How long has it been......?

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Since you found out that you're an aspie? What was your reaction to it?

I'm still here, just so all you long timers here don't think I've abandoned this place, I read the forums as much as I can given my busy life I have now, but I don't really post too much anymore.

Anyways, in roughly 7 hours from now will mark four years to the minute that I realized I has aspergers. 14 months later I would have my official DX.

So I've had four years now to reflect on all of this. On this day four years ago I was in between colleges and I was planning on getting new tires for the vehicle. I was down at the tire center waiting for the tech to do his thing and I was reading the local paper from the day before and I caught mention of the words "aspergers" and "autism" in an article along with pictures of smiling kids. "Dang!" I thought, "That don't make sense, I'll have to look this up when I get home".

So I did just that, the first site I ran across was the OASIS site and when I read the following....

I realized that this was me. I damn near went into shock and I had to turn off the computer and lay down on the bed to regain my composure and sort out all the thoughts racing through my head. I had been self aware of my difference from others since I was 3 years old, but was never able to put a finger on exactly why, nor was I expecting to come across the answer in the way I did.

Had all this not happened four years ago, I don't think I'd be where I am today. Before then, I felt like I was living in vacuum, and as I got older, that vacuum kept getting stronger. I seriously believe I would have killed myself had I not found out.

But instead I find myself today having moved 1100 miles after graduating college to take a professional job in a professional field and I'm loving almost every minute of it.

Finding out I had apsergers was a moment that changed me profoundly. June 2004 will always stand out as a time of reckoning for me. I went on a month long frenzy of soaking up as much information as I could about aspergers and using it to reflect back on my own life, and by the end of the month, for the first time in my life I was able to understand who I was a person.

4 weeks or so. although i have no offical dx - it is something i am considering



mixed. its early days but its been a roller coaster of thoughts so far. on the positive side the best response is, enlightening. on the negative side: depressing.

pretty much my joining date, so about half a year or so. No 'official diagnosis', but there's reasons for that.

About a year and a half since I learned about AS, four months or so since my DX. I didn't care if I had it or not until I started experiencing severe depression that wouldn't go away.

What an interesting story!
I discovered about a decade ago, but I was so busy with the children including the one with autism plus and the one with fetal alchohol effect (her birth mother did it, not me, I just got to live with the enfuriating results) that I did not start to work out the implications until about a year and a half ago. It's interesting the ones that believe me, the ones that don't, and the ones who think it's terrible that I would say anything so negative about myself when I think I am simply acknowledging reality and don't think asperger's is such an awful thing. Inconvenient and uncomfortable, yes, but not awful. Finally, my kids know why I was the weird mom and why I could never recognize their friends.

I guess it has been close to 3 years, and only so adamant for about 2 years or so. BTW I was SHOCKED! I never knew so much was almost programmed in from birth!

The existence of AS as something that described me with uncanny accuracy was brought to my attention about the same time as you, actually, by others close to me. It was only about six months ago that I found myself in a position to be professionally DX'd and began to seriously obsess on learning about all aspects of it. And the uncanny accuracy continues...

It's been about a year now. I had a job then, and I was wondering how the heck everyone there was so good at multitasking when it gave me panic attacks. I thought girls were supposed to be the ones who were good at that kind of thing. Everything there was loud machines, and I had to turn my music up even louder to compensate...and some days I just couldn't handle all the noise, I'd just put earplugs in. I was injuring myself constantly (unintentionally), and getting scolded for doing things my own way instead of the way they wanted.

Then I found an article in Reader's Digest. You can read that story here: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp1371684.html

It's funny, it's been that long, and I still find new things about myself. Just yesterday, I was incredibly sleep deprived, and I found myself being about four times as autistic as usual...sensory overload up the wazoo >_< Nothing in particular, just weird little things, like keeping an empty pop bottle up to my face for a while. I guess it's just kind of funny the things you think of as being normal, other people would call unusual...I hope they figured it was just because I was tired

I was told I have it 5 years ago and I looked it up online and thought "That's me." I was officially diagnosed 4 years ago.

