Were you in denial at first?

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When I was first diagnosed with autism I refused to accept it, even though I had little idea of what it entailed. I'm not sure why exactly, I suppose we instinctively desire not to be different as it can be dangerous to stand out amongst the tribe as we rely on social acceptance and group cohesion for survival. Maybe I just didn't want to be labeled and put in a box. After reading about the condition everything started making sense though and I could no longer stick my head in the sand. I was just wondering if this was a common response to an autism diagnosis.

I was diagnosed with AS 20 years ago and I'm still partially in denial today. Well, I can talk about it here and accept it sometimes, but I still hang on to that bit of hope that I was perhaps misdiagnosed. If I see that I have a symptom that I always thought I didn't have, I get all depressed.

Yes. I got diagnosed on Friday and I am in denial.

Not at all. I'd been wondering what it was in our family for decades.

Nope, but I was diagnosed at an older age (43) and I'm guessing most in the older age brackets were specifically suspecting autism if they went through the evaluation process but I could be totally wrong.

Nope! In fact, I was glad to be diagnosed because it explained all the troubles and weirdness of my life and made me feel better about being odd. I was glad to have answers.

Yes when I was younger I hated any kind of psyche label and would take offense if you called me aspergers or anything else. It was not until I was about 33 did I finally get the autism because I found forums on line like wrong planet but mine was a different web site for aspergers and I started reading the little snippets people left up there about their lives and I started relating that is when I knew and became open and accepting of my autism. It took me awhile longer to get my head around the other stuff like ocd and anxiety. But today I am ok with it and understand it explains a lot and realize it is just part of me. In fact without it I could not leave my experience here and hope it helps you with out it.

I've never been "in denial."

I wasn’t in denial, I found out about my Aspergers in my 20s, I was at therapy with my mom, she accepted my Aspergers. My older sister was in denial about my Cerebral Pasly, she didn’t want a handicap sister that what my mom told me. My sister is in denial about my Aspergers & my dad, my grandmother thinks she is too old to learn about my Aspergers.

I keep going back and forth between denial and acceptance. I was told on July 19th this year that I meet the criteria, and I found it very hard to believe. I am slowly coming around to the things about me that do fit, but I still hold firmly to the things that I believe don't fit. My therapist tells me that even though he can see that I've made progress in accepting it, I still am obviously resisting.

It would have been funny had I been "in denial" when I was 3 years old

I would have been a pretty smart little tot, indeed!

I meant being able to know whether I was actually "weird" or not....

I was assessed April 2018, and although I haven't been in denial I did go through a period of mixed feelings. I wasn't upset about actually being autistic, but I was shocked that I'd fallen through the cracks completely unaided and without support my whole life. Why didn't my parents, teachers or doctors see that I needed help? I had to reassess my life through a new lens. I'm proud to be autistic and glad that I have found a community, but I feel badly for the young girl I was, who was so alone and afraid.

I was not in denial. I needed the diagnosis to validate my existence. I have no desire or need to be part of the tribe.