not sure what to think of this. I'm glad I know what's wrong, but I was hoping for a formal diagnosis so I could get some kind of help. I'm struggling to live on my own and even maintain my part-time job. I've never heard of not being able to be diagnosed with something just because you are an adult. Is this true?

http://autism.about.com/od/aspergers...teriaforas.htm
http://autism.about.com/od/aspergers...dxasadults.htm
http://autism.about.com/od/aspergers...whygetasdx.htm

Thanks for the links! However, I had already been on those pages plus a good many more trying to figure this out

Nothing I found says it cannot be officially diagnosed for an adult- and if not, why did my psychiatrist say such a thing?

I'm guessing I should go to another psychiatrist in this case.

The docs pretty much told me I have traits, but I've overcome much of my social problems and it wouldn't be worth it, and it's a childhood dx. Plus my pdoc said it was overdxed and unlikely. Though this was the same pdoc that dxed me with OCD because of bird obsession... when that's not the type of obsession OCD is. It's frustrating.

Hi shinzy,

I am female and I was dx at 36. It took 2 years with my new T to formally put a name to it. In the past I have been dx with Borderline personality disorder, schizoaffective, GAD, Major Depressive disorder, Bipolar II(rapid cycling) PTSD and traits of: NPD and Anti-social PD.

As it stands now, Aspergers, PTSD and traits of BPD.......all other dx have been removed.

Your T may not be able to dx you as an adult because the DSM criteria for AS is based on dx children, predominantly young boys. My T took the criteria and applied it with a process of elimination of sorts. Her first clue and what sent alarm bells ringing for her consisted of 3 things......the amount of different things I had been dx with and the inconsistencies of those dx, some core difficulties that had not been addressed in the past and my "thinking process" among other things, and there is AS and LFA in my family on my fathers side.

I am also being tested for ADHD(inattentive type) soon, psychometrically.

Is it possible to seek a second opinion?

I have never heard of people not being able to be dx as an adult. Just the opposite.......as I get older, and it seems that way for some mature aged people I have talked to, holding the pretense of "normality" becomes more and more difficult to uphold and big burnout ensues. We old-timers seem to get "more" autistic as we get older. That is not the case, it just means its too tiring to try to behave "normally" and so AS/autistic traits are more evident.

Take good care........and try and find someone who will help get this sorted for you.

In stillness,

Michah

Thank you Michah!

I am currently looking for another psychiatrist to go to- there are hardly any in this area, and I might have to branch out to Houston (hopefully they have a specialist there, even).

My other doctors had diagnosed me with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, major depression, mild depression, depression-NOS, bipolar disorder, ADD, and OCD. The only diagnosis that is consistent with each doctor is ADD and OCD, and this psychiatrist agrees with both of those as well- but dismisses the others.

Talking to everyone here has given me the courage to further persue this, thank you all !

Those are similar to the DXs I've went through. As a kid, I was dxed ADHD, then as an adult in this order: Bipolar, Major Depression with Psychosis, Psychosis NOS, Schizoaffective, OCD. I got OCD taken off because it was wrong though, I think all that's left is schizoaffective. Anyway, I do have severe mood problems (both depression and mania) and psychotic episodes, so I think at least Bipolar is correct.

But I have those other issues too that medicine isn't helping, the social skills problems, intense interests, repetitive movements, and also ADHD-like things. But my pdoc doesn't agree. I hope someday they can indeed do tests on you to find out for sure. I don't have AS or Autism on my mom's side of the family at least, mental illness runs here, but I have no clue of my father's side.

We've got quite a few mental illnesses that run in my family as well (schizophrenia, bi-polar, and borderline personality disorder are some that I aware of). I was never really certain if autism was 'in the family' since it may have been mixed or masked by one of the other problems. My nephew was recently diagnosed with autism, but I do not know if one sure case counts as running through the family genes.

My grandma is doing much more research on these topics along with myself. She didn't realize until recently that these disorders could range from mild to severe, and has told me that if she had just that bit of knowledge when I was a child she would have actively sought a diagnosis.

Either way, I love that I have found this board and other people to talk about this with. We should be getting info on a new psychiatrist soon. One step closer!

Asperger's/autism are actual developmental diseases. So, when one is an adult, there's no way to know if it was true because one is about as developed as one is going to get :-) There's no "point".

