Autism Adult Assessment: Why It's Never Too Late to Be Diagnosed

It’s a myth that autistics always get diagnosed as children. More and more people are receiving an autism adult assessment resulting in a diagnosis than ever before, in part due to a greater understanding of neurodivergence and the many co-occurring conditions that come with it.

Even if you don't get an autism adult assessment until later in life, it's never too late to find your community and become your best self.Getting an official diagnosis of autism is key to understanding autism spectrum disorder (ASD). That’s why it’s important to have an assessment early so that those on the spectrum can best learn about it and how to manage it throughout life. However, while many children receive the diagnosis  before they even start school, others may not, and often it is due to several co-occurring conditions that make a diagnosis more complex.

If you are displaying autism adult symptoms or have only recently had an autism adult evaluation, that’s okay as well. Often, individuals with autism, often those with low-support needs or are so-called high functioning like me, may have lived many years of their life thinking they are just “quirky” or “weird.” I didn’t get a diagnosis of having Asperger’s syndrome, which is now part of the umbrella ASD, until middle school. Once they determined what I had, they figured out a course of how to best help me to succeed in life.

Autism Adult Symptoms That Could Be Clues if You Suspect You Have ASD

Autism adult symptoms may include behaviors like stimming, eye contact avoidance, extreme sensitivities, and hyperfocus or even obsession for certain topics, to name a few. (Read more about common symptoms here.)  As I’ve heard from autism adults since starting MyAutismMind.com, I’ve learned that many didn’t really have a clue they had a neurological disorder until they had an autism adult assessment and now are just understanding why they had such difficulties in their earlier years.

I’ve also learned that more and more females are starting to have an autism adult assessment, and are surprised to learn that their autism adult symptoms have been presenting for years (or throughout their life), but they just didn’t know.

I’m a huge advocate of reaching out to your medical professional and/or therapist to explore your symptoms and/or behaviors is you suspect you may have autism adult symptoms. That’s because you may be living your life without understanding why you do something or act a certain way, and may not know what to do if your behaviors seemingly get out of control.

 If you want to live a good life you need to understand yourself that’s why a proper diagnosis is so crucial. Being able to finally know you are an autism adult (or not) following an autism adult assessment allows you to make sense of yourself and how to better yourself as a person. Having that knowledge is absolutely priceless, and hopefully you’ll find peace and self-awareness and understanding.  I know I have found the more I know about the disorder, the more I understand myself, which enables me to better work toward my goals and maintain my motivation and discipline.

Read more about these behaviors:

Autism Adult Evaluation and Why It is So Important for Some Individuals

For many autistic individuals, their diagnosis comes early in childhood, recognized by attentive caregivers, teachers, or doctors. However, some people do not get diagnosed until adulthood because signs of their autism may have been overlooked or masked in their youth. Receiving an autism adult assessment that results in a confirmed diagnosis can be extremely impactful.

At last, relief comes in having an explanation for lifelong feelings of being different with autism adult symptoms. However, there is often grief in reflecting upon earlier suffering that supports could have mitigated.

While more awareness is still needed, discovering that you are an autism adult also has the power to transform self-perception, open access to helpful resources, and build community. Even without early childhood intervention, having the tool box for being neurodivergent can lead to living a better life.

Read more about Understanding Neurodiversity: Uprising of the Neurodivergent

The Complex Emotions of an Autism Adult Assessment and Diagnosis

A pivotal breakthrough upon autism adult evaluation and diagnosis is finally understanding the name and nature of one’s struggles to fit in socially or achieve to capabilities. Often, relief settles in when a person realizes, “I wasn’t fundamentally flawed or strange — my brain just functions differently.” Places of profound alienation and isolation begin making sense…perhaps for the first time.

At the same time, difficult emotions often swell, chief among them grief. What societal ignorance or judgment has cost them becomes clear. Critical developmental windows of youth without vital support or interventions which could have eased intense distress during formative years.

