Age and appearance of symptoms

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I read in Tony Attwood's book that for different people, AS symptoms become apparent at different times. For example, he says that in some people signs of having AS may appear (or become more apparent) around junior high, when social demands begin to increase (even though the condition itself was obviously present from birth). So I was just wondering how people here would describe the severity of their AS symptoms as related to age--were the symptoms more apparent in early childhood and then seemed to decrease in severity? Or have they always been fairly constant? Or did they become more severe in the early teenage years? Or something else?

I was 5 when it began to appear that I was different. By 9 I was in a "gifted & talented" school for socially challenged children. I graduated High School the same year that Asperger Syndrome became an "official" diagnosis so there was never any real opportunity for a diagnosis as a child.

I always had socialization issues. By my senior year of high school, I was so out of touch I wonder now how I even functioned.

For me it was apparent when I was a child and the symptoms decreased in severity since high school and are still decreasing, I feel pretty normal atm. It can only get better.

When I was a child and almost no one had even heard of Asperger's, I was usually happy and carefree, probably because I was allowed to be myself. But I had strange anxieties and eccentric behaviors that were believed to be just part of me being "an artist". I was outgoing and not shy at all, although I was usually happier playing alone than with other kids. I did well in every school subject except math, which literally terrified me, and phys. ed. But I was excellent at reading and was especially good at reading out loud. I used to get a lot of praise and support from my teachers. Then I entered junior high and everything just fell apart. My grades plummeted, I had virtually no friends. To make a long story short, my childhood was MURDERED.

I definitely had autistic traits from birth. Then they became more apparent than that when I learned to speak and then suddenly didn't again. And I think from then on they've mostly just become even more apparent over time in some ways, although possibly less in others. It's not a one-dimensional thing. Also it's hard to say what of everything is autistic traits and what isn't.

My mother told me my difficulty connecting with people became apparent when I was two. Back then there was no diagnosis of HFA or AS.

I'm a girl, and like many had issues but none of them were given much attention until middle school when I never grew out of them. I think I would have been dxed sooner if I were a boy. I seem to have more problems as I get older because it seems like I never grow up and the expectations get larger and larger.

Wow for me when I was a kid, I banged my head against the bed and was socially quiet in elementary school. Now im starting to improve socialization and behave like normal. So my traits my traits right now are far less severe.

When I was four the kindegarten teacher told my mother "She has autistic tendancies"

I can never remember actually EVER fitting in with other kids or knowing what to say around them, even my very earliest memories.

I wasn't diagnosed with anything until much later. My parents seemed in denial really. Cried about rubbish on my report cards about not associating with other kids.

This is the reason why I sometimes think I might not have Asperger's even though I have most of the other traits. I always had a few close friends (1 or 2) throughout my life. Also my Aspie-like eccentricities didn't appear until ~10 years old or so. Maybe it's a much milder form and my anxiety issues made it worse. I was socially inept from quite young though but I got through it most of the time but with a lot of discomfort. Overall, those traits have not improved much. My anxiety issues have improved quite a bit, though. But that may be due to the SSRI, I'm taking. It's hard to tell. The sensitivity issues/challenges may be worse. I can still hijack conversations with my obsessive interests, though. It drives those around me crazy.

I was a toddler. I wasn't interested in people. I Would wander. I had all the stereotyped behaviours too.

I had a friend when I was very young, he moved away. Had trouble making long term friends from the start. Even before my childhood got dysfunctional I had these obsessions. I was obsessed with states and state capitals, would check out books on states from the library, and ask people if they had been to such and such state incessantly. Another obsession was Garfield, later on computers. From the beginning, I also jumped around the house and yard almost everyday. When I was very young I did something my brother dubbs the "running dance" in front of the TV. I sometimes wonder how much was the aspergers and how much my dysfunctional childhood, but I definitely exhibited signs of aspergers before the latter.

In primary school (<age 11), I seemed fine but knew I was different due to a consistent belief that other people did not really exist (something I only understood recently to be called a ToM deficit).

In retrospect, a special interest at that time was humor and comic books, and I had memorized countless jokes and could get by simply by making people laugh using jokes and imitating comedians from TV.

In high school these things stopped being funny, socializing became more complex, and by age 15 I was so into computers the process of isolation was set in motion. The symptoms just kept getting worse since then (probably exacerbated by isolation and lack of NT role models to learn social behavior from). Now, age 27, I learned about AS due to an AQ test on Facebook.

My intelligence has always been really high. That was apparent at a very early age. I could speak fluent American (we Americans haven't spoken English in well over a century) at the age of twenty months, and I was doing fifth and sixth grade school work in the second grade. My uncle was an expert chess player, and he taught me how to play at around age four or five. I beat him in a game at the age of eight.

I used to rock myself to sleep as a very young child, but I don't remember any other Asperger's-related symptoms before I started attending school. My most obvious symptoms started manifesting themselves at around age six, and were fully developed by age seven or eight. In addition to AS, I had ADHD, ODD, PDD, and a few other acronyms, none of which were valid diagnoses while I was growing up. One school psychologist thought I might have autism, but since I didn't have the classic symptoms of Kanner's Syndrome, this wasn't seriously considered. Asperger's notes weren't translated into English until I was in high school, and Asperger's Syndrome became a diagnosis accepted in the English- and American-speaking world while I was in college. That was way too late to help me.

Many of my symptoms, especially the violent ones, began to disappear around the onset of puberty, but I was still very anti-social, and had a number of discipline problems. I didn't start getting As abd Bs regularly in school until I entered college. I tried enlisting in the Armed Forces, but I was drummed out after only six weeks due to lack of discipline. I lost several of my early jobs for the same reason. Today most of my issues have to do with social situations, and my ADHD, ODD, etc. is basically gone. - LJS