Living life undiagnosed is DANGEROUS

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You would see its a dangerous situation i got myself into not knowing about my autism

Agreed.
You need a tell a lot more to explain your point here.

How did sitting in isolation in jail lead to knowing you having an ASD? And didn't you realize drug dealing is an inherently risky practice regardless of ASDs?

How do you think "not knowing" might have actually affected or effected your behaviour at the time?

I would of dropped the whole thing and went straight to an AS or autism school, went to get medication, and sign up for social skill classes, PERIOD. I wouldent of been so obbsessed with Pot or my car and making money till i drop!

I had asked from the other end of that, yet I do understand and respect your speculation there.

It is certainly good when we can look back and see things more clearly and completely now, and maybe a diagnosis would have presented you with some kind of wakeup call leading you to drop the drugs and your car and run for help.

That still doesn't explain what being a drug dealer has to do with AS. Calling pot a special interest just seems like an excuse to me. Aspie special interests are not inherently bad. However, if you were dealing in drugs, you would of been charged regardless of ASD. Not to mention that if Asperger's was used as a defence, you would of had no sympathy from autistic community because of it being another example of AS being used as a "get out of jail free". Drug dealing is not a trait of AS.

That is not what is being said. He is simply saying his characteristic of having "special interest" was evidenced by the car and in his doing whatever he was doing to make plenty of money, and that waking up in a jail cell finally gave him an unavoidable clue something was terribly wrong.

Please don't tell me what I would and would not see, thanks.

Tell me the connection you see. How does knowing you had autism or not have any connection to that situation? What's the connection you see? (Though, if what Leejosepho posted is corrected, I have the answer to that now.)

Last edited by Mysty on 24 Jul 2010, 12:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I made a lot of stupid choices before I discovered I had AS - and yes, you can have drugs as a special interest - though now I indulge in that interest through books and research - I'm glad it's being recognised earlier now - maybe it can spare people some pain and bad decisions. It's not an excuse for dealing drugs or any other criminal behaviour but I don't think the OP meant it as such.

I didn't have any of the type of intervention, that you're talking about, and I wouldn't raise my hand to anybody.

I have known since 4th grade drugs are bad and they ruin your brain so I fail to see why it would be a special interest for you to do it. Rather you knew you had an ASD or not, why would you still do drugs if they are bad and illegal? Didn't you learn that in school?

As for assulating a police officer, do you think if you knew you had an ASD then, you would have tried and controlled yourself better? Get help and learn to not get so startled when people touch you unexpectedly? Even though some people know they have an ASD, they can still assualt a police officer because of how they grabbed them and it was a automatic reaction from them to hit or push when someone touches them from behind or grabs them unexpectedly. Do you think having a diagnoses would have stopped the charges?


Heck even NTs make stupid choices and also have to do the time too. Just be happy you only got two and a half years while some people get a life sentance or ten years or twenty. Even though people may still have an illness or some disorder, they still can get charged for crimes they do, even if they were already diagnosed. Same for aspies.

I don't understand how being sentenced for 2.5 years would be autism related unless you was talking about before you was diagnosed?

Do you folks really not catch this?!

Someone was moving along in whatever lifestyle he thought was okay, "feeling good" or whatever else, then wondered how he ended up with it all crashing in on him. With all the complaining people do around here about autism ruining lives, why do the specific details of this one's story confuse you?!

Because it doesn't make any sense. I learned as a kid drugs are bad, selling drugs are illegal so therefore don't do them. So I do not see how autism caused him to not know how that stuff was bad and illegal. It's something you learn in school. I don't know how old the OP is so I don't know if he learned it in school or not and maybe he didn't have a mother or any grown up to tell him as a child selling drugs are illegal and you go to jail for it. Heck I am sure NTs do things too that are illegal and they had no clue it was illegal until they were busted. That's why I said be happy he only got 2 and a half years than a life sentance or ten years or twenty years.

I can see how autism can make him assualt a police officer because I know how some of us react to touch so we may unintentionally lash out. The officer could have touched him unexpectedly and it made him lash out because it scared him and the officer pressed charges against him.

In 1977, I committed a felony as a payback for a terrible wrong a bully had done to me, but there was really far more to my action than just that. In a much larger sense, I was finally standing tall and shouting to the world, "No more! No more! No more pushing me around or knocking me down and laughing behind my back. No more ... No more ..."

Most folks here can likely understand at least the essence of that.

I knew what I had done was wrong, and even while I was doing it. Nevertheless, I did not hesitate even slightly at the time and I later felt absolutely no remorse while firmly believing my actions had been completely justified ... and then still without having any clue as to why I seemed to be such an oddball, a misfit or even a complete "loser" in the minds of many, I just kept right on doing and pursuing whatever I thought was best for me in life, and that included also doing just about anything else I believed would help me "cope", so to speak. If I were to list my entire rap sheet here, most of the self-righteous would likely never talk to me again.

Being on the spectrum did not put me in prison, and neither did the bully whose own actions finally tripped my trigger. But can we not at least speculate my life *might* have been much different in the past if I had been diagnosed and helped in whatever way a long time ago?

That is all the OP is trying to say: Maybe if he had known ...

If you don't mind me asking, how are you doing now considering you have a felony record.


It's hard enough finding a job in this economy AND if you have Asperger's.