How many people think you have AS (undiagnosed)?

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I've been struggling with the AS issue for 9 years now, and I can remember every single person who has supported and denied I have AS, here is a list:

Denied:
One of my past psych doctors, said my personality was too "warm"
One of my friends who works in the mental health field said "your not like that"
A therapist who thought I had AS at first changed her mind.

Ambiguous:
One of my past psych doctors refused to tell me what he thought about it. This made me apprehensive about asking my current doctor or caseworker.

Support:
One of my friends when I asked her said "OMG she didn't know!" And started crying.
One of my relatives said "I figured that out a long time ago, thought you probably knew already"
A lady in a support group interupted me out of the blue and said that she works with autis tic people and I seemed like one to her.
Several therapists thought I have it and one therapist tried to get me diagnosed after I took the aq test and raads in her office.
One inpatient doctor thought I had it, but mildley
I mentioned it on facebook and people that know me thought I had it.
Without a specific mention of AS, I've had such bad social skills I had therapy as a child, severe meltdowns, extereme interests, etc, that go unexplained.

I feel like mentioning it to my caseworker, but she might frown on me trying to diagnose myself. Also from what I can gather from more than one source, I'm mild and not disabled by it... don't know what to do.

I think it depends on the generation. I think occasional crop ups always were but societal norms didn't make us stick out like sore thumbs then. I also think that something is triggering the "epidemic" I also think for each person diagnosed there is one other; plus exponentially multiplied each decade.

Do you think it could just be that there is a label and those making the diagnoses are becoming slowly more inclusive of who they diagnose? Maybe I'm wrong, but causes like vaccines just seems strange to me since so many people would have taken them, but so few (in the big scheme) would be affected.

A psychologist once thought I had Nonverbal learning disability and not ASD, after a long test she was proven wrong.

A psychyatrist was skepticle about the diagnoses but I think after time he accepted if but mostly he just thought I had no disapline and I was basically a drama queen for having a meltdown.

That's really it, 2 psychologists and a psychyatrist confirmed it, anyone else I told my diagnoses to everyone pretty much said "makes sense"

My partner is 100% convinced and my mum also took to the idea very quickly when it was suggested to her. In fact she referred to me as autistic a few times which was weird when it first happened. Otherwise close friends I've suggested it to don't seem surprised at all.

People I don't know very well tend to say 'oh no, you can't be' or 'you don't seem autistic', apart from a couple of casual staff at work who have experience with autism. 2 of those mentioned it to me after spending about half an hour with me haha.

I'm having my assessment on June 15th

My issue is ... people often don't associate autism with anything good you know? Or any sort of competence- so my fear is always- oh I'm having a good day today so they won't see me as autistic.. However, if they see me in what I call my super-autism mode... basically when I shutdown go completely non-verbal and just rock back and forth muttering to myself incoherently... then- Oh yeah she's autistic now!
But I can also be autistic and articulate, autistic and functioning, autistic and happy >___< but so many clinicians say well in the five miliseconds that I'm seeing right now... you seem showered and just dandy~ Sooo no autism for you.

I got infinite amounts of s**t when I was a kid though and acted "so damn autistic GOD" even though I "wasn't autistic" <-

My parents, sister, and best friend think I do.

I know how to fix things, when they break. I remember numbers, steps, and directions.

I've had acute, medical emergencies, can describe the problem, calmly, systematically, and would usually be treated as though I was not in need of assistance.

By comparison, a different way of thinking, or an apprehension, is not going to be a priority, except as a niche interest.

I have been high, in rocky cliffs. I have seen bleached bones, in a real desert. I have been caught in a rip tide, and seen black, in all directions. The attitude, which I get from most people, most of the time is like the Miracle on 34th Street.

I laughed, inappropriately, when watching Martian, and the astronaut is left with himself, to do what he wants.

Last edited by friedmacguffins on 30 May 2016, 6:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Nonsense wrapped in nonsense.

I am the same generation as you( your age is listed as 50). You know full well that folks on the AS spectrum "stood out" at least as much in the Fifties, or Sixties, or whatever decade you choose, as they do now. The only difference was that in the age of our growing up you would be labeled colloquially as a "wierdo", but now they have diagnostic labels like "HFA", or "aspergers". You stood out, and got slapped with derogatory labels, but you didnt get a medical label that you do get today (whether one is better or worse than the other is another topic).

Second: there is no evidence of any increase in the number of folks on the AS specturm. The only changes over the years that the definition of AS has broadened over the years (so over the years the growing umbrellas covers more and more folks), and that they get better diagnosing AS folks than before (they get better at finding them in the woodwork but the number in the woodwork is the same as it always was). There is no evidence of an "epidemic" of autism.