It is understandable that anger can sometimes surfaces at those who dismissed odd behaviors as intentional quirkiness or conscious nonconformity, rather than recognizing a difference or disability that could have benefited from accommodation. Many previously undiagnosed autistics carrying internalized shame from scars of bullying and/or ostracism from peers also leads to internal reflection, “What if I had known sooner?”

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Autism Adult Assessment and Milestones Missed    

Reflecting back on youth, hallmark traits of autism seem glaring now that adults around them once missed. Bright students absorbed in niche interests were labeled merely eccentric, not neurodivergent.

Hand flapping or skin sensitivity were considered personal quirks or preferences by teachers and parents, not sensory processing differences requiring accommodation. Prospering academically also provided false assurance nothing was amiss socially or emotionally. Outward achievement enabled inner struggles to be overlooked.

Also, kids who didn’t have friends were thought to be shy or even self-absorbed, vs. having social difficulties or anxiety. Part of the difficulty is that the spectrum is so very broad, and individuals present symptoms and behave differently. One person’s challenges is another’s strengths.

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The Challenges of Camouflaging Autism in Adults

Autism in adults is sometimes not diagnosed earlier due to clever masking of symptoms, but it takes its toll on mental health.Many autism adult people unconsciously learn to camouflage aspects of themselves to fit rigid societal standards, termed masking or code switching. They exhaustively monitor and modify natural behaviors to better blend into school, workplace or social circles rife with confusing norms.

Studies have shown that girls are better at masking for the most part than boys, which is one of the reasons that doctors once thought that autism was a “male disorder” and not experienced by females. This is now proven to be untrue.

But suppressing and scripting oneself to match neurotypical expectations comes at steep cost over years. Past a breaking point, utter depletion follows. Burnout, anxiety and despair frequently catalyst deeper investigation into one’s difficulties, finally leading to diagnosis outside childhood.

The Bittersweet Gift of Finding Community  

Discovering #ActuallyAutistic community proves deeply validating for many diagnosed as adults. YouTube, Twitter (now X), conferences and local meetup spaces offer representation and candid conversations that resonate powerfully. They gain language to articulate experiences largely indescribable for years. Most feel understood and embraced as they are for the first time. Connecting opens advice on managing personal challenges as well as workplace accommodations like speech-to-text technology that can assist functioning.

While additional therapies or medication help some, interpersonal connection proves most healing for many. What is grieved alone can be grieved together among others who have questioned themselves just as deeply before diagnosis affirmation. External judgment is replaced by internal validation exchanged through stories. With compassion and support, integration unfolds.

Progress in Authentic Self-Knowing Through Autism Adult Evaluation

An early childhood diagnosis paves quicker avenues for support, but discovering that you are neurodiverse later in life, while painfully overdue, can still initiate radical self-redefinition. Carefully crafted masks crack as autism labels erase lingering inner accusations of somehow being “defective” or not trying hard enough.

Accommodations take pressure off by tailoring environments to align with capabilities instead of deficiencies. Special interests transform into purposeful passions. Wholeness emerges, and a new, knowledge-filled light can finally shine.

Healing, and with it awareness and acceptance, begins. What comes with the diagnosis are doors that open to facilitate a more livable, and happier, life going forward.

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Navigating Change After an Autism Adult Diagnosis 

Receiving an autism diagnosis as an adult can kickstart positive change, but may also bring with it growing pains. Developing self-compassion takes time after hiding one’s natural behaviors for so long to fit narrow social molds.

Creating a more autism-friendly life purposefully also feels uneasy at first for many newly diagnosed adults on the spectrum. Trying new things always requires discomfort even as it enables breakthrough. If you are in a relationship, or living independently, these new emotions may seem strange and foreign.

Many diagnosed later in life describe walking a tightrope between their conditioned masking habits and embracing innate neurodivergence. Some environments remain easier to camouflage in, like noisy parties. Other settings offer safer places to stim freely or info-dump without judgment. Most aim for balance in how aspects of themselves are presented fluidly across contexts. Masking still serves survival needs but no longer dictates identity.

