When did you first hear about autism?

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in 2003 or whereabouts, my pdoc [psychiatrist] told me, "i'm sorry, but it is my medical opinion that you have Asperger's Syndrome, there's not a lot I can do to help you."

I think I had heard the term Autism back when I was growing up in the 1970s but like most people I didn't really know anything about it. When Asperger's Syndrome first appeared in the diagnostic literature I read an article about it in a newspaper and had an "Oh s**t, that sounds exactly like me" moment. I then spent nearly twenty years denying I could possibly have something so appalling before finally accepting it and being diagnosed this year.

But what really makes Asperger's so "appalling"? I don't get that adjective as it applies to Aspergers.

"Appalling" is something which might describe Smallpox or Leprosy.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 26 Dec 2017, 3:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

When I was 13 and diagnosed with it. I hadn't heard a single thing about it before.

I first heard of it around age 11 (1983?) - as a tragic condition affecting young boys, caused by too much uric acid(?), and resulting in hopelessly bad/violent behavior, and an inability to care about anyone.

Then came Rain Main (1988), and the public astonishment that some people with autism could actually have high intelligence in some ways - but in general still needed full-time institutional care.

That's all I knew about autism, when I was a kid.

When I was in 7th grade when my parents were watching Mercury Rising and Simon was acting strangely. My parents said he was autistic and I had no idea what that was. I asked what it is and they said they don't communicate. I thought all autistic people were mute and I asked my mom if I ever was autistic because I also couldn't talk and she said no because I had hearing loss so that made me not talk. I thought then you needed to not ever have hearing loss to be autistic if you can't speak. I didn't know AS was on the autistic spectrum. I thought everyone with autism was like Simon and my mom said some of them can talk so I then thought, they wouldn't be autistic anymore because they now communicate. It was very confusing.

Nothing really. It just took me about twenty years to realise that. I spent those twenty years desperately trying to prove to myself and others that I was "normal", whatever that means.

I really didn't want to be that person who was unable to socialise or make friends; that person who constantly pissed off her work colleagues every time she opened her mouth, without understanding why; that person, who despite having a good job, struggled to look after herself and her home; that person who spent all her money pursuing her interests when she should have been putting some aside for more important things.

I didn't want to be all those things and more. It looked "appalling" to me at the time and I just wanted to be like everyone else. It was a bit of a waste of twenty years really.

When I watched the movie Rain Man in 1988. I was 13 & life stress hadn’t made my perceived deficits impossible to mask & suppress yet.

I think I heard about it from all the correlations people made between the Sonic fandom and autistic people.

When I was 12 going on 13 and just starting Grade 7. I told the teacher's assistant that my sister told me that I reminded her of Schultz when I told her that I was Peter Newkirk. The teacher's assistant asked me the question, "Have you ever heard of autism?" I was confused because I've never heard the word, before. Also, I'm not joking.

I'm a lot younger in this thread.

I first heard the term "autism" connected to me after year 2000, but more recently seen a medical paper declaring that I had a diagnosis of "Autism Spectrum Disorder", it was even dated from 1995 on the paper. That was way back when I was most likely 3 years old.

I'm not sure when I first heard about autism. Probably either late childhood or as a preteen. I do know that what I learned was just about the severe, nonverbal type. I actually remember when I first heard about Asperger's, though. I was about 16. My special interest in neuropsych disorders had already started, and I was still trying to figure out what was wrong with me. The previous year, I was researching OCD for fun, to learn more about it, and that's when I discovered that I had been struggling with OCD my whole life. But I didn't get officially diagnosed with OCD until I was 17. So, at the point in time of this anecdote, I still wasn't convinced that OCD was really what I had, since I hadn't had a doctor/professional confirm it.

Anyway, I remember that I was staying overnight at my grandparents' house, and after they had gone to bed, I was reading an issue of Good Housekeeping that my grandmother had. They had an article about Asperger's in it. This would have been around 2003 or 2004. I read it, and the only thing that resonated with me was the special interests. But this article focused on a kid who had severe Asperger's and the stereotypical symptoms, like having deep fat fryers or vacuum cleaners as his special interest. So, after reading it, I really didn't think that this explained me, and I didn't give another thought to my having Asperger's until my CBT therapist I saw my freshman year in college suspected it.

The first I really heard about it was the late 9Os. It was a word I'd come across previously a few times but never delved into .That ,late 1990s,was when I started googling about the difference between my verbal and non verbal abilities. That lead to links about NVLD which in turn lead to information about autism and Asperger's .
In the mid -late 2000s I plucked up the courage to mention things to my then care co-ordinator who arranged an extra appointment with a pdoc. I already had a reputation as being 'awkward,demanding and troublesome' . The pdoc asked asked some totally irrelevant questions before huffily dismissing the issue. As I'd got the 'awkward' etc label and in the services bad books for seeking more help and support I was too scared to really press the issue for fear of further abusive treatment.

For Autism I think in the 70s sometime. It was nothing I paid much attention to.

For Aspergers in the mid 2000s in relation to a couple of characters on the TV show "Bones". I had noticed that the character Temperance Brennan had similar traits to me so I read about that character and the articles mentioned Aspergers

Firstly I watched a show when I was a teenager about kids with a "developmental delay". I'm not sure if they said "autism" specifically.

Then when I was 27 I was seeing my psychologist and she recommended that I see her colleague that specialised in autism. So I did and was dxed with HFA. After that, I heard about autism all over the place.

I think the first time I heard about Autism (at least to have any idea what it was beyond just a word for a condition that didn't mean anything to me) was when in the Stephen King TV Miniseries "Rose Red", which includes a character with Classic Autism. I didn't like the miniseries very much.

But I actually hadn't heard of High Functioning Ausim / Asperger's until this year when it was suggested to me that I might have it. Until then, the only kind of autism I'd heard of was the much more obvious Classic Autism.

Classic autism would usually be level 2, right?