| Autistic adults, diagnosed later in life, often talk about their struggle to get diagnosed. Far too many share details of being misdiagnosed, and suffering severe side effects of medication that did little to improve challenging autism symptoms. Because the autism spectrum is so wide, and symptoms manifest differently in each individual, some of these adults were erroneously diagnosed with a mental disorder like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia before eventually being accurately diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Many autistic individuals have a comorbid condition like anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or less frequently bipolar disorder, which means diagnosis becomes even more complicated—especially when symptoms of one disorder mask those of the other. |
