I came here looking for some short help on this subject, since it's something that has been bothering me for quite some time now.
Some back ground info on me first. I'm a Paraguayan, which means I live in Paraguay, a country in South America. I'm currently 29 years old and have "recently" (more like a few years ago) learned that when I was a child, a psychologist at my preschool diagnosed me with autism. The first time I heard this was probably 8 years ago, but I didn't really pay attention to it since it was my sister who told me about it as a funny story (her psychology teacher in high school had been the same psychologist who diagnosed me and told her class about it since they were studying about autism). I asked my mom back then if she knew anything about it but all she told me was that the school principal had called her one day to talk about me (back when I was in preschool) and told her that I had a very vivid imagination and a huge internal world in which I spent a lot of time and got lost into (her words, not mine). In any case, like a year ago some of my friends got married and invited me to their wedding, and as it turns out, the bride's mother had been one of my teachers in preschool and primary, and had invited that same psychologist to the wedding (since they were high school classmates and friends...Paraguay is a small country). When I went over to say hi, this psychologist asked me a few questions about how I was doing, and about my kid (I have a kid who's turning 2 in a week). I learned there, after asking her about the story, that I had been diagnosed by her with autism, and that she and the teachers had said to the principal that I needed special education and had to leave the school, or else I would interfere with the classes for the other kids (in Paraguay it is possible for you to go to preschool primary and high school in one same school, which was my case). But this one teacher (the mom's bride) and a couple others said that I should stay in school since my autism levels weren't high enough to warrant kicking me out, and said that if God had taken me to that school, it was for a reason (my school was Anglican). So, they principal had called my mom and told her that, and that she needed to work with me. Ever since I learned that I've been really thinking about it, about what it meant, and how it affected my life. I began reading about it and learned about the different spectrum of autism, specially Asperger's, and when I read about it many of the symptoms, but not all, really fit in with how I am.
So, I've been possibly living my entire life with an "undiagnosed" Asperger's, and every time I tell anyone about it, be it my mom, sister or wife, they just shrug it off and say that don't have anything, it's just things I imagine and that if I can't socialize well it's because I don't try hard enough. I also talked about it with some Psychology major friends I have and they all said that if I had a condition, I clearly overcame it, since a condition is not really a problem, or condition per se, unless it interferes with you leading a normal life, which in my case has clearly not happened. Yet, I feel that I need to know, if anything, for peace of mind itself, if I have something or not, since it would explain so many things about me and my life. I have though about going to a real psychologist now, but I'm a bit hesitant on whether I should or not (one being for the cost it will have, and two being that I'm not sure whether it'll be worth it or not).
Any ideas, thought or anything? Is there a way I can know before going to a psychologist whether I have it or not or, I don't know...anything?
Thanks.
10 Aug 2011, 2:17 pm
