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Entrepreneur Natasha Nelson always knew she was special.
The 35-year-old from Stone Mountain, Georgia, has had trouble establishing social norms.
She found small talk difficult and couldn’t understand why people did things like make their beds.
She was diagnosed with autism In 2023, just after her youngest daughter was also diagnosed.
Now, Nielsen encourages people to seek diagnosis If they also think or have long suspected they may be on the autism spectrum.
“If your life always feels like chaos, you don’t feel well, you don’t feel like you’re thriving, and you just feel like you’re constantly surviving, going from one thing to the next, what are you missing?” Nelson said.
Common symptoms of autism include difficulties with social communication and an obsession with certain routines or topics — “people have become my special interest now,” Nelson said — and may not be noticed during someone’s childhood.
But getting an autism diagnosis later in life can be costly and difficult due to a lack of medical professionals specifically trained for adults. Here’s more information you should know about an autism diagnosis in adults.
What is autism? When is it usually diagnosed?
autism spectrum disorder is a range of intellectual, language, and social difficulties, such as following routines, having fixed or obsessive interests, and difficulty maintaining eye contact or understanding nonverbal communication. Autism is usually diagnosed in childhood, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children be screened as early as 18 months old.
Why are more adults being diagnosed with autism?
Over the past decade, more adults have begun seeking insight into their own neurodiversity—often after their children were diagnosed or saw social media posts. A study published in 2024 JAMA Network Open Research shows that autism diagnoses among adults ages 26 to 34 increased by 452% from 2011 to 2022.
Some characteristics of autism may go unnoticed until new social needs arise in adulthood. Others may have learned how to hide certain behaviors, called masking.
“Adults have learned to compensate over time,” says Whitney Enns, a psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies adults with autism. “They may have learned ‘I can’t show this in public, so I’ll just do it in private.'”
There is also overlap in symptoms between various diseases, e.g. ADHD and obsessive-compulsive disorder This can complicate the diagnosis of autism due to difficulties with non-verbal social cues or executive functions such as attention span, working memory and problem solving.
What are the symptoms of autism in adults?
symptom It’s different for everyone, and many traits are common to non-autistic people, like enjoying daily life or enjoying going down rabbit holes of in-depth information.
But in order to meet the diagnostic definition of autism, the symptoms must cause significant impairment, said Dr. Arthur Westover, a psychiatrist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center who specializes in autism.
“We’re all human in general. We like routine… Just getting a little pleasure and feeling better out of routine doesn’t mean you have autism,” Westover said. “It goes a little deeper than that.”
Russell Lehmann, 34, has been diagnosed with autism for more than 20 years. The motivational speaker’s daily life is one he describes as both comfortable and stressful. He said eating the same food and buying the same groceries brings him comfort. But if he missed an hour and a half a day at the gym, he would be overwhelmed by depression and feelings of failure.
“It’s like no day without the gym,” he said. “… My routine is an incredible existential burden because every night I go to bed knowing that I have to do some routine that I don’t enjoy just to function.”
How is diagnosis done?
While there are various online screening tools, autism is a complex diagnosis, so experts recommend talking to your primary care doctor to get a psychiatric referral.
The psychiatrist may want to interview people who were present during your childhood, such as family and friends, who can attest to the symptoms that were present at the time.
Some psychiatrists may refer you to a psychologist who can provide you with standardized autism diagnostic tests or will use their own clinical judgment. There are no brain scans or blood tests for autism.
Getting an autism diagnosis as an adult can be expensive and take some time. Westover said there is a critical shortage of experts to treat autism in adults. Nelson’s diagnosis took three years and cost her more than $3,000 out of pocket.
Enns also recommends asking yourself a few questions when considering getting a professional diagnosis, knowing you might be on a waitlist: “What led me down this path to thinking I needed a professional diagnosis? Do I need to get services? Are there services I can’t get?”