Family reaction after your diagnosis

Post Reply New Topic

Well, my mother accepted it (she was interviewed during my evaluation) and says that I seem happy that my self-diagnosis was correct. The other person who knows about my AS is my aunt.
I didn't notice any changes, everything is like it was before. I was afraid of treating me like an idiot, so I kinda like my situation. What about your families?

Both my parents came with my when I was given my diagnosis. The person who gave me my diagnosis described me, asked if any of that was surprising to my parents (they said no) and then gave my diagnosis and gave me my report. It was just giving a name to traits of me to my parents.

I'm not sure whether other family members know or not.

My boyfriend's mom was incredibly glad I got diagnosed when she found out, because she realized that was likely true before that point and knows this way I can get more support (and then she was getting information about the new laws in the state to see whether she could get either of her sons evaluations without it costing them money they didn't have).

Both of my parents were very relieved. Up until the time of my diagnosis (age 15), I had endured a long battle with different mental illnesses (especially OCD). But even after that was under control, I told them that something still didn't "feel right" inside, especially because I could tell that I wasn't on the same wavelength as my peers even without symptoms of mental illnesses. Additionally, my parents had long suspected that something was "different" about the way my brain was wired, but they couldn't put their finger on what exactly was going on inside my mind.

But in addition to being relieved, they were also saddened, because no parent wants to hear that their child has autism.

My family had never heard of it, but they came round eventually.

My family have no idea what autism is.

Mine didn't seem to react either and acted like it was no big deal. Instead things changed in a positive way. My mother understood me better and she stopped getting mad at me for my obsessions and taking them away and all of a sudden she was encouraging it because "it kept me calm." But she still didn't want to hear about it.

But my mom admits she always knew I had something but didn't know what it was and none of the other labels explained it. Also the fact the treatments I was getting wasn't working.

Pretty much all my relatives know about it.

My mother said it made sense.
My sister told me I had to learn to be like everyone else. Flawlessly. I ignored her.
My niece called me "ret*d" when I managed to troubleshoot a computer problem she'd made worse by trying to fix. She treats everyone like her social, intellectual, and temperamental inferior, however, due to an appalling lack of self-awareness.

Don't know what anyone else says.

I never was normal, so nothing happened. I always was second quality, broken one to them. After diagnosis I'm just certified weirdo. Probably their reaction was something like So she's autistic? It was obvious.

my mum accepted it. shed been looking for an explanation or something to blame for my behaviour. she wanted to fix it. my dad didnt. he thought it was balony, called it a disease i would grow out of and only recently accepted it but as a part of me that was defective of course.