The importance of a diagnosis of Asperger's/autism for adults

The following is a response to a LA Times article.

I am autistic and I have also worked as a behavioral assistant with autistic people. In 2003 I worked in a classroom of about ten developmentally disabled students in California that had significantly more autistic children than the one hundred and twenty bed facility for developmentally disabled adults I worked in during the mid-eighties in Illinois. This may be anecdotal and certainly doesn't prove a trend, but it personally left be with a profound feeling that something very, very odd was going on.

I was told by a counselor that as an adult I would never be diagnoses with Asperger's, it wasn't considered appropriate to diagnose adults as such. Many people asked me why it mattered. Five years ago I was given Prozac while on another antidepressant and I had a horrific reaction that has left me with a permanent case of sensory overload. If is difficult to leave my apartment for long and I see no way I could tolerate working a regular job anymore. I researched the symptoms of my bad reaction and they were completely consistent serotonin syndrome, also called serotonin poisoning. Serotonin syndrome can be fatal and one third of autistic people are unusually susceptible to it. I feel that I should have been diagnosed with Asperger's and that my doctors should have been aware of my suceptability to serotonin syndrome, but they were not. The sensory overload that traps me in my apartment should have been avoided. But sensory overload is a symptom and not a diagnosis and Asperger's itself is a diagnosis, but not considered a disability. So I am seriously and needlessly disabled, but I unable to obtain any help because my condition does not formally qualify me as being legally disabled. As a software engineer I could have easily paid out of pocket for medical services that could help me, but not being able to leave my apartment for long makes my ability rather irrelevant. This is my first reason for asserting that a diagnosis of Asperger's in an adult is still important.

My whole life I have been odd and different from others. Despite being reasonable attractive, intelligent and even popular, my romantic life has been virtually non-existent. This and other issues have caused me considerable pain in my ability to fit in even though I seem to have a great deal going for me. The issue of self-knowledge is vital in both spirituality and mental health. My diagnosis of Aspergerg's has allowed me to reexamine my life and make peace with my past and move forward. Yet my quest to find out if I had Asperger's was met with wide derision my medical and mental health workers. I feel this is a basic human rights violation and that people with Asperger's deserve the dignity and right to understand who they are. This is my second reason for asserting that a diagnosis of Asperger's in an adult is still important.