With something like anxiety, some/depression, "situational" mental illnesses where we might not have been taught/raised well, been abused, etc. and the problems aren't genetic or seriously chemical (that can't be "fixed"/helped by today's meds) one can learn/change/grow and mature and "get over" the illness but it it is genetic or seriously chemical, one can only adapt as best one can. One doesn't get "better" with a developmental disease; there is a time frames where we have to learn to talk or we cannot learn to talk at all; there's a developmental clock and if we miss the "window" then whatever it is can't happen and one has to "live with" that particular problem.

It's possible to work around, grow out of, take helpful meds, adapt to ADD/ADHD so it isn't such a problem to one's life but literally not being able to learn something, like how to read faces http://www.adhdlibrary.org/library/e...ren-with-adhd/ handicaps in a different way. If one can't learn a needed behavior or skill, one can't build on that to go further and are "stopped".

It's my impression that most people developmental diseases and other, serious problems like unchecked schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, NPD, etc. are not "interested" or unable to conceive of help and working on their problems and behavior. I'd be willing to bet a whole lot of money that there is no one on these boards who is autistic, because the truly autistic do not use words, don't read, haven't the ability to engage in what we're doing here. They are not the less for that, I'm merely stating a "fact". That you are working so hard to help yourself and doing it well, expressing yourself well here on the boards and being very active, would make me imagine that you are not very developmentally or "seriously" wounded that you cannot learn new behaviors and have different outcomes to situations that use to cause you problem.

Diagnoses can give one a sense of relief and make it feel like something is defined; but in mental health, that's not really true. Just like doctors can have trouble with non-specific illnesses, I think all mental health issues are pretty non-specific. Saying someone is "depressed" doesn't necessarily help. Sure they can try meds but that only works some of the time; if "Depression" were like a broken leg, they would help 100% of the time. Therapy helps some people but not others, lifestyle change helps still others but not all. Some people change for no seeming reason at all.

I never really wanted a diagnosis because I like feeling "special" and to have someone label me with something that a zillion other people had, didn't appeal to me. What did help me was looking at symptoms I didn't like and then working back from them to find causes of that symptom and working to understand the cause differently than I did initially, which formed the symptom I didn't like to "balance" me. I did things I was afraid to do, resisted symptoms/habits to see what would happen, how that would make me feel, and worked a long time with a therapist, looking at my life and thoughts and feelings and everything, including the kitchen sink (we discussed how I felt about peeling potatoes and it was very significant :-)

You can't grow out of ADD/ADHD, just like Autism/Aspergers, it is a developmental disorder, so you've just contradicted yourself. ^^

& my friend has Autism & he comes on MSN, & he goes on forums etc. So, it is possible... & he is a "true autistic" :l Everybody is different but to say no one here is a "true autistic" is actually very demeaning & disregarding to them as well as downplaying how serious their autism is. On here, social ques aren't needed, nor eye contact, or facial expressions, or vocals, or any of that which an autistic person would struggle greatly with, and communicating is much easier, for me it is, I can't express myself in person and I have a lot of difficulty with receptive and expressive language, and I struggle to talk, but on here in words, in rants, in blogs, in threads etc, I excel in how I express myself.

It's a very wrong generalization to make.

Yup. I know autistic people who live in group homes or assisted living facilities and use the Internet. It happens all the time, thanks to the way that autistic people can be really good at one thing and really suck at something else simultaneously. So, if you happen to be good at typing out your thoughts, but suck at talking, or at taking care of yourself... well, then you're likely enough to show up on the Internet and have people say, "But you can't be autistic! Autistic people don't use the Internet!"

Autism is a life-long disorder. While you can "lose your diagnosis" (if this happens, it usually happens when you're a child) because you no longer have significant impairment from your autistic traits, your brain will always be wired that way; you will always have the autistic cognitive style and neurological arrangement. Autistic children grow into autistic adults; and most of the time, those adults can still be diagnosed with autism.

Because autism has only been well-known for the past decade or so, it is not uncommon for people with either milder autism, or autism that masqueraded as something else, to have grown up without a diagnosis. It does take some doing to figure out the diagnosis in an adult because of the confounding factors: Parents may not be available; childhood memories may be clouded; many compensatory skills have been learned and implemented; a great deal of effort may have been spent on erecting a "normal" facade. In the case of people who have had some other diagnosis, whether correct or incorrect, there is also the problem of figuring out the true nature of traits that have always been described in terms of that other diagnosis. In many cases, it takes a specialist.

