finally joined

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So I finally joined wrongplanet after a long time of wanting to do so.

Diagnosed as an adult (only recently has my age no longer started with a '2'), I remember that I was 14 when I first thought I was Autistic. I read a book about a kid who was always "inside her own world" and mostly mute and mesmerized by flashing coloured lights and bodies of water. But because I was able to function better than the case study could (well, as good as any teenager girl can, amirite?) I mentioned it casually in passing to a guidance counselor and got laughed at because, and I quote, "You can dress and feed yourself. You're not Autistic, you're just depressed." I'd always felt like I didn't belong, but that's normal when you're a teenager, or so I've been told, and so my hunches went on the back burner for about a decade.

In my early 20s in the mid-2000s, I again returned to the possibility that I had a certain type of Autism called Asperger's. I read lots of books, talked to my parents (who are also strange), read what there was online at the time, did those quizzes that existed back in the day, but I was travelling a lot and couldn't talk to a doctor about it. I read books about body language and social stuff and tried to be normal and fit in. While I could "pass" as neurotypical, I wasn't really thriving.

Then in 2012 there were a couple unpleasant things happened to me that really made it quite clear to me how very differently I viewed the world, how the world viewed me, how unable to communicate I actually was. These incidents spurred me on to seek out evaluation (and if I wasn't Autistic I could at least scratch off that as a possible reason of What-The-Hell-Is-Wrong-With-Me).

So I did, meeting weekly with the province's expert in ASDs for a few months and we went through the life histories, family info, psych testing, IQ checking, etc. I was formally diagnosed with Asperger's under DSM-IV last summer (concurrently with Autism under DSM-V last summer--my evaluation occurred during that crossover between the old and new criterias), June 22.

It answered a lot of unanswered questions that I and my then-husband and my family/friends had been asking for many years (mostly variations on What-The-Hell-Is-Wrong-With-You?! ! when I'd do something stupid or incredibly [to them] shortsighted or dangerous {E.g., going home with some stranger at bar-closing time or seeing how deep I could dig a hole in the backyard with just a shovel*}).

And so here I am; the journey has been long.


* the answer: deep enough for neighbours to call the City and for my dog to get stuck down in and for my parents to still bring it up at holiday functions a decade-plus later.

Welcome to WP. Your summary was really interesting to read.

I was formally diagnosed early last year, under the DSM-IV criteria. I'll admit, I wasn't keen on the label at first, but it pointed me in the direction of like-minded people – which was such a relief!

Hopefully, you'll find people on here whom you can easily relate with, too.

Welcome to WrongPlanet ! !

Haha, me too!

I got about 5 feet down before the sides started caving in (Florida has a lot of miserable sand). Yes, we had to fish one of the dogs out too. My then wife had it filled in while I was away with the kids on vacation.

I'm just surprised when people *don't* want to dig a giant hole in their yard...

Welcome to Wrong Planet!