Autistic Hedgehog
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Good luck with Thor's brother, but be careful. He has a habit with making people kill their own siblings.
Anonymous
Hey, these spikes aren’t for show, you know. He’s not going to find it that easy to poke me with that staff of his.
i would like to say that it is not just adults who 'pass wel enough' who slipped through the cracks. i was diagnosed at 20 and my diagnoser said it was so obvious i have autism (by the icd10 critera) that he has no idea why i wasnt diagnosed in early childhood. there are plenty of people who dont and cant passat all who werent diagnosed bc classism sexism abusive childhood settings and parents who refused help for their childs etc etc etc
Anonymous
I know that. My point was simply that we know the different ways autism can look in adults, that it can even look so little like autism on first glance that it slips past, and we have actually known this for a very long time, so there really is no good reason to not have more experts on autism in adults.
I was actually thinking back to an article I read something like ten years ago (when you’re young, and you’re autistic, and people know you’re autistic, they will inevitably inundate you with articles). It was about adults exactly like that, people in their 30s, 40s, even their 50s, who got by for a long time without an autism diagnosis simply because they could pass enough. And about how experts were starting to recognize the signs of that. And yet somehow, adult autism experts are rarer than hens teeth.
That there are other problems with obtaining autism diagnoses is a given, but that the “You can speak/hold a job/show emotions/etc. so you can’t have autism” ignorance is still so prevalent, when we’ve known for more than a decade that autistic people can do those things, boggles my mind.
i hope its ok if i ask you for advice bc im on the end of my rope rn. so i found out recently i actually have a history of autism on both sides of my family and in doing research i realised i fit most of the criteria & ive been looking to get an actual diagnosis bc it would make my school life SO much easier but when i went to my gp first she googled aspergers for reference then referred me to a psychiatrist who refused to even discuss the subject and just? where can i go from here? im so lost
Anonymous
The first thing to do is try asking your GP for a new referral. Explain that the psychiatrist she referred you to refused to even talk to you about it. It may take some time to get the referral, but she ought to be willing and able to do it. There’s a big difference between someone saying you don’t have autism and someone refusing to even discuss it, so in this case, you didn’t actually remotely get what you went to the psychiatrist for.
It might help to do some research and see if you can find any autism specialists in your area that your GP can refer you to. Whatever else, and I know this is hard, but try to be firm and clear with your GP so that she understands exactly what the problem is. If you need to, write down what you want to say beforehand, just in case your brain does the Autism Nope on you. I’ve walked out of a lot of doctors’ offices without saying what I wanted to because of that.
Start there, and see what happens.
Seeing a lot of posts about this today, so I thought I'd put my experience out there. My psychiatrist specializes in ASD, and basically told me that I'm autistic (he said something noncommittal like "An autistic woman with your background might look like you"), but because I can just barely function in society, he won't diagnose me with it because he thinks I'll use it as some kind of crutch. I'm already applying for disability due to anxiety issues, I don't see how it could make anything worse.
if people are having difficulty finding good therapists, I'm in southwest michigan and my therapist specializes in asd and is actually on the spectrum herself. so, if anyone wants her contact info, let me know.
Recently I've come to suspect that I might be somewhere on the autism spectrum, as it explains the things I do that previously were brushed off as bad habits or eccentricities that ought to be changed but couldn't be and helps me figure out how to handle daily life. The only things is, instead of melting down I completely switch off and enter a state of unresponsiveness and disconnect in an attempt to recover. Does this mean I'm looking at the wrong diagnosis? I have no one else to ask. Sorry.
Anonymous
Not necessarily. We talk about meltdowns more frequently here, but shutdowns happen too, and are basically what you’ve described. A lot of us have some at least occasionally, and there are those of us more prone to shutdowns than meltdowns.
It’s really down to how each individual autistic copes with sensory input, and definitely doesn’t rule out an autism diagnosis.
I saw another ask about therapists being ignorant, and thought I'd share my story. I went to my therapist with inquiries about looking into ASD for me, and she said "But you talk?" I couldn't believe it. "You have a boyfriend, though?" was another gem she threw my way, alongside other incredibly ableist things. It seems that if you're not specialized in ASD, most therapists are completely clueless.
Yes, it does indeed seem that way. What saddens me the most is how few specialists in ASD there are for adults. Autism is not new, not in the least. Not only that, but almost 20 years ago when I was diagnosed, they were already finding a lot of autistic adults who’d fallen through the cracks because they passed well enough. None of this is new information and it should be something there are competent therapists and psychiatrists for. That there isn’t distresses me deeply.
My therapist said she didn't think I'm autistic despite matching up with most of the traits because I'm "capable of emotional relationships". I just needed to tell someone this.
Anonymous
I’ve gotten a bunch of these in my inbox tonight. I am so, so sorry that so many people go through this crap. I mean, I experienced something similar when I made an attempt to move to an adult psychiatrist when I turned 18 (and ended up with my pediatric psychiatrist right up until I left for Sweden five years ago) but I really hoped that was an isolate incident. Running AH has taught me it isn’t, and that kills me.
This is a rant, and I apologize. I'm a 29 year old, married autistic woman. I recently revealed at work that I'm 15 weeks pregnant, and instead of the congratulations that my other coworkers have recieved I was simply asked "Can autistics get pregnant?". I'm still confused - my autism effects my mind, not my uterus. Then they asked if I was "emotionally capable" of caring for a baby. They have all been reported to HR. I just don't understand why they thought it was okay to say those things.
Anonymous
I’m so, so sorry they did that to you. That was the product of ignorance, ableism and privilege, plain and simple, and it was wrong. They thought it was okay because ableism is deeply ingrained in society, and people are taught all the wrong things about autism—and sadly, they thought it was okay because in truth, allistics aren’t naturally more empathetic than us. They just assume they are and many of them never teach their kids true empathy.
But they’re also wrong. Why shouldn’t you be emotionally capable of caring for a baby? Don’t let them get you down. This is a big thing in your life, and you deserve to be happy about it.
And congratulations!
my therapist told me i wasn't autistic because i speak well (i'm gifted and my area of skill is language) and "show emotion and empathy" is she bullshitting me or was she right?
I’m alarmed by the amount of these questions I get. Holy crap, what are they teaching psychiatrists and psychologists these days? (Fellow Hedgies, that was rhetorical.)
I don’t know if I’d say she was bullshitting you…more like she’s ignorant as fuck. She’s not right. She’s wrong. Bad wrong. Badong. Just like allistics, we have all kinds of skills and talents, and we certainly don’t lack emotion or empathy. That’s an unfortunate bit if ignorance that’s been spread around for far too long. Maybe your therapist needs to read up on things like the Intense World theory. Times, they are a’changing.
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