As someone who always tried to be transparent in his life, especially because I believe that (lack of) mental health shouldn’t be reason for being ashamed, I would like to announce it here:
After 44 years of life and a whole year of testing, my psychologist diagnosed me within the autism spectrum. Also with a little ADHD on the side.
Of course, I’m not surprised at all. My whole life I’ve felt a little different than everybody else; my anxiety was always out of the charts; I’ve collected things since I’ve been three years old because of hyperfocus; and my wife herself was diagnosed last year (neurodivergent people usually cling to each other).
I know I’m not the biggest talker around here (English being a second language, mainly), but I think this is one of the safest and friendliest places on the internet.
So, anyone here shares this experience? To be diagnosed so late in life? I’d love to share some life stories and talk about it.
I wasn’t diagnosed with avoidant personality disorder until my late 30’s. Mostly because it wasn’t a DSM diagnosis until the 80s when it was separated from schizoid personality disorder from what I understand. There were generations of psychiatrists that were trained before that change and I we were never able to characterize my cluster of problems until finding a much younger one.
I didn’t know about this one, it’s good to learn about. I have a partner with super high anxiety so it’s interesting to see sort of peripherally related things like this.
High anxiety is something extremely common in undiagnosed autistic adults. Probably because your whole life was one of trying to adapt and being “normal”.
I never understood how my colleagues were able to wait until something bad happen before feeling like it already did.
My dad is 52 (I am 32), learning about autism around age 45 helped give words to his very uncommon life experiences. Looking back, it’s so obvious, and we get it from his mom, who is the same.
Just started dating someone who is also autistic and has an autistic dad. Fun!
Hey folks - the mod team had a quick chat about whether to merge this thread into the Mental Health one or have it be its own thing and the team decided to have it be its own thing.
Please remember that everything you post on Insert Credit is posted on the public internet and indexed by search engines etc. It feels like a small tight-knit intimate community, but it’s externally available. Remember to be cautious that you do not share anything you don’t want public, especially as it relates to your own medical information!
Never feel like you can’t create a topic! The worst case scenario is that it may get merged into another topic. It’s healthy to revisit things in a different way. It’s celebrated in our FAQ in section 2.c!
Yeah, just reiterating there’s never a problem starting a new topic because a new one often takes on a new nuance, and like antillese said if it’s too close it’ll get merged. But to me this winds up on the side of being different enough because it’s discussing diagnoses later in life, which feels specific enough to be its own thing!
Antillese only mentioned that other stuff because sometimes people do forget that this is a public, searchable forum, so to make sure that people share what they’re comfortable with.
On the topic of anxiety those with ADHD also may have overwhelming symptoms of anxiety and depression stemming from the ADHD problems. And the common prescription of SSRIs can often make ADHD worse!
i just got my diagnosis in february of this year (was 26 at the time), and it put a name to so many of the things i went through in my life that it lightened the load of being alive a little bit
I recently discovered that I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid but my parents decided ‘no he is just bored’ and just rolled with it. I have my suspicion and would explain a lot given how much I struggled with school. Apparently this is a pretty common experience. Even now I struggle to pay attention to people talking to me - not for lack of trying.
Would love to get a formal diagnosis but it’s a pretty expensive and lengthy process here.
My school said I needed therapy, as I was a very agitated child, but my parents concluded that I wasn’t ”crazy” so I didn’t need it.
I don’t blame them at all, as I grew up in the 80s, when being autistic meant you could count cards, being nonverbal and having Tom Cruise as a brother.
We came a LONG way in taking care of mental health.
I used to work with a guy and his thing was you could tell him any date like march 21st, 1423 BC and he could tell you what day of the week that was. Took him like 2 seconds to think of it, 100% accuracy
There was a guy that would come in to a pizzeria I walked at through college that did that. He also would repeat Washington state zip code and their associated town over and over. He would always end with the unincorporated territory named humptulips and laugh his way through it.
Yeah I would’ve been diagnosed in the early 90s and I’m sure there was still a stigma attached. No blame for my parents at all it is what it is.
What made you bite the bullet to get tested? My partner has suspiciouns about me, but outside of getting maybe workplace accommodations I’m not sure what I’d do.
My wife did her tests with a psychologist before a psychiatrist, so I asked here if she wouldn’t mind if I did the same tests with “her” psychologist, which she didn’t.
My main motivation was work. Since the pandemic I’m working remotely, but my work used to make me spend 5-6 hours commuting in a bus daily. The company I work for has a policy which prioritizes remote work for disabled people.