How did you find out about having Autism/Asperger's?

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My parents told me that I had Asperger's and Tourette's Syndrome at about the age of 8 after I had asked why I sometimes "can't help but bang my head against an invisible wall" and why it felt like worms crawling under my skin all the time. They told me all those tests I recieved in Pre-School and Kindergarten (along with visits to a Neurologist, all of which I remember) were to determine what exactly I have. The Neurologist had found that I have AS, TS, and ADHD. Up to that point the only problem I knew I had was a lack of high frequency hearing.

I have a biological clock ticking inside me that gives me a depression every year when the light outside goes to darkness. I'ts been going on I now realize, since pre-scool. The short period between the rainy dark season and until the snow arrives, always have made me depressed, with a feeling of hopelessness. I also have suicidical thoughts during that period, but I learned very easy to brush them off. I've spooked my current therapeut with that so much she at our first meeting she got one doctor and one other person into the room. She's quite astonished that when I can't show up, I at least have the courtesy of leaving a message explaining why.

The diagnose never existed when I grew up, it came to psychologists knowledge when I was 20+....

Since I've been working with a child psychology team, due to two kids with severe ADHD, and they started to medicate against that, the other part of their disability showed up, Asperger. Which was quickly diagnosed with precision. During that time, the psychologist took a couple of screening questions on me too, and she immediately suspected that I have asperger too. And so does my Ex, after taking parental guidance classes and met other parents with Asperger diagnose among relatives both kids and adults.

Life sucks some times, but then you go either in a algorithm creation spray, or fishing.

I'm 36. My ex have to call me to remind me of taking a shower, and without Excel I've been dead by starving, but is a multitalented highly respected computer engineer and sales person that has no problem in jumping into emulation mode for socialy accepted rules, but I swear they drain you those emulations.. Weird.

I always knew there was something different about me, I just didn't know what it was. I work in a group home taking care of disabled adults, and about 6 years ago (at age 24) I was looking after an autistic man. The similarities between us blew me away - he was like a lower-functioning/more autistic version of me. There was a lot of general info on autism in his apartment (for the staff to read), including stuff on AS/HFA. It was a perfect fit - finally, an explanation for all my weirdness.

since you a seem to know can anybody help me? i dunno.

I still have 2 year old tantrums, the doctor said this is because of asynchronous development.

Meaning I'm far advanced for my age in some ways (cognition) but in terms of emotions I'm still a baby.

However I've managed to work out how to regulate these explosions through lots of solitary time and one supportive person in my life.

Highly obsessive about trees, thats beautiful to me!

Personally as a kid I was obsessed with dinosaurs, then technology, then it became sound in my early teens.

I have not been officially diagnosed, waiting for an appointment. I have most of the characteristics of AS the only iffy one is the fact I can tell what kind of mood someones in, in fact I'm probably too perceptive. As a child I had frequent tantrums that continued into adolescence. Oversensitive to light, clothing, noise. I was obsessive, controlling and had problems socialising. I have always felt like I did not belong. In my teens I developed severe panic attacks and depression. Over the last two years I have been diagnosed with developmental delay, ADHD and sensory integration dysfunction.

a strange man came to me one night and handed me envelope. he told me to show no one this unless they give me a packet of lifesaver gummies. the man then dissaperared into shadows...well first he ran into a wall and then he ran off into the shadows.

I served in the military in Singapore and I was told by a young doctor there that I might be autistic. I asked him if there was anything I could do to fix the problem and he said that there was nothing that could be done. So I brushed off the “diagnosis” and went on to try and live my life. That was 1995, just a year after DSM IV came out. In 1997, I had a chance meeting with two young autistic boys (Kanner’s Type) and saw something in them that reminded me of myself. I had by then forgotten the 10 minute conversation that I had with that earnest young doctor in 1995. But yet again I brushed it off.

After nearly a decade of dramatic job failures, I rediscovered what Asperger’s Syndrome was while surfing the net. Just a brief reading of the online literature illuminated a great deal. Like many Aspies, I knew immediately that the description of the condition fit me to the tee. I have never been diagnosed and at 33 going on 34, it does not make a whole lot of sense to get a diagnosis, especially when there is no cure or any meaningful interventions.

It helps to know that I am autistic but it can also be of very little practical use as my social milieu does not accept my autism. As with most Aspies, I am not regarded as autistic; just someone with behavioral problems who must be put in his place. Even as I embrace my autism, I find that society continues to beat me up. But at least now I know why it happens.

I'd been reading about Einstein on Wikipedia earlier this year and followed a link to Aspegers out of curiosity.It rang so many bells that I bought Tony Attwood's book and was left in no doubt that I have AS myself. Always knew I was different since childhood but at the age of 47 I'm not pursuing an official diagnosis. I'm still coming to terms
with AS but I'm happy to have discovered it as well as Wrong Planet.

I have comorbid OCD, so while I was in CBT this past February, my therapist realized that I wasn't making progress and that something else seemed to be going on. She asked me if I had ever considered Asperger's. I said that I had. When I was researching OCD (I discovered pure obsessional OCD-what I have- on the Internet and self-diagnosed myself) and still wondering if that's what I had before I got the official diagnosis, I came across Asperger's, but I had only read a few basic articles on it and they had all just focused on the social deficits. I don't have severe social deficits. The only thing I really saw in me was the obsessive fixations, which defines my Asperger's, because in these articles you had to be these totally socially awkward people with a monotone voice to have Asperger's. My therapist read the DSM criteria and I did fit the diagnosis, but it was sketchy to me and I didn't believe it, so she called her friend who is an Asperger's therapist (and now my new therapist) and started telling her all of my problems. Everything she said, the Asperger's therapist would say, "Yup, that's Asperger's." Things like not being able to talk on the phone, things that basic articles don't ever talk about. I still had my doubts, but then I began to read books about it and it was so painfully obvious. The more minute details I read, the more I realize how much of an Aspie I am. I still was worrying about the social aspect of it because I just hate people in general. I have a group of intellectual friends, but I don't need the interaction. I have fun with them, but I'd much rather be by myself. Then I read one thing that said there's three types of Aspies: those who desperately want friends but don't know how to make/keep them, those who don't have friends and don't care, and those who have friends, but are, like, "Hello, friend- now, go away." I'm the last type. I think my OCD makes me a lot nicer to people than I would be without it, since I always worry about hurting other peoples' feelings. And, like Fresco said, I can usually tell what type of mood somebody's in by their tone, but that's because I overanalyze everything, worrying that they may be mad at me. Plus, I have always had an innate, almost echolalic ability to mimic intonation, so this may come into play. However, it's a spectrum, so every Aspie doesn't have every symptom and I am 19, so I may have been more socially clueless as a child. Anyway, to make a long story short, which is often hard for my Aspie ramblings, I went to this new therapist and got an official diagnosis this September. I had already accepted that I had it, but it was nice to hear from a professional that it was "extremely obvious." There was always some doubt and guilt that I said I had something that I didn't. I went through the same thing with the OCD, the irony being, of course, that the doubt is, in itself, OCD.
-OddDuckNash99-