Did someone tell you or did you discover AS yourself?

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Told.

I'd heard *of* it (but knowing very little) years earlier but dismissed it as I figured that if I did have some condition then surely someone would have picked it up by now (given when I was 14/15 I spent a decent amount of time with the school counsellor and all) and I was just seeking excuses when it's really my fault for not trying hard enough to get along with society.

When I was 18 it was suggested by one of the uni counsellors like 5 minutes after meeting them. Then I revisited it and looked in greater detail than quickly scanning the wikipedia article and realised everything fits.

Few months later I learnt that I was officially diagnosed with PDD-NOS as a 4 year old, so yes, someone had picked it up by now and probably everyone was in on it except me. Still makes me angry a little bit, but it's in the past.
In the half a year since I've known, I feel like mentally I've become several years older. I'm finally catching up

My psychologist suggested that I look it up and tell her what I thought. I did, and discovered that it was exactly me (except I don't have "stims" - or at least I don't think I do). Things that the psychologist had never been told (because I was the only one who knew about them) all added up. Just like Akajohnnyx, I had an epiphany.

So I guess I could vote either way in this poll.

I was lurking nerdy forums as I frequently do, and I noticed AS mentioned on a couple topics. I noticed some similarities, but I ignored it for a while, thinking of it as another "new" mental issue that can be "cured" with medicine (Honestly, when medicine starts getting advertised on TV, and not the condition itself, there's something seriously wrong going on). Of course, I didn't know a lot about it back then.

A couple months later I did deeper psychiatric research on Wikipedia for personal reasons, and talked to my sister about these reasons. Then she asks me "You ever hear of Asperger's Syndrome?" which at the time, I knew a little more about it, but I was still surprised she suspected something. Apparently she had talked about me in some of her own therapy sessions four years before that day and the therapist knew a bit about AS, and pegged me as an Aspie. I still didn't get an official diagnosis for several months.

So I guess I just considered it a possibility, but the fact that my sister knew something was up pretty much confirmed it.

30 and I JUST found out 2 days ago.

I was at a follow-up visit with my family doctor regarding some meds I had started several months back. We talked about some of my persistent symptoms and he suggested I research AS. I have never found anything that so completely describes how I have felt about myself and others most of my life better than AS. I've tried. Everything else either doesn't fit or doesn't cover enough.

It's like I'm a round peg that's been pretending that it's not just pretending that it fills in the square hole.

I'm at ease, and I'm worried. Now it has a name.

Last edited by bricklaya on 11 Dec 2008, 9:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Discovering it for myself may have changed the style of the shock, but I'm not sure that it mitigated it very much.

I read the traditional news report and put two and two together. That was a few years ago, though, and I still haven't nailed down an official "diagnosis". Let's see, I've discussed it with four or five psychologists and three or four GPs who've all charged me for their opinions and I <i>still</i> don't have a diagnosis?

From a newspaper article ten years ago - hey thats me!

re kids and being in their company, my thoughts here are sparked by 'Bastetseye' remark above. I often nearly always had extreme discomfort when among kids my own age - never having met any till I started school. Hated my cousins, all seemed 'out of control' and so loud and noisey. Horrifying. Yet whenever I did actually feel okay with one or two others my mother (and probably my Dad) would do their best to destroy / terminate any such socialisation. A pair of s**ts. I hadn't quite realised this disruptive / destructive pattern of theirs until writing this now. Not an area I wish to think of any further, yet responses are welcome. Nowadays if I like someone 'I enjoy them'.

I learnt as an adult, through various reading about it. The more I read, the more I realised this was definitely me. Then I told my sisters, and they said they already knew.

I was 19 when I was diagnosed, so somewhere between child and adult. It was my mother who initially thought I had it. I was skeptical because I'd already been misdiagnosed as depressed and borderline personality by doctors who didn't take any time to listen to what I was telling them, but I went ahead and researched Asperger's. The more I read the more I thought "Maybe Mom's on to something here." Then I got evaluated by a specialist and sure enough, I met the diagnostic criteria. She was sure I had AS or something related soon after meeting and talking with me. I went off of the medications I'd been on before, started doing some talk/behavioral therapy (most of it to do with life skills and being aware of what was happening around me, since I was so oblivious), and life improved drastically!

