What was it like before AS/HFA was established?

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That is to say, what was it like for those of you who lived and grew up before autism or asperger's became known as a symptom some people have?

Did you try to act more 'normal' or NT, because there was no way to tell? I've heard that back then, people would just use the words 'eccentric,' or 'nerdy,' or 'shy.' However, I want to hear from people who actually lived through it, because I've always known a world where this syndrome existed. Do you think we're more fortunate now that we have this knowledge? Sometimes I get sick of the side-effects of the pills they prescribe me for my anxiety, so I'm sort of a luddite towards pharmaceuticals in that sense.

I do admire those of you who've managed to hack it out in a world that didn't know autism/asperger's. Imagine living in ancient times and having autism. I'd get crucified for my problems!

I think living in a world where you are not constantly looking to label every single symptom is far better. I just used to play out all the time and I had quite a lot of friends. I never thought I had to put on an act but then I might have been one of the lucky ones.

My parents didn't know I had AS until I was 12 so before that, I was just hyper, impulsive, my school thought I had behavior problems, I had speech problems, short attention span, poor social skills, suspected OCD, ADD, Language processing disorder, cluttering, sensory integration dysfunction, dyspraxia, I was also labeled as being multi handicapped as a young child, and I was seen as having a communication disorder. Autistic characteristics had been noted and my history of hearing loss. Someone wrote in my IEP about me as having a severe learning disability when I was in the third grade. I always thought it was mild because I don't have the problems other people with learning issues have.

I think I was doing fine without the AS label. I was already in special ed and had an IEP but apparently I needed AS to get me better education in school and the education I need.


From what I know, it was easier in the early 1900's because it was easier to get jobs and all and society has created all these roadblocks now, education is now required, you need all these references and networking crap, work experience, and it makes it so hard for us aspies to get a job and makes it nearly impossible or impossible or just hard. Plus, school work was more concrete. I may have done better back then or maybe not because I may have gotten institutionalized and labeled as ret*d and be autistic unless I had parents that refused to do it. But where I am at now, I would have been fine living in the past and maybe not have a learning disability. Would I still have gotten married and have a kid, who knows.

Had I been more obviously symptomatic, I suppose I would have been diagnosed with a co-morbid like most others have been. I was just seen as "odd."

I was told I was "normal," so I acted as if I could do as anyone else could....even though I kept struggling and failing at some of the simplest things. Even back in the 80s and 90s, it was about social connections, so getting a good opportunity and keeping it was always a struggle.

Prior to the AS diagnosis at 13, I had a PDD/PDD-NOS diagnosis from at the latest 6 and was put in special ed, receiving services as an autistic, emotionally disabled, and speech-language disabled student.

You just got shamed and beaten a lot by the adults.

My Uncle who is now about 70, was Autistic I think, he certainly seems to have all the traits and stims. He was labeled as being backwards, and got sent to a special school for the mentally ret*d. He never really managed to get anything better than janitorial work, because he was never regarded as being able to do any more than that. Put simply he was written off by society due to the attitudes of the time.

I'm now 50 years old and only got diagnosed this year. It was tough back in my youth because there was no diagnosis to blame my problems on, so you just had to get on with things. Everything that I struggled with I either blamed on my abusive childhood, or my own lack of strength and character. And because of that belief, I was constantly pushing myself to do better, if only to prove to myself that I could.

For example if something scared me, I'd go out to do it anyway just to prove I could. If I thought it would be fun to do something I did everything in my power to do it. If things got tough I would grin and bear it just to prove I was man enough to do so.

Eventually it all got too much for me so I became a recluse for ten years, I didn't socialise period - even with my own family! And my lack of personal hygiene meant I looked like a tramp (hobo in American). And then when I pulled myself out of it I went back to constantly pushing myself, buying a motorbike even though they scared me to death, things like that.

I never sought any help for my problems. Back in the 70's / 80's, if you had any sense you avoided going to see a psychiatrist for fear of being institutionalised and subjected to electric shock treatment I actually know someone who that happened to, and she was pretty 'normal' compared to me!

