Atypical

Not your average label


I have been reading about autistic people with previous diagnoses to getting a diagnosis as autistic.

I attend discussions and online forums on various web pages every day, and also am moderator or admin for a couple as well.
I read over and over about people with diagnoses – but they are “atypical” in presentation of the labels/ diagnoses they have been given.
I am reading recent studies looking at how many older autistic adults have previous diagnoses before learning about their autism.

So many people tell of diagnosis of many sorts, but say they have unusual presentation of symptoms for that diagnosis.

Almost all diagnoses are mentioned in these discussions. Schizophrenia with unusual presentation, Bipolar, Borderline, OCD, ADHD, Depression, Anxiety, PTSD….all with non- typical behaviors, etc. you get the idea.

I just want to call to your attention that when Doctors don’t know where to put your diagnosis if they don’t know about autism, they may put diagnosis in the closest category of things they are familiar with, saying your presentation is unusual but matches most closely with… ____________. whatever the diagnosis they give you besides autism.

If you have such a diagnosis and you are still trying to find out if you are autistic, especially if you have been getting therapies, or medications, without standard response, this might be a strong clue that your actual diagnosis might be autism.
Misdiagnosis is very common because autism is not well understood among the majority of professionals today.
We may not respond to standard therapies for our “atypical” diagnosis, finding them not useful, not understandable, difficult and unhelpful, frustrating and more.

We may have been told our case is “intractable”. (nothing they try has helped).

We will not respond in expected ways to medications, either.
After all, it could be that the treatment we are getting is not for our “actual” diagnosis.


If you find yourself in such a position, it is perfectly OK to question that diagnosis. It is perfectly OK to say treatment is not helping and ask to try something else or to look at other options, even ask if diagnosis could be “something else” .

Sometimes people do have multiple diagnoses, and treatment will possibly be more complex. Knowing about ones autism as well as any other diagnosis can only help to shed light on struggles and offer new and helpful ways of living our lives.

If you have not had success being treated for your “atypical” diagnosis, you might want to look again at Autism being the answer.

Knowing we are autistic opens a world of self understanding and helps us find useful accommodations to make our lives better.

Diagnosis of Autism can be life changing, even as an older adult. The difference between my life ” before and after” diagnosis is immeasurable.