Lost Generation?

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Your welcome.

Last edited by aghogday on 09 Sep 2011, 5:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

New to the whole Online communication thing, just glad there's a place where I belong. Never realised there are others like me. 55,000 people isn't that many really, but plenty enough.

Yes!
I was born in 1976 and AS was accepted by WHO in 1992 and the last major intervention was in 1990! In 1989 I was diagnosed with five different disorders (I only discovered what they were recently). I got the AS diagnosis after I sought treatment for continued trouble in 2008 at the age of 32. It's been all a disaster. I'm so angry.

1. 1980, 30 (earlier this year)
2. I finished high school and went to a major university but dropped out before the end of the first semester. I was constantly bullied in middle school and high school. My adult life was a series of misadventures. I moved 16 times between the ages of 18 and 29 including back in with my parents several times. I went to a technical school and got a computer programming degree when I was 26 and have been working in that field for 5 years now. For the past 3 years I have been working for an online high school and have gotten raises and a promotion. 2 years ago I purchased a condo and have been living here since (2 years is the longest I have lived at the same address since I turned 18).
3. My life had started to improve before my diagnosis. If anything, learning about Aspergers has set me back as it has caused me to reexamine my entire life. I feel like I am processing everything differently now. Some days I am happy to have answers and some days I wish I could go back to the blissful ignorance of before I learned about Aspergers.

Count me in.

1.) 1969. Self-diagnosed three years ago when my son was diagnosed. Tentatively confirmed by a therapist and psychiatrist, but not formally diagnosed.
2.) Through a combination of horrifically bad parenting and Asperger’s I was on my on at 16 and survived two abusive marriages. I now have PTSD from those experiences. I did well in school, but I was badly bullied.
3.) I am doing well now. For me the keys were my second husband kicking the bucket (he died weeks after I got myself together and filed for divorce) and getting my PTSD diagnosed. The Asperger’s self diagnosis was of secondary importance at the time because the PTSD was really messing with my life. The PTSD is now well managed (with lots of hard work), and I do pretty well now that I don’t have anyone actively working to ruin my life. The good members of my family are supportive, the bad ones are no longer part of my life. I have an aspie friendly career and although there were some dicey times when I was getting the PTSD under control things at work are OK now. I accept my autistic tendencies as part of my personality. I needed lots of therapy to get to this point. I wonder how things would have been different if I knew then what I knew now.

I view Asperger’s as both a blessing and a curse. A curse because I could not read people and was easily taken advantage of and abused. A blessing because I had a special interest (computers) that I pursued with dogged determination, got my university degree, and a good career. That special interest is the foundation that the good stuff in my life is based on.

I was born in 1970, Diagnosed 2010 at age 40

I was misdiagnosed as having ADHD so they put me in special education classes. The kids that were in normal classes made fun of me for being special ed and the kids that were in special ed made fun of me for being a know it all. The doctor who diagnosed told me he found no signs of learning disability.

I was socially awkward towards people in school so they knew I was in special education so they figured I was either crazy or ret*d so they made sure to remind me daily that I did not belong. I pretty much had to endure some form of harrassment on a daily basis both mental or physical. When the teachers witnessed these assaults they would claim I was blowing the whole thing out of proportion and ignore it. The only time anything was ever done was when another student would come foward to complain about my treatment at the hands of the bully and to complain about the teacher sweeping it under the rug.

Latter after school I joined the work force I have never had a well paying job that I could take care of myself with comfort or dignity. On every job I have been the victim of harrassment and hatred. It did not get better for me when I graduated from high school like the teachers promissed me. I just graduated to a different form of hell.

aghogday

Good luck, only just read your thing.

1 - When were you born,
1964
and how old were you when you were diagnosed?
45

2 - How did Aspergers affect you before you were diagnosed?
I was too honest in the corporate world, art and talent can get you to the top, but you have to lie too much to stay there. I am just not good at that.

3 - Most importantly, how are you post-diagnosis? Has your condition improved, and how are you dealing with what happened to you?
I am now homeless, have a physical neurological disability, and I moved to the Pacific northwest Lost Coast to escape I guess.

So sorry to hear you are homeless. I would imagine that there are a great number of people that never even got a job in our generation, because of issues related to Autism, not knowing what their issues were caused by. That truly is the lost generation, the majority will probably never be identified, that have struggled to survive for a lifetime, some luckier than others. I was lucky to make it past 21, and kept running as fast as I could.

Being honest got me in a lot of trouble as well with superiors, I could never understand why people were expected to lie, and get in trouble for being truthful, but that appears to be a major part of life, that is expected to be understood.

I even had well respected superiors advise me to lie.

