What would life be like if you had early diagnosis?

Post Reply New Topic

I think that if I had grown up with a diagnosis, I probably would have been limited by it. People would have said,

"She can't learn English. She's autistic."

"She will be in a special ed class all of her educational career and won't go to college."

"She wouldn't be teaching, editing, working at a library, or doing anything involving use of language."

"She wouldn't be able to learn a foreign language."

Having gone through most of my life without a diagnosis (except a self-diagnosis) allowed me to defy early negative predictions about my life.

Are there areas I need to improve? Absolutely. I need to improve my social skills and put my best foot forward when it comes to getting promoted at work. I need to overcome nervousness at job interviews and eventually will need to get my driver's license. I don't think a diagnosis, at this point in my life, will help me in these areas.

Kaity, I can so relate to that!! !

My mother would either get mad at them and treat me normal or get really depressed and treat me like s**t. Or maybe abit of both, but then I'd be myself and they'd see that the stereotypes were wrong and treat me like I was normal.

Well... I was DX'ed with autism in the mid 1980's when I was 4.5, but certainly was aspie but that dx didnt exist back then, so they just said HFA when I moved to NY in 1991 because I was very high functioning, and tended to be the smartest kid in my spec ed class even tho I was also the youngest by a good year or 2 in some cases.

Well I can tell ya what your life would be like if it was DX'ed at an real early age. Basicly that label would stick with you thru your ENTIRE school career. Tho you aspies would probably be mainstreamed after elemntary school (me 5th grade) but because you were different and possibly a distraction, they would seperate ya from the rest of the school in spec ed. Now when I was finally told about the ASD thing (and when I was DX'ed I never heard about a spectrum, you were just LFA or HFA) but I never really thought too much about it at age 11, just went on living my life and never thought about it really until collage, adulthood when I had a difficult time dating and didnt act like a normal collage kid.

I wish I wasnt discovered until adulthood, at least tho I was weird and eccentric, I didnt really think about the whole autism thing at such a young age anyways, even when I knew what I had finally towards the end of elementary school. I would have prefered to have been in normal classes, tho I was different, had I not been DX'ed so early it would have been possible I never would have been in spec ed, I would have mixed with the other kids, had an easier time making friends rather then try to explain to kids why I was in spec ed (I lied always) and when they do a backround check it would be easier to get inshurance or a job because they wouldnt see a 'disability' on their.

Beleive me, all you guys DX'ed as adults I think have had it better then I did. I had teachers and dr's checking up on me thruought elementary school, at a time when autism wasnt well understood, back then their was little hope for me to live a normal life and be sucessful as an adult, back then autism was like a death sentance for my parents, who were ready to spend the rest of their lives caring for me. In the end I did good in collage but never got my 4 year degree, couldnt take dorm life. In the end I did end up being better at living in the real world then many of my peers who still live in appartments with their friends and dont plan for the future. I cant stand dorm life and MUST live alone, and so that motivated me to budget, plan and work hard, and I got what I wanted. I wish I coulda had a more normal childhood tho I was surprisingly happy while growing up regardless, I feel more fortunate then many others in my position thats for sure.

I've often thought about this myself.

I was born in 1980, so if I was diagnosed earlier than I was (was dxed in 1995), it would have meant that I and my parents would have been dealing with the conceptions of autism that existed in the early 1980s, rather than the mid-1990s.

That means that we'd have had even more chance of running into psychodynamic BS than we did when I was diagnosed. (And we did run into some stubborn holdovers of it about a year after I was first diagnosed.)

And that we wouldn't have been given a lot of information about how autism does work, because nobody really knew much back then. I know there would have been lower expectations for me, but I don't think my parents would have succumbed to them any more than they did with my older brother.

I do think that some things about me would be understood better. I would not have had to come up with all the bizarre theories I came up with about why I was different.

But at the same time, I might have been subject to more attempts to "fix" me, and earlier, than I was. And might have had a lot fewer educational opportunities, and ended up in special ed a lot younger than I did. So I wouldn't have necessarily been pushed to the point of burnout, but I might have been subject to something ugly in the other direction too.

So it's hard to know if it would have been better or worse, especially in the 1980s.

Maybe my family would have cared about me more instead of throwing me away

To heck with a diagnosis I would have just loved to have a computer and the Internet.

bookwormde

How could I ever know what life would have been like? ...I can see it from one extreme to the other & a thousand points in between. It's all to do with what's in the day to day life environment! And I tell you what... since I was eight years old (in 1958! ...yeah, go figure ...back then, if you had dark skin, you sat at the back of the bus!) when my aspie traits became fully manifest, life could have been a proverbial death sentense. But, as well, if in the right hands... could have been splendor beyond imagination! Yeah, beyond imagination... and maybe that's a good thing since it saves me a lot of heartache!

Highschool would've been a heck of a lot easier, that's for sure.

If I had NOT had an early diagnosis of AS, my life would be much better. I would have got the right treatment and support; I wouldn't have been put into the lowest group and stopped being able to do activities with "normal" kids.

If I had an early diagnosis of AD/HD-I, I would have received proper treatment, and there wouldn't have been a glass ceiling, if you get what i mean.

Yes but the diagnosis often carries along the perception.

I wish I'd known when I became a teenager and had to decide what to study. A person I know told her daughter not to invest too much in the social aspect of life and to devote herself to getting ahead in her studies - and gear herself towards lab work, or something she can do quite on her own.

Hmm, I sort of got the best of both worlds. I was diagnosed was having something in grade 5, though it was a diagnosis of 'we don't know what it is exactly, it's sort of like autism but not quite, so we'll call it ADD". This really wasn't laziness - it was 1994, the first year Asperger's was even on the DSM, so the pychistrist hadn't even heard of it yet. Giving me some kind of diagnosis at least meant that I was getting some accommodation by grade 6. I didn't get the official Asperger’s diagnosis until the end of high school, though people had been suggesting that's what I had for a few years before.

In some ways, being diagnosed when I was sucked, because no-one knew what it was and I've had to fight for most of my accommodations, even had to think some of them up on my own (with help from counsellors and family). On the other hand, at least my diagnosis came early enough that I could identify and fight for what I needed, and before too many stereotypes had been developed.

Either way, I get the impression that I'm more optimistic then some, and more assertive at stating my needs. I also know exactly what I want to do in life, and mostly how to do it. How much this has to do with being diagnosed early, I don't know.

I probably wouldn't have spent years thinking I could try to be a professional actor... I know Dan Akroid is and a few others, but it's so competitive as it is... I suppose, in retrospect, maybe it helped my social skills improve a bit -- but it was AGONY at times (fun other times too though )...

I NEVER would have accepted employment in customer service, retail sales or working as a receptionist.. ALL AGONIZING for the most part... My whole life has been quite agonizing in many ways.. I would have chosen different occupations and understood more why I had the troubles socially that I had and not pushed myself into damaging social situations hoping I would eventually "learn" like everyone else... I guess now that I'm 45, technically I'm just middle-aged.. hopefully the last half of life won't be so agonizing... I just don't feel like working much at all now, my back and injuries keep me from doing the delivery work I used to do.. Seems like I could use that 140 I.Q. for something doesn't it? even if I AM older.. I wish I could go back to school and get a Graduate degree in some field that I could excel in .. I just don't know what that is..