BY DR. FRANCISCO NEUFELD , AFN GUEST WRITER
When many people think about autism, they picture a childhood diagnosis.
They imagine a young child struggling with communication, behavior or
sensory challenges and beginning therapy early in life.
But that picture is incomplete. Increasingly, adults are being diagnosed with
autism for the first time, often after years of confusion, misdiagnosis or
simply feeling different without understanding why.
As a psychiatrist in Arizona, I see how meaningful that moment of clarity can
be.
For many adults, the signs of autism were always there. They may have
struggled with social situations, found change especially stressful, felt
overwhelmed by noise or busy environments, or relied on routines to feel
grounded.