Dx with No Childhood History

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Is it even worth the trouble for an adult to try to get diagnosed with autism if there is no childhood history available beyond personal memories? Is it even in accordance with criteria to attempt to diagnose someone in such a situation?

It kind of seems impossible to make an accurate assessment unless the person currently has blatant, textbook symptoms because part of the definition of autism is the presence of symptoms beginning in childhood, and there are no official standards of autistic adult behavior.

I think most of the the older adults have been diagnosed despite lack of rock solid documentation of early childhood issues because in most cases the records were destroyed decades ago and memories if they exist are personal or family members. In my case a structured interviewed with my younger sister who works professionally with Autistic children was used.

The DSM 5 kind of finesses the issue this way

I have read accounts of PDD-NOS being used for these situations.

Remember most psychs are NT. They may be more somewhat likely to make a professional conclusion and write a diagnostic report to fit their conclusion then us who would be more inclined go strictly by the criteria.

Is it worth it? Yes for the same explanation, benefit etc reasons those who have solid documentation might find it worth it.

No one asked for proof about my childhood when I was getting diagnosed.

My parents would have happily been interviewed, but no one asked.

I did have documented ADHD diagnosis from childhood though, if that mattered.

I was told I could only be diagnosed before 21 because it's the only way to know for sure that I developed the symptoms before I turned 21.

During a session with my psychiatrist for depression treatment, I asked if it was coincidence that I had so many other issues like social anxiety, what had previously been diagnosed as chronic tics, or that I spent a short time seeing a therapist about emotional issues when I was young. After hearing a small list of issues she suggested it might be Asperger's and set up a longer period for our next session. I brought her a 5 page list of anxieties, obsessions, compulsions and other issues I have, along with some details or specific incidents. She said the list and its organization were pretty indicative on their own. Even some of the things I included that I thought would be evidence against it; she would single them out to tell me similar stories about her aspie daughter.

What identifying it has done for me is that it's changed our approach to treating my depression. Psychologically, it's a stress reducer. Thinking in terms of stims instead of tics has been a big help. Tics are untreatable, but by acknowledging stims as what they are I can use them to my advantage. If I decide to be more open about being an aspie, I'll also have a less offensive way to tell people not to touch me.

I wondered about this myself, when I went through my diagnosis. At the time of my diagnosis, my parents were in their mid-70s and didn’t seem to have a great recollection of events from my early childhood. This is not a great surprise, as they had other things going on at the time. As a result, they remembered a few relevant incidents, but not many. Fortunately, my baby book contained additional relevant incidents.

Still, I am fairly certain there wasn’t enough evidence to prove I had symptoms during early childhood.

Personal memories (preferably from your parents) should be enough.

Was dx'd a few years ago when I was over 50.

Interviewing folks who have known you a long time is a major part of it.

So memories of others is kinda vital. But they just need to interview people. They dont need medical records, or school records, of you being autistic acting.

Ideally your parents are the best people to interview about you and your childhood. But neither of mine were avialable (one was long dead, the other demented). But the doc seperately interviewed both my sister, and my gf . He complimented me about how both were "quite forthcoming!" ( I guess they both had ... a LOT to say about me!).

I meant memories of the person being assessed, like when relatives are unavailable.

Oh, I had forgotten about that. During my assessment, the clinical psychologist asked my wife to complete several assessment questionnaires including:
- Brown ADD Scales - which assesses behaviors typical of many attention and emotional disorders
- Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning (BRiEF-A) - which assesses executive function behaviors in the home and at work
- Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2) - which measures severity of autistic spectrum symptoms in social settings

At the time, I had known my wife for > 25 years.

...4

"Is it worth the trouble" is what you are asking.. however this is a question that everyone has to answer for themselves, it's a cost/benefit analysis, and for people over 50 there are a whole set of additional issues (and usually past suffering) that will affect their decision. It may not be worth the trouble for some; it may provide much needed clarity for others.

Older people don't have the same "DSM diagnostic" options as the young, though their needs are not necessarily less important nor valid, nor their concerns. Some want a formal diagnosis, some don't. Most want to come to terms with being 'hidden autistics' and for some diagnosis is part of that - however the idea that professional diagnosers never make false negatives or false positives - the utter reliance on the idea of all formal diagnoses being valid - is a misleading one, IMO.

This issue is one of several which can feel very marginalising for older people on WP, I suspect. It may be one reason why there are not as many of us here, or why older members seem to stay on WP for much shorter periods.

Read more about the older hidden autistics here - and the comments section, which is very moving:

http://www.aspiestrategy.com/2012/05/hi ... dults.html

Last edited by B19 on 31 May 2015, 6:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

What are you doing with these cryptic posts?