Over the years things have improved tremendously, going to the doctor for help with mental problems is nowhere near as scary as it used to be. So when I became seriously ill with stress from my last full time job (again pushing myself to overcompensate for my perceived lack of character) I was not so scared to seek help.

I'm not sure how I feel about my undiagnosed past. I survived without knowing about my ASD. But I also possibly suffered more than I should have. I suspect that had I been better educated about my condition, I would have taken steps to mitigate it better. And I don't think I would have been so hard on myself for my shortcomings.

I now manage my workload a lot better for my own wellbeing, and don't beat myself up for things I couldn't have actually helped. I don't see any point in getting angry about the past, it was just a different world back then. But I think that todays generation have it a whole lot better in terms of knowledge and acceptance, and the future is a lot brighter for my autistic son than it was for me.

I forgot to mention that because I'm an artist, people expected me to be a bit eccentric, so I kinda got away with it a lot more than some would have.

I never really thought of myself as different, so I was really blissfully unaware as a child. I was clever at school until I got to secondary level where I went from the top to the bottom of the class and was not liked very much because I was always asking questions. As an adult, I was aware I was a bit wierd but fortunately not enough to get misdiagnosed and medicated. If I had had a diagnosis then, I do to know how the label would have affected me. I could have done a lot better at school. My father was not nice to me and I do think that this was because he could not understand me but he may also have not accepted that I could not help being as I was. I am lucky overall but people who are more severely may have had a dreadful time and not be able to find out why they are like they are. Maybe the women who took to their beds had AS or the people who become hermits or the 'tramps' that do not exist any more.

I was in a residential school where we all had behaviour and emotional problems so I wasn't different I don't suppose.

Schizoid PD
Simple Schizophrenia

The latter was found to be a very common label for individuals with AS/HFA.

Actually mislabeled as mentally ret*d in early childhood and once i was given a IQ test that was more appropriate for someone in my condition (non-verbal), which should have negated that label, i still was given that label for several more years. So later on, i was never given any formal diagnoses, but a big stack of "symptom" lists which put me into special ed. But all this still came down to them saying it was all my fault and if i could apply myself better, those problems would go away and would not be "different".

Same here, except by both adults and kids.

Autistics, wasn't understood back then and I think still today they aren't understood. At least not by the people that know me my whole life. I think even today people don't fully understand it. They are very sceptic that I am an autistic person. My parents just continued to push me, hoping that I will "grow out of it". If I wasn't doing things the way they expected me to behave, then I was on drugs according to them. Or the problem is my attitude and my character as some have already said.

I think it is sort of getting more difficult for autistics today as more and more is relying on information about a person. You can't hide anything any more. Once they see the label, they, the NTs, don't look past it. More restrictions, because you aren't expected to perform in a certain area, according to them.

My mother had labels for me, backwards, babyish, sick in the head, mentally disturbed. A doctor told her I might be schizophrenic, but that was based on what she told him because she never took me to see him. mostly I remember being quiet and good and that is how the nuns at school described me. People thought I was very shy.

What was it like before they changed Autism to a spectrum disorder? My mother tells me that she suspected I was autistic as a toddler for several reasons. Says that she even had me tested for it. Problem was back in the 60's you were either full blown Autistic, or you were an NT.

I tried living life like normal people do, but lived in a constant state of frustration. I never knew I was different than other people and struggled because of those differences. I never understood why I feared crowds, and had all these temper tantrums over odd things, couldn't make or keep friends, etc. As I got older, I started being told I had social anxiety, depression, adhd, and so on.

Really, all that stuff? Why don't they lock me up if I have all that wrong with me.

I've seen councilors over the years and everything they told me to do to improve myself never worked. It was like they were giving me puzzle pieces of myself that just didn't seem to fit. When I recently discovered I was on the spectrum, it was like I had a whole bunch of new puzzle pieces that finally fit into place with out the use of a hammer.