Did you suspect ASD or was a diagnoses given to you?

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I choosed always suspected because I was aware that I was different since my teenage years. And I've suspected I had aspergers for nearly a decade, before I was dx'ed.

I was too little to suspect anything, but my mom did as well as the people at the preschool I went to. My cousin was diagnosed with Autism a year before I was, so I think that might be why my mom specifically suspected Autism and not something else.

Hello. I don't know what option to choose, but if someone explains to me what this would be, I will vote for it.

So for me, what happened was I was seeing a psychiatrist because of social anxiety originally, but it evolved to other conditions. But after seeing my psychiatrist for like a year, she was like "You seem to show signs of autism". And I thought to myself because the people I know with autism didn't seem anywhere close to me, so I told her no. She asked me again, and I said no. She asked me because I was obsessed with mental illness, so she expected me to know if something was wrong with my mental health. Finally, by the third time, she said "Do you think you have autism?". And at that time, I told her "Maybe". Then, after I did research on it, I concluded that I did, in fact, most likely had autism. So I made her a list of the reasons why I thought so. She said she couldn't diagnose me, and my mom said I didn't have it. So a year later, I told my parents I wanted an assessment (a psycho-educational assessment to be exact) because I thought I also had a learning disability. I knew I showed so many signs of autism at this point, and realized that I struggled a lot socially. So I basically knew I had autism, I just wanted to be diagnosed for school and accommodation purposes, along with the fact that I would never know if I was actually right or not. So I got an assessment, and was told I have autism and a learning disability. So for me, it went like this:

"I didn't suspect autism until my pdoc told me she suspected. Then after denying for a while, I suspected I did. And then I got officially diagnosed."

I technically would have never known that I had autism if my psychiatrist didn't point it out, and if I did figure it out, it would have been a lot harder later because I'm 16 right now, and was diagnosed at 16. I know it's harder to diagnose at 18 for many people.

So this is my diagnosis story.

I always knew I was different but thought it was all personalty. In the 15 or so years before diagnosis I kind of suspected but it was no more then a mild curiosity and I only knew the very basic stereotype information. It took sibling intervention get diagnosed and to understand it's massive importance.

I don't think any of the responses fit for me.

I suspected, but "I always suspected" doesn't sound right. I didn't always suspect. I was clueless until relatively recently, in the grand scheme of things. I thought I was NT and a bit useless.

I suspected for a long time before asking for a diagnosis, but it wasn't a long time in more general terms.

Hi,
I suspected Autism since I read about it when I was about 14 years old. But I didn't think about it very hard for a couple of years. When I was 18, my first psychiatrist saw signs of Autism. But since he was not very informed about the condition he did not investigate further.
Some time ago, I read my 7 old diaries. In some of them I find myself considering to have Autism because of the severe social problems. I also read about me being very sad and anxious.
In 2006 I started an attempt to get a proper diagnosis, but stopped because my therapist in this time said, it could not be Autism, because autistic people would be more severely handicapped than me. I believed this and so I lost another 9 years.
In 2015 I saw a specialized doctor (psychiatrist) for Asperger's syndrome. He told me I definitely had Asperger's Syndrome. He asked me to proceed to another diagnosis at the national society for autism in Austria. So I went through this highly intensive procedure, too.
After all the tests, I had a final talk about the results. The psychologist said she was a 100% sure, I have an Autism Spectrum Disorder, Asperger's Syndrome.

So, yes, I suspected to have Autism. And somehow I got diagnosed by myself. Later by the specialists. I'm sad, I was not diagnosed as a child. It would have spared me from a lot of agony, sadness, loneliness and a really hard time in school.

Regards, Sophia.

The closest correct reply for me was "always suspected and diagnosed," but it would be more accurate to say I'd suspected it for about a decade before I finally could afford to get a formal diagnosis. I had no idea what was wrong with me when I was younger, but I knew I was different and didn't fit in socially. Autism was virtually unknown in my rural New England town when I was growing up in the 1970s.

My ex-wife actually first suggested the idea that I might be on the spectrum, and over a period of years, as I researched the topic, I became convinced that I likely was. So my diagnosis wasn't surprising to me. It explains an awful lot of my experiences in life.

I read your book. Very pertinent, without getting political.