I don't think one will find an adult with autism, coming to an online mental health site asking, "Do I have autism?" I don't think there are any posts here in this forum by anyone diagnosed with autism (and I'm not sure but don't think there are any/many from those with Aspergers).

Yes, I know several adults with Aspergers but, even those diagnosed as adults did not first come wondering if they had it to an online mental health site, they had other adults, usually parents/care givers/therapists who were helping/supporting/involved in their lives who were working on finding out and getting a diagnosis. I've been on several online mental health sites with these adult friends and worked in a residential school for mostly autistic children/other children with developmental disorders and my daughter-in-law is a social worker working full-time supporting adults with developmental disorders so they can live in their own apartments instead of in residential/assisted living facilities and quite a few of them have computers.

It is my experience that adults with developmental disorders may enjoy researching online for ways to cope with their disabilities; but I have yet to meet, in nearly 20 years online, anyone who was diagnoses with an autistic spectrum disorder as an adult, through mentioning it to their doctor after questioning peers in an online mental health community.

Funnily enough, I've met several. Generally, by the point they get to discussing it online, they've already read all the books in their local library, done online research, possibly taken a few psychology classes and started reading medical journals. Think I'm kidding, you don't know Aspie persistence... Eventually they either decide not to go for diagnosis because they're in a good situation and don't need help; or they'll go and ask a doctor and about three quarters of the time they'll be told, "Yep, you've got some autistic traits there," or even have family tell them, "Actually, you were diagnosed as a kid and we never told you."

It does happen. Tends to happen more often on autism-dedicated forums rather than general psych forums, though.

Perna, if you want to talk to some of the people who are trying to figure out whether they should see doctors because of their autistic traits, I suggest you try going to Wrong Planet; it's an autism web site where we often do get people who suspect they may have a PDD and are trying to get help. At least one every week (it's a very active forum, but that IS often.)
http://www.wrongplanet.net

I would like to gently remind everyone that making sweeping/generalized statements regarding membership and what they may be dx'ed with or looking for a possible dx because of their symptoms is not supportive.

For the record, we do have members here who have been dx'ed along the autism spectrum (as children and as adults) and who do question their symptoms and dx'es. Of course the degree of disability involved with individuals demands whether they can communicate online or not, but for those who can and do, we should be supportive and welcoming as we are to all.

With Respect,
_sabby_

Callista, thanks for mentioning the WrongPlanet link- I will go check that out

I am quite sure that others have questioned their own diagnoses- that's got to be at least a part of joining an online community such as this in the first place, isn't it?

Hi all:

I have suspected my entire adult life that there is something different about me, and whatever it is is apparent to other people, but not me. I learned many things about myself while going to college, and it was one course in particular that opened my eyes to my problem. The course was about teaching children with autism.
When I was about 5 yrs old, I started talking to myself - aloud. I remember being that age, walking to school, and talking away! It is a behavior that has been pervasive my entire life, and every counselor or psychiatrist I went to could not tell me why I did this. Until I read a book about autistic children that said that many talk to themselves all the time.
Then other things began to make sense-why I have always withdrawn from people, my social awareness and ability being so poor. Since then, I have found out that it is my family on my father's side. My father, I'm sure, has some form of autism, as well as my nephew.
The reasons that many people with autism/autistic traits are dx with personality disorders is because the reactions of other people, especially for those of us who are older than 50, has an effect on the development of the personality, so many do develop overlapping personality problems.
I am 56, and I have done so much research, and soul searching, and every day I learn something new.
As for being assessed, my psychiatrist told me that I could request a full neuropsych evaluation, but it's pricey. Ins. won't cover it.
I've learned a lot through soul searching, and google searching but it's not a simple process. We have to learn to be kind to ourselves, and not to worry about the unkindness of others.

My advice is that, if you are having trouble with something related to the traits you've mentioned, then you might ask said psychiatrist to investigate the possibility of autism spectrum disorder. But you may not even need a diagnosis to get whatever help you need. Social skills classes are available for people on and off the autism spectrum--people with everything from ADHD to social anxiety disorder can benefit. It's possible to work on specific issues without ever answering the "Am I on the spectrum?" question definitively. If your psychiatrist knows that you have autistic traits, he can take that into account and may not need a definite yes/no the way he might if you were a new client without any current diagnosis.