No AS symptoms until age 11 1/2?

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I had almost no symptoms until that time aside from being obsessed with medicine and going through college medical books for hours. I met no other AS criteria. I started to get symptoms after a serious illness that tore through my body. I had uncontrollable shaking, high fever, diarreah and vomitting for one week. Interestingly enough, this was also the time my Celiac symptoms also began to show. Is there any explanation?

I don't have an explanation, but although my son had some early signs, they seemed to disappear gradually over time until he hit middle school and puberty. We suddenly found ourselves dealing with all the old sensory integration things again. That was the about the same age. As he progressed through middle school, his symptoms got worse and worse. We went back to the SI therapies and symptoms seemed to alleviate somewhat. I have students that have had similar experiences. The neuropsychiatrist told us that sometimes what were pretty minor symptoms are aggravated by puberty. All those hormones make minor annoyances offenses worth committing homocide for so to speak.

So, I don't have an answer, just saying that I've seen similar cases.

I feel hormones does have a part to play, my mother had a hormone in balance and I always have problems controlling my moods etc at the time of the month. My doctor has informed me, that I would already have the problem, but may worsen at monthly times because of hormones.

Also recent research shows results suggest current hormone abnormalities in women with AS and their mothers. Direct investigations of serum testosterone levels, and genetic susceptibility to high testosterone production or sensitivity in women with AS would illuminate the origin of these conditions, research on going, view current research:
http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/arc/default.asp

But saying all that I believe we are born on the autism spectrum or not, we are who we are.

Last edited by asplanet on 08 Jan 2008, 9:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I've only heard of one person who said he became AS at the age of 11, and it was because his mother told him that. But really he was before that, just not as obvious, and he was oblivious to his appearance, and his mother wanted to blame really badly an incident when he was 11, but it wasn't really the cause.

That was my point. All the people that I know that were diagnosed late were already on the spectrum, but just didn't have enough symptoms to add up until puberty hit.

I concur that my hormones have played a huge part in my symptoms. When I had cervical cancer 7 years ago and I started to go into menopause, I noticed that the change in my hormones then caused a worsening of some of my symptoms.

It you have other physical symptoms along with AS, it's possible you could have Lyme disease. Many people are bitten by tics (or possibly mosquitos?) without realizing it and get Lyme. One symptoms is "autism-like syndrome" It sometimes starts out as a flu-like illness with fever. The symptoms vary greatly from person to person. I thought I had it but I tested negative. Here's a link with more info:

http://www.ilads.org/PsychiatristBrochure.pdf

I agree with Zendell. This doesn't sound like any sort of ASD, regardless of the similarity of the symptoms.

As a child I had some obvious signs: I "lectured", talked too loudly and often over everyone else, couldn't summarize, ruminated on "convoluted" philosophical subjects, was clueless about social rules, spoke about odd things, was overly verbose, had attention shifting/focussing problems, etc. My mother was constantly embarrassed about my "acting crazy" and telling people I didn't know about my daydreams.

However, I seem to have been strongly hyperthymic throughout my childhood and almost always had that "everything is great" feeling. Because of this, it often seems like nothing whatsoever was wrong until I hit my mid teens. Then I suddenly turned from hyperactive to passive and phlegmatic (which, judging by what I've read, seems to be a fairly common turn of development in many ASD children) and, on top of everything, became depressed. It took me several years to climb out of the low. My adjustment and social skills certainly went downhill during that period, and I recall acting and feeling more weird than I had before.

By now I have regained at least some of that old exuberance, and during the "high" moments I tend to feel that everything is fine with me, and I must look perfectly conventional and ordinary (that is, until someone remarks on how odd I act).

I guess with me it's a matter of feeling wonderful subjectively, but at the same time seeming strange to others and failing to realize this.

Last edited by ixochiyo_yohuallan on 10 Jan 2008, 3:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

If symptoms of an ASD aren't seen in early childhood (maybe 5 at most), I'm betting that it's just puberty hitting home at an age like 11. Adolescents are naturally more keen on discovering their own interests and identity, so that sudden intense focus on medicine was probably the start of a preteen hobby. If you were really as old as 11 when you started feeling like an Aspie, I highly doubt it's even AS to begin with.

It might just be "Giftedness meets Puberty."

Hmm, and if nothing else, that could turn into an awesome B-rated movie.

I know a family where one kid was diagnosed with standard autism, the mother was diagnosed with AS, and one of her other sons didn't seem all that unusual, and she then describes him as "growing into" AS at around the age of 7. And he's very much so now. My guess is he was subtly different from the beginning as well, but not enough to be picked up on, for whatever reason. (Especially given how obviously genetic it was in that family.)

My social problem started abruptly at puberty. Before that I had many friends, was extremely popular yet had all the other AS symptoms I have today.

I only started feeling like an Aspie at age 12... at age 11 I had major emotional changes, got more depressed, at age 12 and 13 more contemplative, at age 11 that's when I really started with my obsessions; I had them all my life but never as intense as when I was 11 and into America's Most Wanted, and then the medical stuff when I was 12.