About 4 months but I have known for a long time that I am different.

I learned about Asperger's Syndrome about 18 months ago. I immediately identified. It has alternately terrified me and comforted me. Terrified me because I realized that all my self denial, my 'not knowing any better' had left me vulnerable for all those folks that knew something was up with me. Terrified that I had been the socially ret*d bozo that tromped through my life like the veritable 'bull in the china shop' my parents called me as a child.
Comforted me that I was not some sort of monster stomping through other people's tender feelings and that other's would always let my friendship go by the board, some pointedly, some with sorrow. . . but let go they did let it go. I realized that many of the problem and issues I had had in my life were not a moral flaw, but simply a different mind than other's had.

I have made many adjustments in my life since self identifying. My work habits have improved as I have pushed my talents of concentration and acting to the fore, I have received over 10% increase in my salary as my company realized their good fortune in having me as an employee. I have learned to just FORGET in depth socializing with my peers at work, to keep my own council and live my 'real life' at home. As for the future (always a tricky subject) I find myself writing my memoirs, and I thank WP for that. And of course, I thank WP for finding all of you!

I have a series of psychologists evaluations scheduled for this month. I figured if I got the final DX I could get a Medical Alert Bracelet so I don't have to be quite so inconvenienced in meltdown by having to 'be there' for other people to assimilate what is going on and making it OK for THEM all the time. I can point to my bracelet and they can see I am being responsible for my condition and they can just do that empathy thing NTs do so well.

Merle

I was first DX'ed in the mid 1980's however I was never told about it till I was about 11 by mom and dad. I was being mainstreamed in 5th grade (1993-1994) and thats when they spilled the beans.

I didnt fully understand the ramifications of what they were telling me until I became an adult.

I think its been about 4 years since I realized I had Aspergers and something like 3.5 yrs since my first diagnosis. My third diagnosis was only 7 months ago though.

I guess it never really shocked me that much when I found out I had Aspergers. I always knew I was a weird little bird. So all it was to me was a name for something I already knew was wrong with me. I still see myself as the same weirdo I always have been.

I don't think I realized until very recently that sometimes the experts no matter how much I despise them are right. Like when I was told by my psychologist that it harmed me to be around others with AS. As much as I hate her I have to admit now I see how she is right that who I surround myself with affects how badly AS I behave or appear.

I got my diagnosis or as you seem to say here my dx a few years back. The most noticeable difference is that i have been more focused on learning to decode other people body languages and where it is not possible at least be aware that they do exist and that people might get offended if they don't get their expected responses, when i was told around 15 year of age i was baffled to the concept that people could transfer so much information with body languages and i never noticed any of it. How much problems this have caused i cannot know as i have no way of putting myself in a situation of somebody not me. there is many other things as well as obsessions and my hate for school and my inability to do something i do not find meaningful, lack of means to transfer emotions so now i have learned to try to "tone down" because it can be very frustrating to have all emotions read from you and to be manipulated because of it. However happiness i often cannot mask and it can be a little silly sometimes, and it somehow for me feels embarrassing to have my emotions red. The worst thing in my opinion is that people generally do not tell me if they expect a certain behavior or signal in response that way i will never learn that particular code. And instead is seen as odd or even hostile and i will never know.

They gave me a medicine for a while called Risperdal but it did not work for me as it removed all my energy, so now i do not use any drugs, people always said i was better/improvements with that medicine to bad it only appeared better to them not to me.

English is not my main language (mother tongue) so it might contain errors.

I became finally convinced about a year ago when I mentioned my suspicion to someone and he pointed me to Wikipedia, which pointed me to WrongPlanet. As soon as I read a few threads and took a couple tests, I had no doubt anymore.

I found out I was an aspie two years ago.