It’s a brave new world out there.

Owning Special Interests With Autism Adult Symptoms

Additionally, special interests often widen and deepen after diagnosis. New freedom emerges to indulge passions openly, no longer downplaying them as childish or useless. For many, their particular preoccupations and expertise form core foundations blossoming creative pursuits like art, writing, inventing or innovating.

Others cultivate hobby communities or educational initiatives to share what captivates them with the world. Their delight becomes theirs to direct out into the world, connecting with kindred minds. 

Some leverage intense interests directly for livelihoods specially tailored to autistic traits. Accommodating environments enable utilizing cognitive strengths once deemed deficiencies. Challenges get reframed as potential, perspective shifting from inability to dimensionality. What once overwhelmed now empowers.

And, as an adult with autism, I find this all very refreshing.

Transforming Rigidity as an Autism Adult

Diagnosis has also softened the black and white rules many constructed to tightly control behaviors and environments throughout adulthood masking. Safety scripts that dictate “correct” ways of speaking, dressing and more loosen to encourage spontaneity and self-expression. Judgment gives way to acceptance. While social codes still prove challenging, worrying less about perfection reduces anxiety and depression. Connecting macro preferences to sensory needs in micro moments enables more minute-to-minute stability. Exploration unfolds.

As part of this new acceptance, you might consider whether you want to disclose that you have autism to work, family, and friends who may not know. Sometimes, individuals have suspected, but weren’t sure. Knowledge doesn’t mean treating you differently, however. The information can be used to explain “why” you do what you do or don’t like fireworks or parties, without having to be cajoled into “trying” something that you know you hate.

Living More Freely Autistic

What comes after diagnosis for those who have masked their differences or were anxious or depressed about their behaviors and actions decades before? Unlearning survival behaviors rooted in shame proves challenging. Yet many forge ahead graciously, focusing more on moving forward than lost time behind.

Having an adult autism assessment resulting in a diagnosis will let you navigate through life with more clarity and acceptance. Progress manifests slowly through newly granted permissions – such as stimming in private without guilt, abandoning exhaustive eye contact for comfort’s sake, or freely leaving an environment that makes you uncomfortable. Rigid goals give way to self-care, space made for meltdown processing, special interests indulging. Together they form a life less masked day by day.

For those choosing to have an autism adult assessment that reveals a diagnosis of ASD, revelations happen through weaving special interests into work focused on autistic empowerment. Counseling centers are founded employing the diagnosed to assist the diagnosed.

Advocacy nonprofits leverage lived experience to educate. Businesses develop tools leveraging autistic cognition like pattern recognition algorithms. “I went from hiding my obsessions to proudly centering my autism in my life’s purpose,” says one entrepreneur. “Now my so-called symptoms serve me.”

Having an autism adult assessment and diagnosis is by no means a miracle “cure” to ASD. Setbacks can still persist, with old habits resurfacing as pressure mounts. But the difference is that adults now understand their world a little bit better, and as a result, are better able to connect and aspire to have a happier life.

Also, their communities can serve as reminders that progress may be bumpy at times, and not always linear. But with practice and patience, newly diagnosed autistic adults can gradually find themselves opening onto fuller self-expression.

It’s important to understand that there is no template to this journey called autism; only progress. 

There is never a wrong time to be evaluated and possibly diagnosed with any condition. The key is that knowing helps to empower each autistic individual’s right to fully know themselves and be known by a world they so deeply enrich.

And, isn’t that what we all want, regardless of whether we are neurodiverse or neurotypical?

If you enjoyed this article, here are more blogs related to defining who you are as a person and living your best life.

Autism in Adults:  Defining Who You Are in Today’s World

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Connor McClure

I'm a young adult navigating life with autism. By sharing my experiences and views, I hope to create a better awareness, understanding, and compassion for those on the spectrum. Let's connect!
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