Your reaction when someone first suggested youwere autistic?

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The very first time? I recall an ex of mine asking if I was on the spectrum. I told them no and was confused, thought it was ridiculous. I was really ignorant back then and had some serious misunderstandings about what autism was. I had only met one autistic person, and he was a child who, to me, acted horribly (because i saw him having a meltdown at a birthday party). Beyond that my only understanding of autism came from the school my aunt went to...she was hit by a car as a child and could not walk or talk and the autistic people at her school were severely impaired as well. To me, I could walk, mostly talk, and did not beat myself all the time requiring aides, and did not throw tantrums all the time, so I could not be autistic. See? I was ignorant. I'm not proud of myself for my beliefs. I wish I had listened to that ex sooner and gotten help sooner as a result.

Mom and Dad started sending me shrinks when I was...at least by eight years old. Up until I was around 30. Then went to a shrink again for several years in the early 2000s. NONE of the many shrinks I went to in all that time EVER suggested to me that I was on the autism spectrum. AFAIK they didnt wrongly diagnose me with other things. But none suggested I was on the autism spectrum. Even the last most recent. My mom and sis suggest to HER that I might be aspergers. Even though this was ten years after the DSM had expanded the autism spectrum in 1994 and made aspergers a thing in the USA...this lady said she "had never heard of aspergers before" and had to look it up.

The first time someone suggested I might be on the autism spectrum was when I was around ten, and the person who suggested it was myself.

The radio was on ...and a talk show was on. A panel discussion with doctors and parents of autistic kids discussing this new "disease of the month" called "autism". A brand new thing then on the public scene. Like retardation, but NOT like retardation. The kids were normal IQ but just weird and withdrawn...like to spin things etc.

I listened to it ...then it dawned on me that when I was a few years younger I was kinda less extreme version of these odd kids. Maybe ...there is a mild form autism in the world...and maybe I have it. That would explain alot.

Then I dismissed the notion...thought I was just making excuses for myself...I am bad person.

Never thought much about it again for more than half of a century.

Then a few years ago I went to a specialist. Had the battery of tests. And the specialist concluded that my ten year old self was exactly right. I had aspergers (a mild form of autism). Was relieved to learn it basically.

Oh God, I loved to spin things. Those shiny silver pinwheels on a stick. Battling Tops game. Dreidels. Coins on a table. Basketballs on my finger. Yes I could do that. Me on a tire swing going 90 miles an hour. Me in ballet or on ice skates.

I still pirouette in public.

Spin me up baby.




https://youtu.be/PGNiXGX2nLU?feature=shared

I just remembered that nearly 2 years before my mum told me that I'm autistic, I told the teacher's assistant that my sister compared me to Sgt Schultz when I quipped to her that I was Peter Newkirk. She asked me, "Have you heard of autism?" I asked, "What?"

Very, very offended.

Like -- "I know I'm different since age 8, but not like THAT!".


I was an ignorant 10 year old.
It was 2005, and there were no concept such as 'high functioning autism' or autism without intellectual disability.


I honestly cannot remember.
Likely a teacher or a professional.

And likely someone who do not know what to do with me -- because they've never seen an autistic without intellectual disability either...


That time all I know then was that there's only classic autism; nonverbal, intellectually disabled, dependent, cannot keep up in mainstream -- which then, I clearly am not.

I've only learned what autism without intellectual disability is at age of 14; over 4 years after my 'first diagnosis', during my 'official (final) diagnosis'.
That's when my feelings changed.

... Afterwards, that's also when I first had internet at home... And lead me in this very forum a year after.

Last edited by Edna3362 on 19 Nov 2023, 12:13 am, edited 1 time in total.

My mom brought it up to me as a teenager. I dismissed it outright. I didn't think it was possible.

My boss brought it up to me two years ago. I dismissed it outright. I didn't think it was possible....


And then I got diagnosed this past summer.

A psychologist who was treating me for depression suggested it. She showed me the diagnostic criteria for autism in the DSM IV-TR. A lot of it was familiar. I had a sleepless night that night.

Even after I'd done the online tests, I had serious doubts because of times in my life when I'd done remarkably well socially, and in my naivete I couldn't see how any Aspie could have achieved that, as this thread from 2008 shows:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=77483&p=1714834#p1714834
But we both got there in the end, because neither of us had completely closed our minds to the matter, and I see that as something to be proud of. A spectrum condition takes some understanding.

Lets waltz!

Last edited by naturalplastic on 19 Nov 2023, 11:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

Similar with me except my supervisor was the owner. He said something like you’re a little autistic. This was the late ‘90’s and while I did see ‘Rain Man’ I did not know anything about it.

I thought he was trying to bully me. I felt confused because I thought that was a very weird way to try and bully someone.

Yeah, I like that. We both lived, learned, and thankfully grew as people. I call that a win. We certainly couldn't have done so had we been that closed off.

Mum brought it up when I was about 10 circa 1990, she told me that my parents had taken me to a couple of shrinks as a toddler. I think my initial reaction was a bit of curiosity mixed with shock and denial. Had people at work say things like "that's your ASD coming out' or 'that must be your ADHD'. The denial hung around for a while until about 4 years ago.

Stunned, at first.  Then it was as if a thousand little puzzle pieces suddenly clicked into place, all at once.

Suddenly, everything just made sense: my interest/obsession with science and science-fiction, my physical clumsiness, my social ineptitude, and all the events in my life that had not made sense to anyone (even me) until then.

It was like becoming a new, whole person, instead of living the old half-life I had been living up until then.

I was puzzled but didn't think too much about it apart from ruminating about it at times and mentioning it to my GF and saying I'm not autistic why did he say that..



My boss whose son is autistic asked me if I was autistic , his reasoning apart from having a son with autism was that I was one of the nicest person he'd met and I was a breath of fresh air , he liked me I guess.



I knew about autism but only the severe cases so I dismissed the accusation believing I was just a looney

My GF watched a documentary on autism and the penny dropped for her, there was a teenage kid having problems and she said it was a carbon copy of me. I joined here to do some research, the rest is history.

It was first mentioned [shouted] to me when I was being forcibly dragged out of school and into a doctors office. Consequently I was highly offended and very upset.

I had heard of Aspergers and Autism before. Didn't know a lot about them, but I had read about them before.

Curiosity, since my university suggested it first.