what was your reaction after hearing the diagnosis

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for me, i always felt different but could never explain it. After my dad said "emily, you have something called Aspergers syndrome, like Einstein, its a type of autism" and all i said after was "its called ASPERGER?! damn-et......" but i also wasn't surprised, neither was my aunts and mom. what was your reaction?

i found the report papers of my diagnosis , I was happy id finally found why I was so different .

My reaction at age 42 or so, when I found out, was "WOW; all these years, and this explains it!! !! !" .

Definitely a positive development; not in any way condemning or depressing. It was as if I could re-examine my whole life, like rewinding a movie that had the sound track missing or very garbled, and replaying it with crystal-clear sound and captions to re-explain every scene.

Charles

"Yay I'm not broken"

I broke down crying, pleading with the therapist that told me to believe that I wasn't violent, or sociopathic, or "just plain evil." To believe that even though I might be subhuman, I still had some personhood and dignity. Swearing that I'd be good, I'd do anything they wanted, if they would just please please please please not make me go back on the risperidone.

Shrink: "Have you ever heard of Aspergers Syndrome?

Me: "Yeah. It's when middle-class white boys who are really good at math can't make friends.

I was wrong, BTW.

My reaction was sort of blank I guess. It felt weird knowing I really "had" something, but I was glad that it had a name.

I was nine at the time.

"Ashboogers?"

Or something like that.

I was relieved as I finally had an explanation for the way I've been my whole life. I mentioned before that when I told a therapist who saw me as a child and teenager, she said that I probably had it, and that if they had known about Asperger's when I was growing up, I would have been diagnosed earlier. The thing was that only low functioning males were diagnosed with autism when I was growing up, even as late as the mid 90's.

I felt like a freak and abnormal. It just told me I wasn't normal and I never will be. It was like a death sentence for me. I just wanted to prove I didn't have it. I was 12 when diagnosed and that is an age where lot of kids wants to be normal and be like everyone else. Maybe sooner than that or later may have made a huge difference. I may have been like "meh" as a young child and maybe in my late teens or as an adult I probably would have been like "Oh that explains why I was so different growing up and why being normal was so hard and why I failed at it" and move on.

I wasn't fazed.

I didn't react at all, ha. They had two psychologists in this little room, discussing the results of the assessment with me and when they told me, I just sat there, blankly and after a few seconds they asked ,'so...how does that make you feel?' I didn't know how to answer. I mean, deep down, I was relieved that I wouldn't have to tell the people who'd driven me to my appointments that I'd wasted their time and also, glad I could give family members who'd dealt with all my idiosyncrasies, some sort of explanation. To be honest, I've still barely accepted the diagnosis, but here I am anyway.

I was sort of relieved when I found out. To me,it meant that I could give a name to my problems and know that I wasn't just a messed up teenager making a fuss about feeling down and isolated. When I researched it , it all made sense .

I felt nothing when my parents told me I had Asperger's.

Like several above posters my reaction was positive and happy.

Like finding a missing piece in a puzzle.

But I was over fifty so I also was a bit angry that no one told me this back when I was 12, or 30, or whatever.