Where Normalcy and Bad Puns Collide

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Hello all,

My name is Jennifer and I suspect myself to be an Aspie. Everything became glaringly clear once our son was diagnosed about a year ago with Autism. Looking back at my childhood and teen years, it is obvious that my social deficits and way of interpreting things are due to this.

It's all fascinating. I'm trying my best to capitalize on my strengths with a newfound confidence knowing there is a reason behind all of this. No more feeling crummy that I just wasn't trying hard enough to be someone I'm not!

I look forward to getting to know a lot of you better on this forum...because well....those face-to-face things are....well, you know.

Welcome Jennifer....I just found this site several months ago and really love it...I'm addicted to the Forums and enjoy chat when I'm feeling bravery(though it can get a little crazy in there)

Are you interested in getting "official DX" or content with just assuming you are aspie?Just wondering ,because it seems a hot topic for debate here(I'm going in at the end of this month and am just releived to have made a decission...."deciding" cause me more anxiety then actually just doing it)Whatever the DX is for me...this still feels more like home to me then most places I have been in my life...been looking for my planet for years...

Hi Krex,

I'm not interested in getting an official diagnosis at this point. Over the past year I've done a sensory evaluation through my son's OT, taken several types of online inventories testing my Aspieness or NTness. I am convinced that I am on the spectrum.

The other reason for not getting an official diagnosis is out of concern that it would affect my insurance and "important information" that goes onto our permanent record. It is my understanding that insurers consider Aspergers and Autism to be "high risk" people for depression, suicide, etc. Obviously, that is not the case with the lot of us.

The journey our family has taken over the past year has left me with answers to a lot of questions. It appears that it runs in both my family and my husband's family. Explanations for the behaviors and 'strangeness' of certain relatives has more of an understanding, instead of writing them off as insensitive people. The gentler answer is that they just weren't wired the way we wanted them to be.

Hi, Jennifer,

I'm Gordon. About 4 years ago I was in your shoes. I have made many discoveries about myself as I learn about my children. I have as son, 7 and a daughter, 5, both diagnosed with PDD-NOS at this point. Yup, I think they got it from me. I do fine, though and I'm working on those two constantly. So far, they're in the mainstream classes and we'll see how it all goes. My son is due for more eval next month to re-confirm a previous AS diagnosis, which we all believe was rushed.

I'm not part of the regular welcoming committee, since I've never been able to do intros very well, but some thing made me open your post and I'm glad I did. I'm comfortable here for the most part, but I'm still new and I'm not sure if I have any friends, yet.

Tell us a little about Tom.

Hi Gordon,

Just an FYI, I was in the Indianapolis area last year for Celebration III. If I ever figure how to shrink up the picture to use as my avatar, you'll probably get a kick out of it.

Thomas is 3 and is doing great. He was dx'd about a year ago but had been doing OT and Speech since May of last year. We noticed huge gains since he started preschool this last March. Despite the lack of services during the summer, he is still making strides in communicating his needs and demonstrating to us that he understands the world around him.

He does some really cool things, too. His memory and ability to count pretty high astound me. For example, he needs to work on some fine motor things with pointing and pushing buttons to strengthen his hands and fingers....so I get him one of those pocket Simon games. He's starting to grow attached to the thing!

I see that you have two kiddos somewhere on the spectrum. My girl is almost one and shows signs of extreme sensitivity in some areas. (Screams bloody murder during bath time or anything with water.) I have people telling me she's just 'sensitive'. That's fine for now but it's just one of those little nuggets of information I chuck away into my brain for future use. She does not seem to have any of the difficulties with fine motor skills, textures of foods, like her brother, but she does have a fascination with bonking her head on stuff.

We'll see.

If you just need to shrink a pic, on a PC, Paint will do that. It's not all that intuitive, but it works. If you like to use digi pics a lot, get IrfanView. It's freeware and it will do an incredible variety of formats if you also get the plug-in pkg.

If you're on a MAC, I can't help you much.

It sounds like you have things mostly in hand. One bit of advice: if you haven't started a journal, DO SO, even if you're like me and too disorganized to enter thoughts everyday it will be very helpful for both kids and yourself and especially during the eval processes.

I've been blogging it all since April of this year. It has been a tremendous help to get out everything that's been swimming around in my head. Now I can focus on other things!

Hi Jennifer,

Um, welcome I'm not part of the regular welcoming committee either, but I decided to reply because what you wrote about capitalising on newfound strengths sort of sounded a bit liek me - or rather, the reasoning behind it. I was given the link to this website a while ago by someone who thought I might find it interesting, and I was just amazed at how much of the stuff on here I could relate to! So now I'm accepting things about myself because I know that even though it isn't strictly AS (I don't fully meet the criteria) I'm convinced certain things about myself are because I'm on the spectrum. Just whereabouts, I'm not quite sure

Um, yeah. Enjoy looking around and finding how much you can probably relate to most people on here

Charlotte

Thanks Charlotte for welcoming me to the forum. This is like a home away from home. I have one other site that I frequent (a non-AS site). Either way, it's fun to find a community that shares the same interest.

Some of you may remember the music video from the 1990s for Blind Mellon's song, No Rain. In the video, the outcast girl dressed as a bumblebee finds a whole group of people just like her. Her eyes bug out as if to say, "There just like meeeeeeee!"

That is how much I identify with Aspergers.

OMG, yes!
That bee girl is how I've felt all my life - I'm still waiting to find my bee-people though. Sometime's I think I've found them, but it turns out just to be a Hawthorn Hawks supporter.

good to 'meet' you.