How did you find out about Aspergers?

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I had a lot of friends who pushed my awkwardness in my face. I didn't want to listen to it, even when my physician told me i had a PDD-NOS. It took me like 3 years to let that process, and then one day I saw a news-report on a bald guy with AS who killed his wife. They said crazy things about him like he would leave his house in a wig, and sometimes would dress like a woman so no one would recognize him when he was out, because of his rampant social disorder. I looked it up, and read thoroughly about it, and decided that this matches the life i've been living. I don't have it diagnosed yet, i sometimes i wonder if i ever will.

I was doing research on ADD and autism for my special ed class. I had gotten a copy of "Freaks, Geeks, and Asperger's". My son stole it away from me and came back a couple of hours later with the book. He threw the book at me and said "I wrote that book, Mom". I sat down and read it. I cried all the way through it because I found myself and my son. I remember feeling like a demented Disney movie. You know that one where the gray clouds part, the sun comes out and shines, the birds start singing, the animals all come out and smile and sing......I said to my SO "This is it, this is me and Kale".
Now that we have had my son diagnosed and I'm going through the diagnosis, we all understand it a lot better. It was like, "Oh my god. There's a name for this weirdity. This aloofness. This loneliness I carry around." It was such a relief to know that there was actually a real name for it. Amazing!
I thank what ever powers are higher than us every day for Luke Jackson because we never would have stumbled on AS without that book.

I first learned of Asperger Syndrome when I saw an episode of 60 Minutes: "When Jerry Met Mary".
Then a week later I got a call from my mother and she suggested that I might
find a support group for Autistic people at either Long Island Jewish Hospital or the Nassau County Medical center
(I was living in Elmont at the time,-1996). I did a bit of research online and elsewhere, then I gave the matter very
little thought... Last year I heard Temple Grandin give a speech on NPR's "This I Believe Program":
"Seeing in Beautiful, Precise Pictures"
That is when I started looking into Autism, through Wikipedia I found WrongPlanet and Aspies for Freedom and a few other forums.

I've always felt a huge difference, had great trouble connecting with humans, understanding them and their behaviors and motivations, felt I was something very different from everyone else. For most of my life I honestly thought I was unique in that respect; I did not have the experience or insight to really examine those differences with any deep introspection; I just sort of subconsciously accepted them, did my best to emulate humans, and went about my life...

Then my son arrives, and he turns out to be seriously autistic. He's 10 now, so I've had a decade to observe him. And while my son's mom is very keen on the notion that autism is caused my mercury in vaccines, I look at my son and see a lot of my strange alienness in him, just taken much farter to the extreme. For me, it is fairly easy to see the genetic link there. After a time, I began to suspect I might be "borderline autistic"; despite my difficulties, I've done fairly well with my life; I like overcoming challenges, and excelling with my difficulties was a challenge I attacked with much fervor. My son is towards the low end of the functionality scale; he babbles quite a bit, but his speech centers are badly scrambled; he doesn't really understand what you are saying, and much of what he says is nonsense or parroting; but otherwise he's healthy, happy, agile, and very intelligent (crafty I call it). It has been an interesting exercise to contrast the two of us. But because I've managed to do so well with my life, I didn't ponder too much on this "borderline autistic" notion; I just noticed it.

Then about a year or so, I had a very serious mental breakdown, mid-life Nicola Tesla style. Stress; I was overwhelmed and crushed by stress from every possible angle of my life; and though I love to battle challenges, we all have our limits; the breakdown was caused by me not knowing where my limits were, and pushing myself far past them for too long. So I took a year off to try to find myself. It was a messy experience; part of the problem was that my marriage kind of fell apart, and I was left alone to dwell in darkness for a while. But during that time, I spent a lot of time turning my high-powered beams of analysis and intuition inward, in ways I've never done before. I needed to understand myself better. For every strange behavior or inclination I had, I traced every conceivable thread of cause and effect and formed a detailed psychological map of my mental landscape. For example, I've always hated phones, but have had a hard time saying why. These days, after spending time analyzing this problem, I could write a research paper on why I hate phones, with detailed psychological backings. I may do that some day.