It has to be an Asperger trait, because my sister has been diagnosed, and I can't remember her ever even telling one white lie, my entire life. She is totally incapable of doing it. I have been guilty of that not to hurt a person's feeling, but she would rather not even comment.

1 - Born in 1978, self-diagnosed recently in my 30s.
2 - I went through school well enough grade-wise but was constantly unhappy with a feeling of being "wrong". By chance I found some friends with similar interests (though NTs) which helped me keep socially integrated to a point.
After school I went to university where my "shyness" kept me from making many friends, especially A girlfriend. I'm currently working on my phd but all the time it has been quite hard for me to keep at it.
3 - I'm slightly better now that I know the source of some of my problems. I'm desperately hoping to find more friends (especially a girlfriend) who share my interests and can deal with my quirks.
It is very difficult for me to plan my professional career because I my personality (e.g. sleep patterns) crash with the conventions of the job world.

I'm part of the Lost Generation. Diagnosed 4 years ago at age 54, although I suspected it for about 10 years before that.I struggled all my life being unable to fit in. As a child I had many attributes which today would mark me as an aspie child--high intelligence, but no social skills, special interests, talked like a "little professor," poor motor skill coordination, an inability to control my emotions, inability to cope with change. I was bullied at various times throughout grade school, high school and even college. As an adult I could not find or hold a full-time job despite several advance degrees ; I survived by putting together a patchwork quilt of part-time and freelance work. I could not form relationships. I was bitterly lonely. Friends were few and far between. Frequent suicidal ideation. I did not really learn to live independently until after my parents and my aunt died, and by then I was in my early fifties. That's what finally sent me to therapy. But the worse part of living with undiagnosed Asperger's? Never knowing why you were unable to live a "normal" live, and having to carry a heavy burden of shame and guilt for, of course, my failures were blamed on character flaws. I was selfish, I was rude, I was anti-social, I was the little savant who had fallen flat on her face. Since being diagnosed, my whole attitude toward life has turned around.I believe in myself and feel pride in myself that I have not felt since childhood I've tried to start a new life, based on my self-discovery..I''m writing a book about my experiences; finally putting my talents to use. I've also bought a horse. It was something I always wanted to do.Unfortunately, it takes time to come to terms with the world of hurt that filled the pages of my past, and its two steps forward, one step back.
I suspect that, in my generation, there were a lot of undiagnosed aspies who learned to adapt and eventually assimilated into the NT world; perhaps they were help by supportive parents and other adults, even though no one knew they were aspies. They learned to adapt. Unfortunately, a lot of us never had the support we needed in our youth and so struggled all whole lives through to understand ourselves and to find somewhere in the world where we could fit in.

1 - When were you born, and how old were you when you were diagnosed?
Born 1966. Diagnosed Nov 2012.

2 - How did Aspergers affect you before you were diagnosed?
a) slow in school, held back a year, struggled with friends and bullies, ignored school rules more than I should have.
b) hated dating and night clubbing, was completely unsuccessful with girls.
c) suffered badly from nervisness and stress, hate crowds and busy shops, very short temper.
d) depression in mid 20's lasted 4 years, was suicidel for last 12 months, attempted to take own life at end.
e) gave up on people and society, hid myself away and did my own thing. Enjoyed my life

3 - Most importantly, how are you post-diagnosis? Has your condition improved, and how are you dealing with what happened to you?

I was reading a book and read a passage that described me, and they mentioned Asperger's was the cause. So I searched the internet for a local practiciner who could diagnose me profesionaly. Tell me yes or no. She confirmed that I do have it, well above the 60% apparently. Though I don't have most of the obvious negative symptoms.

I had learned to deal with life before the diagnosis, so the diagnosis hasn't made much difference to me. Having said that, I'm not as harsh on myself when I get stressed or lose my temper over some smalll thing.

1) Born in January of 1978. Informally diagnosed 1998, formally diagnosed 2011.
2) Significant social difficulties. Trouble reading intent and a lot of trust issues because of it. Trouble being too honest. Emotional immaturity masked with conditioned emotional deadness.
3) Some improvement post-informal. At least I knew it wasn't totally my fault. I had something to study. But studying AS in the late 90's and the first years of the 21st century was a bad business. There wasn't a lot of information commonly available, a lot of it was very inaccurate, and almost all of it was so thoroughly NT-centric as to be dehumanizing and very demoralizing.
Some improvement post-formal. There is more and better information now. I am grateful to the self-advocacy movement; I really admire those people for their courage.
The biggest thing that has improved my skills and my self-concept is a small handful of very honest, very accepting, very true friends. If it matters, one of them I'm pretty sure has schizoid or schizotypal personality, one of them I know is NaT and I'm betting on Asperger's, one of them thinks she might be OCD with hoarding tendencies and maybe a dash of ADD, and I haven't found an appropriate diagnosis for the fourth yet, but surely a typically functioning person wouldn't hang out with that crew. The bunch of fruits and nuts that I belong to has made a really significant difference; I don't think there's a true NT (and I know there isn't a mental health expert) in the bunch. Two mechanical engineers, a property manager, and a part-time thrift-store cashier, yes, but no mental health or developmental experts.
Should that tell us something???????????

