Do you consider yourself Autistic?

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Not really. I just consider myself a quirky girl who happened to get diagnosed with autism. I probably don't meet the DSM 5 criteria.

This board has helped me come to terms with who I am.

If it possible your diagnosis may be wrong.

Healthcare professionals do get it wrong.

You have two choices if you think your diagnosis may be wrong get another assessment or just forget about it and move on with you life.

I don't act or look Autistic (or Aspergers). But my mind is definetly Autistic.

Aspergers is a subset of Autism, but they are fundamentaly the same thing. I call myself Autistic because I believe it's the better description.

Yes...I lack social communication, daily living skills past basic (without assistance), not able to understand danger that well and have severe sensory issues that slow my motor skills.

When it was first suggested to me that I have autism, my reaction was, hell no. Rain Man? Hell no, I'm nothing like that. No way am I autistic.

Then I read a letter, that was given to me, to give to my psychiatrist. In which it said that they suspected that I have asperger's. I had never even heard of it, so I Googled it. Right away I was like OMG thats it. Thats my life. Thats what I have. I have asperger's.

That was three years ago. Now that I've had more time to educate myself, I know I'm autistic, and I'm totally fine with that label. Now I can relate to Rain Man.

^This.

How is that? What does that mean?

yes im diagnosed with autistic disoreder.

I agree with most of that, however, I avoid telling anyone anything,

I found out late in life, and I don't think of myself as disabled, I don't WANT to think of myself as autistic. I'd rather people think I'm a complete jerk than any form of disabled. But I've decided that if it ever does come up, if anyone is rude enough to pin me down in conversation I will simply say that I have a neurological disorder. It is nobody's business, and I am not required to be any more specific than that.

I was officially diagnosed with Asperger's. Last I checked, Asperger's was a part of the Autism Spectrum. Alternatively, Asperger's has been removed from the DSM-5, and even though the phrase still lives on here in spectrum circles, the replacement is still "Autism Spectrum Disorder". Either way, I see myself as Aspie, ergo I'm autistic.

I first came across the word autism in a school library book when I was 15 years old. It was mentioned in a book about feral children, children reputedly raised by animals, but that book didn't go into detail. Then I read Son Rise, a book about a profoundly autistic little boy, so profoundly autistic that I didn't make the connection, but I was fascinated by the book.

Then I found a clinical psychology book that had been donated to the school years before. It had a chapter on autism. And a checklist. I had every symptom, some to a very, very mild degree, but every symptom none the less. I remember reading and rereading that list and wondering if someone could be 'just a little autistic?' Years later I learned about Asperger's syndrome.

If you met the criteria put forth in earlier editions of the DSM, you meet the criteria in the DSM-5. They didn't change the diagnostic criteria. They just stopped separating out Asperger's Disorder, started lumping everything together as an "Autism Spectrum Disorder".

I always have, even when their was a clinical distinction. Reading up on both disorders, I didn't see any major differences. It all seemed to be a spectrum. I'm not very high functioning for an aspie anyways. There are many people diagnosed w/ HFA who are much higher functioning than I am so how can Asperger's be a separate, milder form of Autism?

In spectrum friendly places, I'll call myself an Aspie, it was the first label I was comfortable w/ and it lets people who care about the difference between the two know my actual diagnosis. If I have to disclose to a layperson, I'll say "mild form of Autism" the way Willard does.

I never really met the criteria to begin with. When I was a kid I had autistic like behaviors because I got sick. When the sickness got treated a lot of the autistic like behaviors disappeared. I'm still a bit sick, so I still have some behaviors left over.

Yes, I do.

No, I don't consider myself autistic. I am someone who have Asperger's. Brain scans confirm that AS and autism are not the same disorder, and AS should not have been lumped in with autism. It's not like the professionals all think it is either. AS and PDD-NOS should have remained separate diagnoses. I'd like to see comparative scans between those two as well.