When and how?

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When did you find out about your autism or AS and how? I found out about it by watching the House season 3 episode 'Lines in the sand' and about 2 and a half months ago around just after Easter. What about you lot?

There are three answers to this question:

1. My parents found out about it when I was about three years old and showed delays in language development. I was diagnosed with "autistic features" and I think that's been the full extent of my diagnosis, to date. Nevertheless I went to Giant Steps in Montréal and my parents had a Hell of a time getting me into elementary school in Canada. Yet I was totally unaware of the drama behind all of this and probably felt that all the special classes and therapy that the Giant Steps kids were going through were things that all kids went through.

2. I found out about it when I was about six or seven years old. I found a bunch of papers in my mother's office written about me, which made me frightened and upset. I confronted her about them and she explained to me that people thought there was something seriously wrong with me and I couldn't go to school, but they were wrong. It was a nice way to skirt around the substance of the diagnosis, but it was still true and probably the best thing she could have said at the time.

3. In the mid-nineties, when I was about ten years old, professionals started talking more widely and seriously about "Asperger's Syndrome". My mother informed me of this and suggested that I might have it, and I immediately agreed because it matched the story of my life up to that point.

So there you have it.

I work with an ADHD person who is married to an Aspie. I started thinking that maybe I have ADHD too, based on stuff that was happening to me and things she described about herself, so I secretly went to see a psychiatrist. I was diagnosed with ADHD and to my total surprise, Asperger's Syndrome.

That was a few months ago, when I was 43.

I am no longer surprised. I totally feel like an Aspie, and I feel at home at WP.

Well I was 16 and I was reading the TV magizine and I noticed a documentry about autism was on (neurology and biology are my interests lol) Ut was actually Luke Jackson's my family and autism and at the time I knew I was significantly differet to my peers I had little or no friendships I was often aloof and I wuld spend most o my time alone and with my interests.

So I watched this documentry with fascination and as soon as it finished I did some research because I was like OH MY GOD that explains me so much I thought I was just weird at the time but after that program finished I was like oh my I immediately accepted it after of course doing research and collecting data about myself and then I matched myself with the DSM of course and looked at other little snippets and from then on even though I have never had diagnosis but I am now after waning closure, I say I'm aspergic/ autistic and people accep it and the savvy ones certainly notice why I say it.

sounds jaded I know but as soon then I knew what an who I am and the ieces fell together

About two years ago. Reader's Digest replied to a letter, suggesting that not liking your foods to touch might be an ASD.

After yet another embarrassing incident, someone referred to me as "socially awkward."

I asked online at another forum about "a friend" using details from common incidents in my life.

Someone said it sounded like Asperger Syndrome.

I looked it up and began reading.

I found out when I was 20. I had to take a lot of tests and talk to a lot of psychiatrists when I was a kid, and when I was 20, my mom told me what they had been for, and what they'd found out. (I didn't really question them when I was a kid, it just seemed like another thing, like school or the dentist.)

My sister was diagnosed with autism at 3 years old. My parents read up on it and I guess they felt I was as well. I was having trouble in school and my mother brought it up to me. She even printed things out on it. But I wasn't really all that aware of being socially inferior at the time. And everything I read was horribly stereotyped so I didn't think I had it "I don't like trains or numbers!". Anyway I didn't identify with it at all. My mother was telling teachers who had a problem with me without me knowing it. I wonder if that's why I lasted so long in school.

Anyway, when I had to go to a new school without me knowing it my mother did the same thing at the first interview printed out information and everything. So the teachers, after dealing with me for awhile, thought I needed on medication so they convinced me that everything would be better on it and then they put me in a closed off room and told my mother but then she got there and got me out and took me out of the school.

School evaluated me after that.

I am 29 now, and just found out earlier this year.

Before this year, I hadn't heard of it. My wife did the research and figured it out over time.

I can't figure out how I went this long, while others seem to get diagnosed/caught at an early age. The material out there is heavily directed at parents and children, which has been frustrating as I apparently grew up in an ignorant environment.

I always felt harassed by teachers and peers growing up, looking back, they obviously had no idea. I had even been going to a few shrinks around 16-17 and none of them caught this either.

