How do you feel about your ASD diagnosis?

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Either officially diagnosed, or self-diagnosed, how do you feel about your diagnosis?

I have a t-shirt with "AsPiE" written on it and am wondering whether I want to wear it or not... I feel a desire to want to help share knowledge and understanding about ASDs, and feel it could be a good start.... But am not so sure I have the guts to go through with it.....
I feel that we are simply different to NTs, and although we have many struggles, I am proud of the many strengths we have too.

It's okay, it makes me feel somewhat unique sometimes;however others a little bit stupid. I've been diagnosed with classic autism;although I'm so high functioning, that my school thinks I have aspergers! xD


But I have have aspergers because my (stupid) school doesn't know I have expressive, repetitive, and receptive language disorders. Problems with syntactical skill and APD.

And many other things I can't be bothered to talk about

So, in conclusion. I have mixed feelings about the diagnosis, but I'm also appalled at the moment how they handle my case.

I'm very proud of who I am. Because of my ASD, I have a unique view of the world.

I'm kind of neutral when it comes to my diagnosis, but I'm not embarrassed or ashamed of it, either.

I've been ashamed of it every since I got the diagnosis. I know it's kind of sad. Fortunately, it feels like I'm getting more used to it every day. In the beginning, I couldn't think of anything else than my diagnosis. Every time I did something weird, I thought: 'Oh, it must be because of my autism.'

While I was like 2 (back in roughly 1989) I was diagnosed, over time, I've come to terms with who I am, really. So yes, I am at peace with the world, despite the conflicts I get with my own family and whatnot.

I don't tell anyone about it, not even my closest friends. I fear that if I do tell someone, they'll start to treat me like I'm just one step above functionally ret*d; this has happened before, and I don't want it to happen again.

I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand I was diagnosed when I was a pre-teen, and I had diagnoses of Tourette's and OCD years prior to this, so the diagnosis itself has never been that big of a deal because I was acquainted with psychology at a very young age and didn't have any stigma towards it. However I care very much about how it may color people's perceptions of me, now more than when I was first diagnosed. I think this is partially because many of my more prominent symptoms have decreased somewhat over the years and partially because I am highly individualistic and place a high emphasis on individual persons, and hate the idea of generalizations and assumptions for any group based on any real criteria. In that regard I'll accept that many people in any cultural or social )or psychological) group may be more likely to have some shared characteristics, but that nothing is remotely set in stone. I also have a hard time dealing with the so-called "Aspie" community (and on an unrelated note I highly dislike that term), especially because of the all-too-common (from my perspective) "us" and "them" mentality between people on the Autism Spectrum and so-called Neurotypicals, when it's of course much more fluid than that.

Like I said before, in some regards my symptoms have lessened over the past decade or so since I was diagnosed. On the one hand I am very sociable and have a wide circle of friends of varying degrees of closeness. Also atypically for someone with Asperger's I have not an often narrow or extremely specialized range of interests, but, on the contrary, an extremely broad one (though of course I do have my specialties and passions). I also have little trouble with communicating my emotions or ideas to others, though I'm sure at least part of this was learned- I went to a special education school for six years; before and for part of this I was much more introverted than I am today, and focused far less on both relationships and communication skills. All of these things were not the case for many years of my life.

As it is I still struggle in other areas, like initiating romantic relationships or gaining employment; the former is for a host of issues which I consider mostly unrelated, but the latter is mostly because I have difficulty asserting myself in the proper manner to find a job because I don't know how to deal with certain social aspects and have a hard time accepting others (like the idea of networking being as or more important than merit, not because I doubt this to be the case but because I hate the idea of that and part of me refuses to do it). This also shows that I occasionally have a rather rigid or stubborn mindset, though I think this is at least as much to do with idealism as it has to do with Asperger's. And I can occasionally become very cold and logical, though most of the time more the latter than the former. And like with most things I don't think this completely has to do with Asperger's; I also do my best to be objective in many ways, which is sometimes at odds with my more rigid moments I have always been an extremely fast talker as well, and people frequently ask me to repeat myself, and I know I often speak in a rather stylized manner of speech (and, as you can see, am often rather long-winded. Sorry about that.). I'm not certain how much that actually has to do with Asperger's though. And I am certainly perceived as eccentric (which I have no problem with, because I believe it to be true), and on very rare occasions someone will hazard a guess of Asperger's or at least some think I have some sort of psychological diagnosis. I don't usually offer this information immediately when it comes to friends because as I said I wish them to judge me as individual first and foremost, but have absolutely no problem answering their questions honestly if they bring it up, and will generally tell a friend I have it sooner or later; none of them care.

So to sum things up I don't care about my Asperger's so much as I care that people don't take it into consideration when trying to understand me as a person.

It explains a lot to me but I don't go around telling people except on a need to know basis

"Other."

I'm conflicted. It explains so much, but... now I feel broken. While I was still in denial, I did not feel _this_ broken. I thought I had other issues, and was mentally beating myself up for not being able to overcome them.

On the other hand, I have some amazing gifts and talents that more than balance my few weaknesses. And some accomplishments that, knowing now what little I do, I consider truly spectacular. I'm very proud of my ability to analyze, adapt and act. But, on the other hand--do I get a third hand for this exercise?-- I feel bad that not every Aspie seems to have these abilities, or haven't yet found their way to becoming functional.

ive always had a hatred for labels and having to label myself an aspie sometimes makes me feel less than human to people that dont have my issues. at the same time, i dont really care, its just an aspect about myself i should learn to accept. either way, id rather not tell anyone but secretly i hope people would just figure it out on their own. but they never do.

It has explained a great deal of my past actions and my way of being. This has allowed me to give myself more of a break and not be quite so hard on myself. It has also allowed me to present my employer with a list of "reasonable adjustments" to my workspace which has made my life a bit easier. On balance, I'm glad I got my diagnosis albeit I wish I had done so a lot younger.

I think my diagnosis is incomplete. I believe that I have other issues besides AS, but no doctor ever explicitly told me about them.