How did you find out?

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Hi. I am a newbie here and I think I just discovered something very important about myself: I have Aspergers. I haven't been diagnosed yet, but I have all the typical signs of a person with Aspergers. All my life (even though I'm only 14 ), I knew I was different. It's a funny story how I found out about Aspergers. I was just getting interested in a show called Community and I wanted to know more about the characters. So I went to Wikipedia to find more information about the characters. I was reading and reading and stopped when I read about one of the characters, Abed. It said that he is thought to have Aspergers. I didn't know what that was then so naturally I started reading about it. While reading, I discovered I had all the sighns of an Aspie. I told my mom about it and she said she'll get me diagnosed as soon as possible, but I know in my heart that I have Aspergers. I know now why I am not like everybody else. I just want to know how and when did you find out you had Aspergers and how did you react when you found out.

Well, to make my story short, my 3rd grade teacher thought I was weird and DX'd me, then I had an actually diagnosis from a psychologist.

My severe mental disorder, whatever it was, was obvious by the middle of my teens. I read about social anxiety and ADD, trying to learn what to call myself. I read a book about ADD that mentioned a relation between this disorder and autism, but I dismissed the suggestion because at the time I was totally ignorant of autism and thought it meant some kind of mental retardation. It wasn't until my late 20s that I started seeing a psychologist regularly. He and I both agreed that my symptoms didn't exactly match up with social anxiety disorder, and he brought up Asperger's casually one day. I started to research it on my own, and took two online tests, one of them claiming to have been designed by a psychologist. I scored 48 out of 50 on one and 198 out of 200 on another. I brought this up to my psychologist and we discussed Asperger's for months. I didn't know if I had been officially diagnosed or not, until he gave me a letter to give to any future psychologist, saying that I "definitely" have it.

I was at a bar with my friend, and we were initially half-joking about how we have traits from the spectrum while looking at the wiki on my phone, which led to me doing more research. For years I've known that I had a majority of the traits, but I always figured it was impossible for me to be on the spectrum because I don't lack affective empathy (ie sympathy). Because of the misleading "no empathy" characteristic, I didn't understand. Anyway, after the truth about the empathy aspect was explained to me by a psychotherapist, I realized I definitely have Aspergers.

I figured it out by just happening to read a book...I think the name was "Send in the Clowns". That led me to seeking a formal diagnosis.

Somehow I ended up seeing a psych person once at age 13 (I really don't know why), at which point she decided it was worth regularly seeing me but not my sister. She helped me figure out whether I should be going into 8th or 9th grade in the fall, then ended up saying that she didn't think she could help me anymore because she thought I had Asperger's and she didn't know how to work with people on the spectrum. She also at that point diagnosed me with social anxiety and recommended we find someone who worked with teenagers on the spectrum because she thought it wasn't worth pursuing a diagnosis for me.

Last year it was shown not pursuing a diagnosis was not going to work.
This July I was diagnosed.

I've found out by looking in that green metal box that my parents kept all of my records in. I kept it a secret until my mum told me three nights after my 15th Birthday.

I was 12 when I found out. Mom told me I had it and I didn't like it one bit. I felt I failed at being normal and I felt like a freak. I didn't like the fact I had something wrong with me.

Thesymptoms and traits certainly have been evident to me throughout my life, but I never really placed a term or label to them until, like you, I accidentally came upon Asperger's disorder. Before recently, I considered these traits quirks of my personality, and disadvantages that I could refine. A classmate of mine, who I talk to a lot, used to frequently tell me that I seemed to be "somewhat autistic" or socially in-adept. I just figured that it was just a part of my personality that made me seem as such and that I wasn't really autistic, and I never truly considered autism or Asperger's. I think this was the first time I played with the idea though. I never entertained it further, however. This was mostly because my ignorance based from the portrayal of the media in films that focus more on the savants who weren't exactly able to take care of themselves, put me off greatly. Now that I've read of the symptoms, it is almost as if I took parts of a a specific conclusion and merged them to form a universal description of myself, my thought process, and my capabilities and hindrances. I compare this clarity to my special interest - Physics. Throughout the history of physics, there have been field theories meant to unify what are believed to be fundamental forces or more accurately, interactions of nature. This occurred with the electrostatic forces and magnetism, then later with the electromagnetic and weak forces, and finally with a unified theory for the strong, weak, and electromagnetic forces. This has yet to occur with gravity though, and is probably the central issue for theoretical particle physicists of today. My point is, when these field theories are formed a more fundamental yet applicable theory is the end-product. This is how I felt when I learned of Asperger's syndrome. All aspects and difficulties I faced in life, as well as the things that make me uniquely and exceptionally advantageous to the world were described in one encompassing description, within one label. It is sort of a relief and a stress at the same time. A relief because I know for certain that my suspicions of the difference between me and other people in the world is inherent since my birth and that I have not been wrong with my self-assessment, a stress because it introduces the realization that goals of mine, such as becoming a more socially active individual and able to enjoy social situations more, will be much more difficult to achieve.

