Making progress?

Autism diagnosis and ageing adults blog


I missed it, passed the 200th post in this blog!!!!

We are entering the 4th year of the blog and just celebrated our 3 years since my diagnosis anniversary.

The format for these posts puts the most recent entry on top, so to read the whole thing in chronological order, you will have to scroll to the last entry and read backwards! This will be the 209th post .

If you find the information here useful would you be so kind as to share the Oldladywithautism.blog address?

It seems urgent that autistic adults ageing in frustration and confusion and emotional pain be found so they too can finally experience the relief of having answers to all those painful “why” questions of the past.

I am feeling as if I am running out of time. Old age is creeping up and poor health is looming… I want to try to reach as many older adults as possible to inform about diagnosis of autism even in the latest stages of our lives. There is no way to measure the difference in self understanding diagnosis can make!

I know how much help it has been to know my diagnosis and how much my self understanding and understanding of others has grown from this new perspective. I know how much diagnosis has helped me improve my every day living through making so many adjustments and self accommodations, being able to see old problems “with new understanding” I wish this for others who have lived all their lives without knowing about their own autism.

I have been able to mostly overcome the many struggles and hurts, damage due to trauma, and for so many years simply not understanding just about “everything” due to my autism.

It has been such a relief to learn everything was not, after all, “all my fault” . I have learned new ways to “work around” the autism struggles I have to find new ways to live a better life with less frustration, struggle and discomfort. I have made a new network of friends, I have begun to live my “best life ever” since I finally found out about my autism.

Although diagnosis does not change a thing about our unevenly developed neurologies, it allows us to have the understanding we need to move forward with our lives and to make adjustments to all sorts of things which used to give us struggles… self accommodation is possible in many ways, once we know about our autism.

This blog was established as a sort of “adult training wheels” or beginners collection of info about the nature of autism itself, about the vocabulary, the neurology, the social struggles, rigid thinking, and repetetive behaviors that we all must have in order to be diagnosed as “actually autistic”. I wanted people new to autism to have explanations I was finding all in one spot, not to have to hunt all over the internet, the library, etc. to glean bits and pieces of information as I have been doing since I first suspected my autism6 years ago.

The blog is about how we can find diagnosis and then adjust our lives once we learn about our autism, even in very old age .

I hope you find what you need!

Please look on Facebook for “Autism for Older Adults” a public informational study group page about diagnosis, autism’s core features, and adjusting to diagnosis as an older adult.

There are lots of links and discussions about these things as well as references to studies, articles, groups, the latest autism information, and more. Some of the blog posts are referenced and re printed there as explanation, too.

Still feeling hopeful about the future as science learns more about autism and we obtain diagnosis and adjust to new and better lives because we have done so. as January 2023 draws to a close, may I wish you a better new year.