Coming Out of The Closet With Autism/Asperger's Syndrome

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What has been the reaction of friends when you revealed that you were someone with Autism/Asperger's Syndrome and you had formerly kept it secret? If you came out, would you do it on a profile such as MySpace or on your personal website? If you could do it over again would you have kept it secret?

I tell anybody I can in whatever way I can shoe-horn it into a conversation.

Heh, I wouldn't take it back or keep it a secret. Better they know the truth than think me just some unspecified weirdo.

I've only told my mom and grandma so far about me possibly having it. They both believe me, but I haven't really discussed it much further with them.

My parents don't really believe me, as I should have guessed. Maybe it's some kind of rejecting reaction, since my dad has some of the traits I have. In this case, I hope I had never told them

To other people... I haven't told anyone face-to-face, but in an Internet profile. As a result, I dont know who of my "friends" know about my "condition" and who dont. If we were really close, we would of course discuss about it, I think

I'm undiagnosed but am pretty certain I have it. It's difficult to know though as I have been an 'unspecified weirdo' amongst NTs for so long it's hard to imagine I'm anything else So much oddness in my past has fallen into place since I've found WP, though.

I have mentioned my suspicions and online test results to my closest friend because I needed to think aloud with someone, but he was less than supportive and hasn't mentioned it since. I have also mentioned it on a music forum I frequent and it was received mostly with indifference. I did get a couple of really positive messages from people there who are also aspie.

Other than that, the only other people in the whole world who know are you guys.

I'm still mulling over the advantages/disadvantages of chasing a formal diagnosis and I'll only tell my family if I do get properly diagnosed. After all, it won't change anything but I doubt they'll understand and it may just worry them. If it ain't broke, don't fix it and all that.

They say, no you don't. Or try to *console* me that no I don't and we are all different. Meanwhile overlooking me or the facts altogether.

To which I just shut up, resigned that it is hopeless, and not having the desire to participate in such a he said she said sort of world.

I think arguement is a NT base quality.

I've noticed though that they tend to 'think on things' afterwards...

I've had some good experiences too. I think my job employs 80percent unidentified spectrum people, or rather 50/50 spectrum-bipolar.

I've even had one go out of their way to communicate with me within the bounds of reccomendated variables. It's been a good year.

The usual reaction is "Cool, tell me more about it."

The only people in real life who know me are my husband and mother. My husband thinks it's cool (aspergers is the funky internet dianosis of the month!) but my mother thinks the shrink who diagnosed me is imagining it. She said (at great length) that there was nothing abnormal about me when I was a small child, and that I was surrounded by a large number of extremely intelligent people who had experience of child-rearing and who would have noticed if there was anything wrong with me.

On the other hand, my mother completely failed to notice my profound depression at age five and a suicide attempt at age nine. So that possibly speaks volumes about whether she'd notice something as subtle as a lack of social skills. Especially since she is/was depressed and shy herself, and didn't think being a friendless loner incapable of smalltalk was anything unusual.

I have a friend who told me thought having asperger's was against her religion.

I tried to talk to my brother about it. I emailed him first about it. He looked on Wikipedia and read the entire entry; when we got together he said I must not have it because I am not interested in deep fryers.
This is a true story.

I would come straight out and tell them. At the very least, they should know what they're getting into if dealing with me. If I never told them, they might stop being friends with me in the worst way possible. If I at least tell them, it will help them decide whether or not they can accept me as a friend.

i'm still going to the psychologist to determine if i'm aspie or not. i really don't like this guy though, so if he told me i am, or even not, i'd probably still get a second opinion. i can relate so much that i'm more going for a diagnosis so that other people won't doubt me when i tell them. so yeah, i'll be "coming out" on red carpet eventually. so happy to find an actual starting point in my search for myself, not to mention finding a starting point for others to search for "me"...

I told my mother and she is in denial.
She said that if I ever had it, then it's gone.
just because I don't live with her anymore she thinks that I don't act weird anymore.
she missed the whole point.

Those close to me know. I wouldn't have any qualms about letting other people know if it came up in conversation or someone asked directly. I don't think I'd be as direct as to introduce myself: "Hi, I'm Whitbywoof and I'm AS" but if people were doing something that affected me adversely because of the AS, I would probably mention it in my request for them to modify that behaviour.

Lately, I find myself telling more people that I have it. I do get to know the people before I tell them I have AS, but compared to 5 years ago, I would only tell the people that I felt needed to know and not just the people who I wanted to tell.

In the beginning only my parents knew. But I noticed people saw that I saw different and just could not guess what was wrong. I told a few people and their reactions were great. Since then I learnt that being honest is the best way, after all we should not be ashamed of who we are. I am very open about my AS and tell everyone who wants to know.