During this time, I also began looking around (via Wikipedia and other internet resources) for recognized mental conditions that might help me understand myself more fully, and also help me explain myself to others . And as you've already probably inferred, one of the things I discovered while researching in the autism realm was Asperger's Syndrome. And I have to tell you, the first time I read a detailed description of the condition, it described me so well I was utterly astonished. Kateyjane put it nicely, "Oh my god. There's a name for this weirdity. This aloofness. This loneliness I carry around." Suddenly that unique alienness became something that I might find in other humans, which lead me to the Wrong Planet. I do not know for sure if I have Asperger's Syndrome. I do not have all of the defined characteristics (nor do I believe one needs to have them all to have AS). For example, clumsiness? No; I am a creature of extra-ordinary grace, and I possess Jedi-like reflexes. But many other AS traits fit me so well. And obsessive stimming; I'm an obsessive stimmer; how can that be explained outside the framework of the autistic spectrum?

My son’s mom, who I was together with for 15 years, completely agrees with my assessment of having AS; and being the mother of a 10 year old autistic boy, she's picked up quite an expertise in the area of autism. She’s been privy to certain types of stimming that nobody else has, e.g. banging my head into my pillow repeatedly while laying in bed (which provides a stim relief similar to rocking).

There are some other mental conditions that might also explain bits and pieces of me, particularly those in the schizophrenia spectrum (Hey! Another “spectrum”!); and I am absolutely opposed to the notion that AS and schizotypal are mutually exclusive; I want that bit stricken from DSV-IV 299.80 about “The patient doesn't fulfill criteria for Schizophrenia…”. I also have a rare personality type, INTP/INTJ, which I believe probably has inherent personality issues. It’s all very complicated; but such is the human mind.

Good fortune,

- Icarus is quite a piece of work...

I had pretty known about autism ever since I saw Rain Man, just like everybody else. And just like everybody else, I had the same stereotype of autists as "idiot savants". I can remember, however, when I was reading the Wikipedia article for "Nerd", because, looking over my past life, that is how I pretty much defined myself, although I was reading the article to grasp what that word "nerd" or "geek" really was about. I wanted to know the essence of it, and not just rely on the slanted stereotypes that the world offered me. That particular time, as I was reading the article, I started snooping around and eventually found the page for Asperger Syndrome. (Anyone who has ever taken a Wikipedia link journey knows what I'm taking about). Anyway, I started reading the Aspie page and I'll tell you the truth: It nearly scared me to death. It was as if someone was spying on me and wrote an article about me. Deep and personal things that I had thought were just quirks and wierd things on my own part, were neatly laid there on the page. It was then that I had an epiphany: there was actualy a reason I was not "normal". From that day on I started to found out more about AS. I read books, websites, and whatever else I could find. And eventually, I found my way here.

I just want to thank everyone for sharing their stories on discovering this.
I've read everyone's replies and it's all extremely interesting how each of us came across it.

I knew there was something different about me, but didn't know about Asperger's until I read an article about it in the late 90's.

Years ago, I made a friend who told me she is an Aspie. So I looked it up to see what it was and the article was describing me.

My Dad told me I was.
(well he told my brother and sister actually, I knew I was weird)

I stumbled upon the word watching ReGenesis, and thinking, that Bob guy sucks at picking up girls just like I do, so I did a little research. It then became a kind of special interest, as I introduced Attwood's writings to my teachers and started a blog about it with a fellow Aspie co-editor (who happens to be my boss ^_^). Then I asked my shrink and she said it's true, I was dead on.
Getting dx'd with dyscalculia was pretty much the same, stumbled upon Degrassi:The Next Generation, then found a youtube source, then asked a professional, got tested, got acknowledged. Too bad it was late: if I'd known one year earlier, I wouldn't have to pass the graduation exam. (It still bugs me, and I angrily asked several 'authorized' people the question: "Did Tom Cruise have to go through all this too, dammit?!"
Well, you get the picture.

I was concerned about my weirdness & inability to fit in, and basically it got to the point at which I thought I was just going mad. So, I spent a lot of time in the library researching personality disorders. At first I thought I schizoidal, but didn't really fit all the criteria, though at first it was the best I could do with my symptoms. Finally I stumbled across an article on AS and it was like the light came on. The diagnostic criteria fitted me so closely that it could have been written about me. It was a real "hallelujah" moment.

My teachers in seventh grade suspected something, so I was evaluated and then diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.

Watched a programme about Temple Glandrin it had a brief description of AS i was not really paying attention to it, until they mentioned lack of eye contact, OCD.

I knew i had OCD but not AS, i was gob smacked and relieved at the same time.

Did more research found this website, got a diagnosis and the rest is history.

I was actually reading a fansite for the show CSI, and someone mentioned that they thought Grissom had AS. They went on to describe the symptoms, and I thought, "Wow, it sounds like they're describing me!!" So I started researching it on my own, and was later diagnosed.