Currently, I am pursuing a professional diagnosis, immediately after I came to a self-realization, mostly because I want other people to be able to realize my hindrances, so that they can meet me halfway in forming successful relationships, as I know I can't do it solely myself. My mother for example, has yet to fully realize that my faults aren't just as easy to overcome as she may believe them to be for herself or any other NT, and I don't think she will know the weight my disabilities until I am professionally diagnosed. I think a lot of people underestimate the difficulty of living with autism or even mild Asperger's, and a professional diagnosis seems to make the credibility and reality of the disorders much more definite in their minds. Furthermore, while I know that I most likely will be diagnosed - I'm unsure of the specifics of my diagnosis. I know what traits I have, but only if I look very deep for them. Sometimes they can pass without me noticing, but to an NT they are quite obvious. I think having a psychologist identify these for me will help me better myself by learning how to control or fix them when it is necessary for successful social interaction.

I always knew there was something very "wrong" with me, but was afraid to find out precisely what. Massive fear of doctors, esp psychiatrists on account of how they wrecked my mom.

A couple years ago I found out that my brother's kids have AS and classic Autism. Didn't know much about it except for reading some fragments from Temple Grandin's "Animals in Translation." I started researching it, and it was like having someone describe my life to me. I felt like a cliche all of a sudden, like I'm not a unique and weird person. I told a friend (ex-gf, the one with the Grandin book) and she said "I know, I've been telling people you have Asperger's for years." Everyone except me, that is.

Would like to get an official Dx, but having trouble with the Gov't assistance health care. I move around too much right now to be able to wait 6 months for a psych eval appt. Get really intimidated with paperwork and "red tape," so am having a hard time just setting up an appt.

I was talking about philosophy with my friend (2 years ago) and I came to the theory that we all might be ret*d and didn't know it. Later that day, a councilor told me that my friend has aspergers and I shouldn't talk about that stuff in front of her. I felt sad and started reading about it. Weeks later I asked my mum and she said "I thought you knew, you've been diagnosed for 5 years since you were 8" (I was 13 when I asked) I then became a bit paranoid because I didn't know if my teachers/ friends or even my school knew. I didnt care about the diagnosis, it didn't change anything about me.

Always known I was different. One day I was on another web board when a "post your Aspie score" thread came up. I'd heard of Asperger's before, but never thought much of it. I scored in the top 90% on the test and kept finding myself remembering specific samples from my childhood of the questions they were referring to. So then I took another and scored near 90% on that one too. So I came here and found I wasn't a freak. Which is a very good feeling indeed.

I found Out when I was 16. I had been diagnosed at eleven but I was not informed until 16.
Before the age of 16 I just thought that I was weird and everybody hated me.
When people ask me when I was diagnosed I tell them 16 because I did not know before then.

Like the OP, I saw a character in a TV show (Skins, UK) who had Asperger's and noticed I did a lot things that he did, so read up on it and now have a formal diagnosis.

Hey. Im 21 and I found out i may have AS from my 2 best friends who also have AS. one's a guy diagnosed as a child and ones a girl who's sister is diagnosed with Autism.
I am waiting for my diagnosis. My friends suggested to me both on the same day (they dont know eachother but oen told me and i told the other n the other agreed).
So ive looked more n more into it and yes i do fit.
I now know some of my childhood friends have AS and have met more people with AS recently, online and in person. Remember Aspies are AWSOME!!
Also Sheldon Couper off Big Bang Theory is thought to have Aspergers.

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First time I heard about it my mum insisted I look it up while I was researching dyslexia, which I thought I had. I was 22 and I was noticing my speech problems, but I denied I was on the autism spectrum because I thought as long as I hung out with people, even if I didn't speak, I was social.
Then after a really awkward first relationship where I realised I just couldn't talk very much to my boyfriend, especially about relationship issues, or his friends who I so desperately wanted to, and I kept seeing Asperger's brought up on Yahoo Answers so I asked them if I had AS, after I researched it for hours and wrote a very long post about my apparent symptoms.

The diagnosis(es) took even longer. I was seeing a psychologist about social anxiety so when I asked her to test me for AS she basically looked back through four months of notes, had one session where she asked me about my symptoms and got my mum to answer some questions. But it wasn't official until a psychiatrist diagnosed me. It took another 6 months to get an appointment and he diagnosed me at our first session. He even diagnosed me with ADHD and I still see him, because he handles my prescriptions.

Just a warning: There are a lot of disorders that look like AS so make sure you do some thorough research. I really related to dyslexia, actually I cried when I first read the symptoms. But I don't have it. My issues are ADHD and I'm a very textbook autism case. I've done about three years of research and it's something so obvious to me now. But I have thought I've had many disorders similar to AS; Bipolar, dyspraxia, Auditory processing disorder, avoidant personality disorder, sensory integration disorder, etc. I do have extreme sensory issues but most of that is autism.