We have some friends of the family whose kids were diagnosed with PDD-NOS last year. When my wife described the symptoms to me, I said, "Oh, that doesn't sound like anything to worry about. I was a lot like that when I was their age." There was sort of a pregnant pause, and then a, "Um... honey?"

So I set about to read about it on Wikipedia, and that brought me here.

I first heard the term "Asperger's Syndrome" around 1990, when I was living in Belgium (in the US Army.) Thought I shared a lot of the characteristics - but didn't explore any further.

About the time of my 50th birthday (September 2008), I happened to be reading a book titled "Loneliness" by John Cacioppo - it used the term "socially disconnected" which resonated with me. I googled it & came up with "Asperger's Syndrome."

I started reading about AS, identified with it - and finally HAD to have the answer. In late February 2009, I was diagnosed.

I was a very unhappy child; I didn't know how to be with people and was literally paralyzed with shyness. I couldn't look people in the eye. When I was a baby I never cried for attention, only if I was hungry or needed my diaper changed. I mumbled and spent my life looking at my shoes. I was afraid of everything and had nightmares on a regular basis. I was hypersensitive- you couldn't look at me the right way. I took even friendly teasing seriously because of course they were right because I thought I was such a piece of s**t. I was always spaced out and in my own little world. I was aware that everyone knew something that I didn't but I didn't know what it was. I was in play therapy in primary school and again in high school. I found out recently that in high school I was tentatively diagnosed with Schizoid Disorder (This was in the 70's).
Spent my entire young adulthood in a depressed alcoholic haze.
Got pregnant-had the baby-My son was diagnosed with Asperger's at age 5, although technically he fits the profile of HFA better as he had a significant language delay and his performance scores are always much higher than his verbal. As he got older it became apparent how much he was like me. He experiences life in a very similar way. I started reading and thought I saw myself, depending on the interpretation, saw myself in Attwood's discovery criteria and then finally when I came to WP I saw again and again how so many of the quirks I thought were just my own were shared by people here. I always figured there was a deep psychological reason I had suppressed why I didn't like it when people touched me, or that sense of unbalance you get when you look someone in the eye or the panic you feel when someone yells at you. So yeah, I'm self diagnosed. Happy to be here.

I heard about AS for the very first time in 1999 when my mum told me that my cousin (who today is my best friend) have the diagnosis. I asked her to describe what it was and felt it fits me perfectly too.
I started digging the internet and was determined to get my own diagnosis the more I read about it. Less than a year later i august 2000 I got my own formal diagnosis. I was 25 years old by then

I thought I had dyslexia because I had difficulty reading. I was constantly looking up information on it and my mum said I should look up autism too. I thought she was mad. I looked up autism anyway, found out about Aseprger's but still thought dyslexia was what I had.
I had a relationship that started off good but my AS symptoms, especially my social awkwardness were too much for my boyfriend to deal with.
The psychologist that was testing me for dyslexia said I had severe depression; that just turned my world completely upside down. I started to see another psychologist who thought that I was more likely to have social anxiety.
I would go to Yahoo Answers and Asperger's just kept on popping up so I finally asked people at Yahoo Answers if I had Asperger's and I got directed to spectrumites.com. While posting there for a few weeks I went through the diagnosis process.
This all happened last year.

I thought I had social anxiety too. I read about mind blindness and other things. Often this word "Asperger's" would be there. But the descriptions of people with Asperger's didnt fit me. I didnt collect toasters. It wasnt until I saw this video Documentary about Asperger's Syndrome that could be me. He doesnt jump out as a hand flapping, camera model number reciting, brown belt/black shoes weirdo.

The other thing was that people on this site were "self diagnosing". Why were they doing that? Is that allowed? Shouldnt the doctor tell me? It finally dawned on me that this is a blind spot for many doctors and people have been forced to self-diagnose. (My psych did casually agree to Asperger's or PDD-NOS when I suggested it) Silly me expected him to tell me. Looking back I may have been in denial for a little while, I cant remember exactly but it took me some time to accept my self-diagnosis.

I suspect the internet is the key to the wider recognition of Asperger's.

my freshman year i think 2006 and from this teacher she said some student had it behind her back cuz she was weird.
i didnt think much of it later until i did a internet search a year ago.