sorta new and looking for resources for undiagnosed adults

[eriktrips]

I haven't introduced myself since joining a couple of weeks ago so I thought I should say hi at the same time that I ask for some help in finding diagnostic services as an adult. I'm Erik and I'm 47 years old and a female-to-male transsexual living in San Francisco CA. My real work is writing but I only get paid for editing, currently. I do all my

Comments

[bender12]

oh i know i am going to catch sooooo much hell for posting this but here ya go
its an online aspie quiz that is actually fairly accurate
http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php

ok now the disclaimer its about the only resource i know of and i personally think its a good one, if ya dont like it please be kind and not jump down my throat like some communities will

[old_cutter_john]

Those things can be entertaining. They can even be right. Sometimes someone finds a new one and a whole bunch of us try it out. Most of us aren't much bothered by such quizzes regardless. (In case this particular quiz turns out to be really outrageous, I should state that despite the duties incumbent upon me as a community moderator, I didn't even follow the link. If there's a need, someone will let me know.)

[old_cutter_john]

Oh, yeah! A hint that I credit to teamnoir: If you're old and well-adapted, take the quiz twice. Answer once as you are now and answer once as you would have when you were twenty. eriktrips doesn't describe himself as well-adapted, but other people will try the quiz who are.

[eriktrips]

I think I've taken this one. I scored "probably an Aspie." Not sure of the degree of certainty behind that "probably."

I was well-adapted as long as I was in school, funded, and not having a psychiatric meltdown. Let's see--that was from about 1993-97. At 20 things were bad; things are different now but paradoxically perhaps my overcoming all my dysfunctional adaptations through psychotherapy has made it much harder to get along in "normal" society as I get older. It's like I get worse as I get better, if that makes sense. I think it's that I am becoming more aware of who I was underneath all the trauma, and that person was not typical to begin with. Surprise! Well, not really.

[old_cutter_john]

It makes sense. I no longer try to keep all my adaptive techniques switched on all the time. Nowhere near.

[eriktrips]

So.. how do you get along? Seriously. Do you work? Have you found someone who is willing to help support you? Do you live in your car?

I'm not joking. I need to know how others manage it.

[old_cutter_john]

I worked in the computer software industry for twenty-four years while my wife kept house and did most of the hard work of taking care of our kids. Toward the end of that time, she went to graduate school and got herself qualified as a clinical social worker. Since 1990, she's been working and I've been keeping house. She makes enough for the two of us to live on: we don't have extravagant tastes, and we both enjoy doing good works. I spend much of my spare time doing just that - in this community. In a few more years, my pensions will become available, and my wife will no longer have to work full time. She'll probably continue a part-time private practice, much as I'll probably continue to moderate this community.

[errantpenny]

I think it's that I am becoming more aware of who I was underneath all the trauma, and that person was not typical to begin with.

Oh, yeah--I identify strongly with this.

[eriktrips]

It's interesting isn't it? I'm like, the more crap I strip away, the less functional I become. It's not a complete WTF because I've suspected since I was very young that something was not in sync with my immediate surroundings. But I have yet to put a name to it. As good a postmodern philosopher as I am, I still seem to want that name.

Maybe that is a weakness. But it also seems more than somewhat necessary in order to keep one's life under some semblance of control.

[old_cutter_john]

Oh yeah again! If you're wondering what will get a newbie lynched here, referring to autism as a disease is way up near the top of the list.

[eriktrips]

Oh, no. I don't even necessarily think my extensive background of mental illness is necessarily indicative of an illness, but it is something that makes it extremely difficult to adapt to the society I was born into. Possibly being on the Autism Spectrum seems to me just another way in which I am different that my culture has a very difficult time dealing with--so instead they make it difficult for me. The proliferation of the disease model for so many different types of human behavior is completely out of hand and does not particularly help those considered "diseased"--it's main aim is to make so-called "healthy" people comfortable that they are "immune" to certain undesirable traits.

Of course that doesn't work the way they'd like either.

That's the short version of that rant. :)

[eriktrips]

That test just gets more and more involved.

For what it's worth, I score over 75% "Aspie" and less than 25% NT. oh and I also have "very severe social phobia." But I knew that. At first I could not figure out which way the scale went for "avoidance" but I picked that one I thought was most likely and I think I must have picked correctly.

I don't get the "hunting" category though. What is that about?