Perks and no perks of AS

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Does anybody have moments when they are glad they have Asperger's and other times when they wish they didn't have it. I do. I am 19 and at age 5 i was diagnosed with Asperger's Disorder 299.80. My dad told me about it last year. Why so late?

Lots of parents think it will make you feel bad to find out you have AS. They don't seem to understand til much later that it is better to understand why you are different than to think you are unacceptably weird, or a spoilt brat, or a loser...

My mother didn't tell me 'til I was 19 and got diagnosed independently. She knew when I was 11.

Sometimes I'm glad I have AS; sometimes I'm not. I think that's normal. (Or, what passes for normal round here.)

Parents have many reasons for not telling their children certain diagnosis. Sometimes they are advised against it. Plus, if your AS is really mild, perhaps parents and others didn't want to label you and have you conform to stereotypes of the label. Perhaps they wanted you to develop your own way, and work on AS issues, like socializing, when needed.

I'm undiagnosed, so it's hard to say. However, I don't really think that I would feel much different if I was. I'd still be the same person I am now, just a little more informed.

As a teen, I wished I didn't have it and blamed all my problems on it. Then went onto thinking "Would a normal person do this?" "Would an aspie do this?" then stopped because I wanted to be myself and the fact I was wasting my time of energy trying to figure out what pathway to take.

My mother told me when I was 12 I had it and told me my mind just works differently and I see things different than other people. I need more information, I have a different learning style, and told me some misunderstandings I have is part of AS and used "Stop that teasing" incident as an example. She never really explained the condition, just told me about myself. Then when I was 14, she finally pulled out a bunch of papers on AS printed from the internet and handed them to me to read. Well that explained my difficulty with friends and my obsessions and not understanding jokes or sarcasm, etc. but it told me how mild mine really is.


Now I don't care anymore if I have it. Sometimes I still think I don't have it and only have traits because I don't feel effected by it enough. It effects our relationship but my bf doesn't let it. He just deals with it and sees me as me. Hey every woman is different.


Why didn't your dad tell you, you can ask him why but my guess would be; he didn't think it was important, he didn't want you to start using it as en excuse, he didn't want you to hold yourself back or give up on yourself.

I didn't even know I was diagnosed with autism until I was 15 but the label was pretty much gone by the time I got to elementary school. I had other labels instead. The lable wasn't brought back till sixth grade but my speech therapist suspected AS in me when I was 11 and then my shrink. I didn't know about it until my mother told me.


But my mother always told me I had very little and mine wasn't a big deal but then she would turn around and act like it is bad and is a big deal. I finally asked her when I was 18 why she does that and she said "I say that because I don't want you letting it stop you from doing things."
So was she bluffing? Who knows. She said it only gets bad if I am depressed or have lot of stress on me and other times its not even a big deal I have it.

When I was nearly 19 I told my mum that I was seeking out a diagnosis for AS and got back the following:
-diagnoses with PDD-NOS when 4
-there is no point because I don't have it.

I think they were told that because I was clever I would catch up with the social side of things and that was my only problem, everything else was fine. Either that or they choose not to believe it. This is despite when I was little needing speech pathologist, some occupational therapist person for an hour to teach me how to use scissors, never seeing people outside of school and living on the internet etc


I am glad this year I have found my little spectrumy label. It means that I'm not a complete failure and I'm not lazy, I can now constructively work on my differences in a way that works for *me*, not the general population. The world is so much more beautiful now.
As for whether I'd prefer to have it or not - I assume it has influenced my personality a bit and thus it is a part of me. I'd be a different person without it. I'd prefer to be myself.

im on disability for aspergers. but i wouldnt necessarly call it a perk since i am shunned by almost everyone!!

I'm never glad I have it. Most of my flaws are because of it. As for my few strengths, I don't think most of them are because of it, and non-autistic people can have the same strengths without the flaws.

I am still learning the different aspects of Aspieness but can say emphatically that it has many valuable perks! I love the joy I feel, the wonder at the beauty of Nature, the attunement to God, the easy connectedness and rapport with animals and elderly ppl, the enlivening interest to delve deeply into whatever subject I want to research, the ability to concentrate like a laser and find the answers to what I want to know. I love myself, I love the surety of right vs wrong, I love having obsessions that are good investments and bring positive results. I enjoy the deep exhilaration and satisfaction I get self-entertaining and being alone. I dig the soothing balm of repetitiveness and my rituals. Understanding grows deeper by the day. I love progress and feeling empowerment flowering by leaps boundlessly. I am totally buzzed discovering the hidden perks in the peculiarities and making those work for the good for me.

I'm thrilled beyond measure that I'm blessed with enough out-of-the-boxness to get glimpses of other more real realities, and that I have the courage to explore those and trust God. I am giddily happy to have finally come to place where I know for sure that it's perfectly fine to not care a whit what anybody else thinks! I love the freedom I have within myself.

Would like to overcome the physical clumsiness, bumping into everything and spacing out the physical world. I'd like to have a more intuitive physical grasp of time and space and matter and how to do things, a street-smart facility with fixing things and handling the workings of the physical world. I'd be so overjoyed to be a natural skilled handyman -- the opposite of what I am. But I've seen I am capable of learning anything, so intend to apply myself to my weaknesses and turn them into strengths.

I've been studying Aspergers and feel horror amazement and relief at each layer of the onion peeling off the mysteries of my life. It's weird reading textbooks of the abnormal and realizing one fits the subject. Eeeeeek! But knowledge is power and awareness is the first step to winning the battle.