Therapist saw traits, psychologist says it's not weird for me to wonder if I am on the spectrum given my past experiences. As far as people thinking I do have it? Four: one has two kids who are in the Aspergers range, another has one son on the spectrum, my husband, and another friend whose son is on the spectrum. Another person whom I suspect thinks I am because he seemed to always being up the subject of autism and then look at me. When in the course of events I mentioned that I believed my father is autistic, this guy never brought up the A-word again. Another time his wife was talking about this little girl who knew all the presidents etc and had been on some TV show multiple times. Given the nature of this girl's knowledge, I asked the wife if she knew if the kid was autistic. They didn't know but then she said, "But...I have a question..." And her mom interrupted to say, "Be careful how you ask that question." Then the person decided not to ask whatever she was going to ask. I wonder if she was wanting to ask if I am on the spectrum. I have had people who have grandkids on the spectrum stare at me and watch me but I don't know if that is what they were thinking. Other than that, my husband's friend's wife is likely on the spectrum and I agree that she is but anyway, we are bizarrely alike in the way we think and react to things like stimuli but also very different.

I was pretty sure for a couple of years before I got my diagnosis. I always suspected I was something since I was a preteen but not knowing anything about Autism or Miosphonia at the time I had no idea what the something was. But once I was told and then started researching, it became crystal clear that I was Autistic and Misophonic.

Angnix I am confused about something though. You say that you believe you are mild and that you are not impaired by it. If you are not impaired, then why do you think you are Autistic? Part of the definition and criteria for an Autism diagnosis is that it has to impair you. Everyone feels the traits and symptoms to a degree. What makes us Autistic is that those traits and symptoms happen at a frequency and at a degree level in which they actually impair our daily lives. So out of curiosity, since you say you are not impaired, why would you think that you could be Autistic? I am not saying that you should not think you are or that you should think you are. If you are than I completely respect that and support it as well as if you are not. I am just confused about this point.

Actually I just reread your original post and you said you are not disabled by it. I used the word impaired. I don't know if those words mean the same to you. They mean very similar to me and I sometimes use them interchangeably. But anyway, I hope you understand my question.

I've told four people of my suspicions. One told me that I was just using "this Asperger's disease" as an excuse for my poor social skills. Two seemed to agree that I showed signs. One didn't really give an opinion either way.

I have no idea if people I haven't told suspect anything.

I'm starting to think I may just have NVLD though (and perhaps dyscalculia), if I even have anything at all. It seems to fit much better after reading about it and looking at old school reports.

Anyone who says, "You are using 'this Asperger's disease' as an excuse for poor social skills," needs to learn what Asperger's is before making these kinds of remarks. I would not listen to someone who is that uneducated. It just makes him look idiotic.

I am curious. I don't know what NVLD is. Would you tell me what that is?

Once again, Captcha has killed another one of my long posts. Wonderful.

NVLD (or NLD) stands for nonverbal learning disorder/disability. I had a lot typed up before Captcha nuked it all and can't be bothered to type it all up again, so here are some links about NVLD:

http://childmind.org/article/what-is-no ... -disorder/

https://www.aane.org/asperger_resources ... rning.html

There's also a fair bit of information about it on this site if you search.

Also, the person who made the "Asperger's disease" comment was none other than my mother, who has actually worked with autistic people in group homes in the past. I think her idea of autism is "mentally ret*d and completely unable to take care of him or herself". Ironically enough, she has a number of Aspie traits herself.

most if not all of my school teachers

one of the real big hints was when one of my current teachers (in year 13 so like the last year before uni) pulled me and a guy in my class who had been diagnosed aside to talk about it, i said "oh im not autistic" so he sort of tried to cover it up and said "oh well i uhh...might have read that wrong then" i know he was covering that up because theres no where he could have read that even for the other guy in the class.

people in my class, i was bullied by my entire class all the way through primary and high school and got called "spastic" and "autistic" as just some of them, of course i never really new what autism is, to be honest till a few days ago i thought it was like a derogatory word for disabled people....until i learned that its an actually condition, my best friend has it (diagnosed) AND it explains all my problems that ive been dealing with and searching for answers to since i was little.


boy, if in uni when i actually get to talk to a professional and everything, my parents and my best friend will be shocked and if not in denial a little bit if (and i most likely will) i come out as autistic. (my parents are those people who think you have to be a certain way to have it, like really quiet and odd, to be honest i think they are they can't see it because they can't imagine their own son being this way, that and ive never said anything because im a private person normally)

Ah, thank you for explaining to me. I will have to learn about NVLD. I just had the same ongoing battle with Captcha while I was trying to respond to another thread. It is so infuriating, makes me want to SCREAM!! !! !! !

That is a shame about your mom. Someone who works with Autistic people should be much more educated. I had an experience that really scarred me last year. Shortly after I got my diagnosis I told a person whom I had thought was my friend that I had gotten it. I had been keeping her posted on the whole process. When I told her I got an HFA diagnosis she argued with me that she did not agree with the diagnosis and that I did not deserve it because she works with Autistic people in a group home and because of that she knows what Autism is and she actually said that she did not care what the DSM said or what the diagnostician said, I did not not deserve an HFA diagnosis because if I was really Autistic I would not be able to be at the lake kayaking with them the way that I was. She said that if I was really Autistic I would not be able to handle that environment, calmly kayaking with a group of people on a beautiful quiet lake. There was nothing I could say to her. She just kept insisting that she knew best and she knew all about what Autism is and that because I could be there with them, she has never seen me in a different environment, I could not possibly be Autistic so I should stop telling people that I am.