Adult autism diagnosis?

[adviceplease93]

Hi all, I'm just looking for some advice to be honest. I strongly suspect I am on the autistic spectrum - I've previously been diagnosed with depression and anxiety (since about 16) and also traits of BPD. I've been going to DBT therapy for a while now and although the strategies are helpful I don't feel like it's really addressing my issues. I think I've been able to 'mask' for so long and so we'll when I was younger but I am now getting exhausted with it and feel like I get really overwhelmed really easily and am struggling with my job. Has anyone got an experience of getting a diagnosis as an adult? I'm not sure whether to bother going down the route if there isn't much they will do or can offer support wise!

I have a friend who was diagnosed with ASD in her early forties. Not sure if she was offered any support but she did say she felt it helped her understand who she was.
My 18 year old dd was recently diagnosed with ASD, psychologist has written a report for her to show, if she wants to, to university or future employers so that things can be put in place to help her.

My friend was diagnosed as an adult and got offered group counselling with other recently diagnosed adults, which she found really useful.

I was diagnosed as an adult and received no support. But if you work, you're legally entitled to reasonable adjustments.

How do you all get a diagnosis? My husband has very noticeable ASD/ADHD traits to the point he struggles to hold down a job, but was written off as a dead-loss by his school back in the 90s so struggles on in various minimum wage jobs as an adult with no support. Did you get these privately?

Badphotographer what support is there in the workplace.?

Well worth following up. Talk to your GP. My brother and I are both in our 50. It turns out we have both independently been thinking that we are autistic. My brother had his son assessed who has been diagnosed.

I meant to say that both of our GPS referred us for formal assessment and we are now on the very very long waiting list.

I got a diagnosis in my mid-twenties.

I haven't received much support but it certainly helped me make sense of my life!

I was diagnosed in the 30s and without doubt the biggest help it unleashed was just knowing 100% who I was. It might sound crazy, but it was like getting official permission to be myself instead of constantly trying to be someone else.

Ask to be referred by your GP. Mine was a 3 year wait, but I got the diagnosis I thought I would. Which gave me immense closure. No support offered.

I thought you could only get a diagnosis from a psychiatrist?

Just checked my diagnosis papers and I was diagnosed by a psychologist.

I was diagnosed earlier this year. It helped me understand myself and forgive my younger self quite a lot, and apparently according to a supervisor on one of my placements - it's absolutely been the making of me professionally when I got the diagnosis (this is a clinician who is an autism specialist so was absolutely fascinated to have a student on clinical placement able to articulately describe how things actually felt to go through diagnosis and BE autistic)!

I went for the diagnosis because the pandemic fucked up all my coping strategies to mask basically - the sensory overload of all the fucking covid signage and announcements, changes in routine, fear of breaking covid "rules" and I hit meltdown several times and went through a fairly long period of "shutdown" (where I basically went into power-saving mode in my mind - kept enough going for the kids but that was IT).

I tried going through university and was waiting that out, but I was getting very near graduating and hadn't had any luck with the wait, so I paid privately in the end.

I'm in my late 40s and was formally diagnosed only last year...I knew myself that I was Autistic for a long time before that. I didn't see the point of a diagnosis for a long time but I have health conditions and find hospitals very overwhelming, and a friend (also Autistic) pointed out that if I ever needed a hospital stay, then it might be helpful to be able to say for sure that I'm Autistic in case I had a meltdown. That was the push i needed and I asked my GP to refer me. The waiting list here is 5 years, so when Covid happened and I started struggling with it all, I then went for a private assessment instead. I currently have an Autism Service Social Worker who is amazing, and am on the waiting list for a Support Worker

The biggest difference for me since diagnosis has been the change in attitude towards me from doctors. Consultants would have been very impatient with me before and in their letters to my GP, I would have been described as 'very anxious' and 'diagnoses herself via Google'. Now I tell them as soon as I meet them that I am Autistic, and they are much more patient and polite, they listen to what I have to say, and I am described as interesting, informative, and knowing my conditions well