Traumatic Experiences Due to AS?

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I know I can't be alone. I wanted to know if some of you had traumatic experiences, as a result of having undiagnosed AS. I did not know I had AS until adulthood, and so I was often seen as a difficult, overly-sensitive (sensory) little smartass and punished frequently for reasons I couldn't understand. I have some major trust issues as a result. That's the best of it. Some of the worst is unspeakable.

i always knew i had something that made me different but i couln'd find out wat it whas altough that are not the reasons that gave me trauma's

too many to count, too many to count

Yes, I have.

My "strangeness" caused me to be ostracized at school to the point where I physically couldn't attend any more.

I've was labeled the same thing. I often got punishments I didn't understand for reasons that were so vague that I still can't figure them out. I often got the blame for what happened to me, yet nobody would explain why it was my fault, only that it was.

Nothing was ever my highly manipulative sister's fault. They always took her side in everything and rarely ever took mine. On top of that, they often tried to make me spend time with her and do the things she did, which I didn't like. I didn't like her, her friends, or her activities, I just wanted to do my thing, but our parents objected to that.

Now that I've finally gotten away from her and found my own life, I am happier, but things would have been better for me if they'd been on my side more, like they were her's.

absolutely....things I'd rather not recount. I also have trust issues as a result, among other things.

The most traumatic thing for me was losing my best friend because... Well, to make a long story short, I wrote her an inappropriate letter and ever since then, she treated me badly and eventually left. Even though it's been four years since then, I still think about her and miss her.

Same here.

Same here...It has gotten so bad that i couldnt forget any negative social encounter, and I punished myself for it over and over again

The list for me is very, very long.

Yep. I went through childhood undiagnosed, which caused many traumatic experiences. It's like I was walking over a minefield. I couldn't see the mines and therefore couldn't avoid them, so I might step on one at any time and get hurt. People got mad at me at strange times and for reasons I didn't understand and was unable to predict. I often did things thinking I was helping or doing something nice and then ended up being yelled at or beaten for it because somebody else saw things differently.

It was traumatic and caused major trust issues that I still have today. I still don't fully trust anyone.

Also, many of my aspie traits were misinterpreted and thought of as bad personality traits (for example, lack of eye contact = dishonesty = bad), which made my own family dislike me and even be ashamed of me, which showed in the way they treated me and which I sensed and didn't exactly make me feel loved or accepted. I ended up disliking people and not desiring their company and I had self-esteem issues for a long time.

Last edited by Amik on 06 Oct 2008, 4:25 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Same here.
Except that I knew that it was all a lie.
The constant punishment was just an excuse to bully.
No change in my behavior would have made a difference.
I didn't deserve it by any objective standard, no matter how sick.
Power corrupts, at every level.

Being put in the phyc ward at age nine and some stupid summer camp my parents made me g to for special needs kids (the staff needed more traning)

AS nearly got me sent off to military school. Researching the reality of "troubled teen" programs now that I've left the house, I realize how lucky I was merely to have to deal with an abusive stepfather.

I wasn't even "troubled" in the traditional sense. I just had meltdowns I couldn't explain--basically crying spells, which my stepfather always teased me about, saying it was because I was an immature female. (He used meaner words than that.) I've never had a drink, never tried drugs, never even went out on my own, much less stayed out past curfew (I didn't have a curfew; I had a bedtime). I even got straight A's in school. But because I had trouble controlling my reactions to overload and unexpected events and inconsistent parenting, I was labeled a problem. That I insisted on pointing out to my mother that my stepdad was lying about having quit smoking, gotten a job, and somehow enrolled as an engineering student despite not being able to help me with algebra... well, that just made things worse.

I escaped at age 17 and... well, I ended up in a cult, basically, but I escaped that after a year and a half because I don't buy illogical, emotional arguments; so that was OK. After I survived getting kicked out of college for self-injury, and fired from a job because a manager thought AS meant I couldn't correct my mistakes, I ended up on disability payments... and weirdly enough I may actually get somewhere from here, because now I'm back at college, getting a lot of help from disability services office, and possibly capable of graduating.

Reading back over that, I realize that none of those things were actually caused by AS... or, rather, only indirectly, thanks to people judging me rather than trying to communicate.

Last edited by Callista on 06 Oct 2008, 6:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yes, people have never understood me, & of course everything I did was wrong. I often received punishment (verbal & physical) for things that other people did, & if the truth came out, no one ever apologized. I don't easily trust people either. Too many years of emotional & physical abuse/torment. If I were a dog, they'd put me down due to bad temperment, prone to act out aggressively when provoked....too old to rehabilitate.

Yes, what happened to me was unspeakable. I couldn't make eye contact when I was little. So people frequently thought I was lying when I told the truth. I was basically raped by a doctor because of this.

What happened is a doctor questioned me about sexual abuse during a routine checkup. She never even did the checkup, just started asking questions right away. I said no to all her questions, because I really had never been molested. She obviously didn't believe a word I said, so she filed a report with CPS on suspected sexual abuse. On ZERO EVIDENCE, BECAUSE THERE WAS NONE! I only realized within the last few weeks that it was because I didn't make eye contact that she thought I was lying.

CPS then required me to undergo a sexual abuse exam by a pediatric gynecologist. I did not consent, but it was done anyway. It was the most horrifyingly traumatic experience of my life. I consider it a rape. It still affects me. I was ten years old. I did not even know I had a v***** or anything about that part of my body back then. Of course, the doctor didn't find any evidence of abuse and the case was closed.

I wasn't even offered an apology. I just can't even explain how deeply this has damaged me.