I ran accross it studying on the net and figured that quite a bit of it fit. but i thought that i was more pre clinical.
(have enough traits to be close to the spectrum but not on) but i thought i would see a mental health therapist.
She made an appointment for a visit to a Phyciatrist by my third visit. he told me right off that in his opinion i
was on the spectrum, then tested me and told me that i definatly was. i was floored, knew that i was not exactly
normal but did'nt figure that i was Autistic. In hindsight duhh.(should have known.) all this was last july.

At age 20 I came across it on wikipedia. I had no idea that autism had a spectrum and, like arguably most people do, that low functioning standard autism was all there was.

^^^Same here. I think I was about 20 also, but I learned about it through a child psychology course I was in.

I was told by someone that they thought I might be on the autistic spectrum, and that I ought to look into it. Before that..i did not know there was such a thing...and thought that autism meant that you were like Rain Man

I discovered myself by chance via a link from a Wikipedia article (on Einstein !) .That was only
2 years ago but I'd always thought I had some underlying difference.

It was suggested to me recently. When I started reading about it I was shocked. A whole lot of minor incidental things (for instance, I just stopped twisting my hair to type this; I've done that all my life, and never really thought about it, apart from keeping my hair really short so I can't do it) suddenly made sense and I stopped worrying quite so much about the things I can't do (like cope with more than a handful of people at the same time, or when bad, with anything at all.)
I just had an illuminating conversation with my mother about my early childhood, from before I really remember anything:

Me: "So, ah, what was I like then?" (this is from 2 or whatever, nursery and playgroup)
Mother: "You were very withdrawn, hardly interacted with the other children at all. As soon as you could read that's all you did. You wouldn't go to parties or events or anything like that."
Me: "Did you, ah, take me to the doctor?"
Mother: "No... (the other children's mothers and the supervisors) did talk about it with us but you weren't any trouble. If you'd been any trouble we would have taken you to the doctor. We did take you because you kept holding your breath though... you grew out of that..."

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Laugh I suppose, I do love my parents dearly and it's not like the autistic spectrum was a big thing in the time and places I grew up. Heh. I really must work up my nerve to go see my GP again.

well actually i voted that i discovered it myself, but infact i was told at around 12 by a friend of mine who at that time was 26 that i probably had Autism of some sort...at the time i dismissed it as nothing more then "air filled" words and diddnt think much more about Autism until it came up at around 23 ish...when all other options were shown to not fit "the bill"...

so i dont know, did i vote correctly?

Bit of a story there. Started off as a joke from a mate the first time i tried E and it took a long time to kick in "your not intoxicated, you must be ADHD" (no-one knew a great deal about how the disorder worked) but he was actually half serious and hinting at something being a teaching student and boyfriend to a Speech Path student. Also, when that pill finally kicked in... for the first time ever everything seemed clear... the club wasnt chaos, the voices around me werent a sharp shrilling jumble that freaked me out... i was in complete control of myself. Before that i didn't know much about ADHD and assumed it was just hyperactive kids ra ra ra you know the story. After a few months rolling it about my head and recalling an armada of respressed repressed memories from my childhood (among them being my speech impediment and numerous meltdowns) i knew something was up. Eventually took it to a specialist and much to my surprise he brushed ADHD aside from the beginning and started asking me questions about routine and anger. Walked out with a diagnosis of Aspergers and the advice that sure enough i could have ADHD but it was a smaller problem compared to my apparently obvious Aspergers.

Completely shattered for a few months before i came to understand it and realised that it explained so much. In fact it turns out that in both my parents families spectrum disorders are common and as i researched them a lot of my extended family members came to thought. Also explained why no matter how hard i tried i couldn't stop myself from being just like the old man (very likely an aspie). All the things i thought were part of my unique personality were labelled and attributed to a disorder.... ruined my confidence for some time and it came at a bad time with me being in the thick of college life and all. Spent so long trying to overcome my phantom difficulties by forcing myself into difficult social situations (college and night life), i had assumed everyone else suffered only to realise that they were permanent and i probably wasn't going to outgrow them, there goes all my hopes. Im alright with it now though, now that i understand it i know not to try and force myself to play against my strengths and have a good routine to keep me in order worked out. Stopped me from being such an as*hole to the people in my life aswell.