I'm all right I guess. I have a good life. Great kids. Hubby who has stood by me as best he could, even if I don't know how much longer we'll be able to take it. Material security, even if it's not of my own making.
Depression, anxiety, and poor self-image continue to be a problem. Communication is difficult-- I tend to be pedantic and verbose (no, really?) and to use things like sarcasm, figurative speech, and metaphor in ways that while technically correct still aren't standard fare. Organization and time management are skills I'd like to work on. The discrepancy between eiditic and working memory continues to be a really messed-up annoyance.

Considering the information available, the knowledge (or lack thereof), the attitudes (that still persist, though there's hope), and the available treatments (still a big problem for me-- and a lot of other people), I sometimes think I'm probably honestly better off than I would be had I been diagnosed as early as possible (in the States, that would have been 1994 or 1995). Then, I sometimes think I'm worse off-- if I had been a few years younger, or the speed of information had been a few years faster, I would have been ABAed into accepting myself as a broken neurotypical and that would have been that. As it is, I bounce back and forth between "perfectly good Aspie who still needs to learn quite a few things to optimize her functionality" and "broken neurotypical." I often think the cognitive dissonance/mental and emotional whiplash is at least as painful as seeing myself as broken. It can give pretty stiff competition to the misunderstandings and rejection in terms of pain, too.

And-- surely you all realize how the magic of thread necromancy works. Someone does a site search and finds something relevant. Relevant enough to have something to say. Sometimes the threads are really dead-- maybe we should call those zombies?? Sometimes they're relevant enough that they were merely dormant.

What should we call that-- thread epigenetics?? Thread resurrection?? Graveyard gold?? Reanimation?? Compost??

I like that. Compost. They're so old they've had time to fully decay. And when you spread stuff on the garden, they help it grow.

Maybe somebody forgetting to check the date before posting isn't always a bad thing.

I don't strictly qualify as I was born in 1983 in Houston TX, but I was never correctly diagnosed in childhood. My parents took me to numerous expensive psychiatrists and child therapists and they all diagnosed me as ADHD or ADD. Mind you I did not start talking until age 6! Before that I talked in made up nonsense words, like dagonuh. They told my parents my brain was so hyperactive I couldn't form words or language properly and I needed high doses of ritalin round the clock. My parents said that actually made me even less interactive and they were elated when I started talking at 6 on my own as I was now cured.

After I started talking I guess counselors and therapists assumed autism didn't apply, the last time I made an effort was at age 18 with it just ended with no diagnosis and an attempt to commit to a psych hospital (apparently because I answered "yes" to "have you thought about suicide" but as I explained I think about all sorts of odd and unusual things without wanting to do them).

I dropped out of middle school because of bullying from both the other students AND the teachers and staff, the principal when talking to me privately in her office told me there were kids in the school that came every day and wearing colostomy bags, so why the hell did I think I was so special they had to accommodate me? I just felt like everyone hated me, and didn't understand a word of what I was saying.

I'm married now and can work, although I know I'm not reaching my potential in work. I've progressed far enough people might just say about me "he is Mr Spock" and chuckle.

This all came flooding back to me because I had a son three years ago and he is barely verbal, I kept telling my wife he is just like I was and she would go well what WERE you? Researching it HOLY s**t! I was autistic as a child!

1: 1975. I never got diagnosed.
2: All my school years were nothing but misery. I didn't want to go at all and just wanted to stay home so I was always getting in trouble for truancy. I got bullied a lot. I had few if any friends. I was in many special classes and schools including going to school at a mental hospital and a reform school but I never got a diagnosis, at least not any that they told me or my mother about. I quit school at 16.

Ever since I've been pretty much just sitting at home since I don't want to work and don't think I could even get a job considering my lack of education, experience, transportation, and that I wouldn't be able to handle a job that involved interacting with customers all day. I don't drive and I only had 2 jobs ever. One lasted 2 weeks and one lasted 5 weeks. I never did a successful job interview.

I don't think that getting diagnosed now would do me any good unless I could get ssi from it. Until last year I didn't even have any insurance but I got Medicaid after getting diagnosed with cancer. Another problem with getting diagnosed is that I don't want to get back in "the system" like when I was a kid and I don't want to risk them potentially wanting to hospitalize me or medicate me. If I were to go to a psychologist I wouldn't even be able to talk honestly and openly with them so what is the point of even going.