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Aitrean
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16 Jun 2012, 10:37 pm

My parents always assumed I had autism since I was four. When I was nine I got diagnosed.
As a child I did not like exercise, going outside, or being with kids (I was very socially awkward). I had all the conditions of AS, etc, etc. This lasted until about middle school at 12 years of age.

..Then I turned 14, joined the Air Cadets, and almost three years later I feel like I have absolutely no symptoms of AS. I'm a Flight Sergeant, which means I oversee a division of my squadron, by keeping the comradeship, issuing orders, and primarily keeping them ORGANIZED. A few times I've been called to give lessons to classrooms of level ones and twos "it's like teaching middle-school children how to be pilots", and I've been commended on my performance at it. I love shooting guns, usually air rifles during rifle practice, but during the summer I've shot semi-automatic, I don't mind the loud noise ONE BIT. I go to cadet camps every year, and love the change of environment. I focus on first aid, in which stress only affects me when I'm working with incompetent colleagues, at which point I almost never lash out, I just assume more responsibility over the situation. I have a decent circle of friends, when I'm not working I spend time out with them, movies, parties, etc. I work out three times a week, jog every day, bike to school, and do reflex exercises because my motor skills are dulled. I love my life, and wouldn't want to change it. So much so that I'm joining the reserves in a little over a year, then applying to study as an officer.

Minus the motor skills and the fact that I occasionally feel the need to "recharge", I have no idea how I have AS. I know I do, I used to - and I don't think it just "goes away", or you just wish it away. The thing is, from what I've read over the last few months, I'm the anti-image of Asperger's Syndrome. Is there a medical or psychological reason for this? Am I just weird at being weird?



Last edited by Aitrean on 16 Jun 2012, 10:56 pm, edited 3 times in total.

edgewaters
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16 Jun 2012, 10:41 pm

You've adapted well, that's all. Pray that it stays that way.

Structured environments like school or cadets, I thrived in those environments. But the adult world beyond is not structured at all - it is infinitely more difficult to adapt to all the unspoken codes and rules. Be aware of that.



CuriousKitten
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16 Jun 2012, 11:09 pm

edgewaters wrote:
You've adapted well, that's all. Pray that it stays that way.

Structured environments like school or cadets, I thrived in those environments. But the adult world beyond is not structured at all - it is infinitely more difficult to adapt to all the unspoken codes and rules. Be aware of that.


remember if you have problems with the unspoken rules found in the adult world, they can be learned cognitively. It sounds like you are off to an excellent start.



EstherJ
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16 Jun 2012, 11:11 pm

Yeah, if I didn't have so many physical issues I might have joined the military because of the structure it provides. In my opinion it doesn't require so much social savvy to succeed in that area.

Teaching is something I do well too. You have adapted well, congratulations. It seems like you have found your place. :D



1000Knives
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17 Jun 2012, 12:00 am

Well, when I was your age, militaria was a special interest of mine, and I was seriously considering joining a branch of the military. One thing I'd say, too, "Aspies" are a bit better in a lot of military/LEO scenarios, due to our different ways of looking at emotions, or lack of emotion in dealing with problems. Other people will be emotional when dealing with problems, whereas we can just see things "logically" without the emotional filter other people have. Sometimes this works awesome, sometimes it doesn't. But in the military, you can see how this thought process would be ideal, especially for an officer.

There's pretty much only two possibilities in your case. You've learned to adapt to the people around you, or the people around you have learned to adapt to you. Probably both are happening to certain degrees. As far as if you're "cured" it's hard to say. Only you're gonna determine that. After I got my diagnosis, I didn't care a bit, I figured it was just more crap from psychologists who contradicted eachother. Then I met someone with the same diagnosis as me (NVLD+Aspergers), and saw a lot of how he acted in me. I think the bigger realization of my diagnosis, though, was sorta the same as what you're going through now. I got involved with a church, and had a large social group, large group of friends, etc, I'd be "hanging out" with people 5/7 nights of the week it seemed, and life seemed pretty awesome. For the first time I ever, I had a huge group of people to be in like that, and life seemed awesome, having a place to belong in, a purpose, etc. People noticed that I "got out of my shell" and all that sorta business. But the problem was, I was still weird as hell really. I just didn't know it. So, because of that, the leader of the youth group would more or less harass me, and we'd get into disagreements, and it just became very apparent over time I was "different" and people from the group's opinions of me probably weren't as positive as I thought they were. Later on, I had personal problems and sorta started "melting down" I guess, and I just couldn't handle it all anymore, then I started looking into my diagnosis more, and it seemed to fit, and yeah...

I don't mean to tell you my story to scare you in anyway. Maybe I should have wrote nothing, you know, and then you'd sorta have a bit more time in ignorant bliss. Just, you know, it's entirely possible that things in the future could change, and you could "have it" again, so just be ready. If things remain as they are, and your future goes according to plan, then that'd be awesome. But, that's my experience with the whole "I'm cured!" thought process. Take it for what you want.



vanhalenkurtz
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17 Jun 2012, 12:39 am

Sounds like you found yourself a great fit for environment. Makes such a difference.


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questor
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17 Jun 2012, 1:05 am

You probably have mild Asperger's, plus are a more adaptive type of person. Someone who is more adaptive can do a better job of adjusting to the NT world, and if they are only mildy Aspergerian, then after some years of gradually adjusting to the NT world, may appear and feel less like an Aspie, and more like an NT. That's good, so don't worry about it. There is nothing wrong with being able to adjust well to the NT world. Wish I could! :(


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Palakol
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17 Jun 2012, 2:57 am

edgewaters wrote:
You've adapted well, that's all. Pray that it stays that way.

Structured environments like school or cadets, I thrived in those environments. But the adult world beyond is not structured at all - it is infinitely more difficult to adapt to all the unspoken codes and rules. Be aware of that.


Personally, I still don't think it's structured enough. Probably because it's still run by people. I was in the cadet corps (battalion commander), it was still pretty confusing. Especially once I graduated from being a plebe, and the officers and NCOs started treating me like a person. I didn't how I should have been addressing them and how to talk to them. It didn't feel right when they wanted to be addressed by their first names. And as the wing commander, I had no idea how the relationship with my classmates worked (JROTC was mandatory) since "work" sometimes spilled into other areas of life. I mostly just hid out somewhere during drill time and only showed up for mass formation when it was time to dismiss everyone.



Smartalex
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17 Jun 2012, 3:04 am

You were diagnosed early on in the hope that you would cope better with it.

Doctors today have such a better understanding of autism now compared to their older predecesors. 20 years ago, general education teachers had no idea what the word "aspergers" meant. Now, ALLLLL teachers study the autism spectrum. Special ed teacher have improved leaps and bounds.

People show "awareness" of autism. Compare that to 'refrigerator mothers." (i.e. society has shown FAR greater understanding).

The world changed, look at this 20 year window you grew up in.

But also, you changed with the world. Did your AS 'go away?' No, that's impossible. I can only deduce that you have coped fairly good as you grew up.



Callista
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17 Jun 2012, 3:35 am

Yeah, when you actually get help growing up, things are much better. But you're still facing your biggest hurdle--living on your own as an adult. That was where I crashed and burned. I'm not saying you will; in fact, it's unlikely since what your're doing now I still can't do at twice your age. However, that last step to managing everything for yourself is always difficult, even for NTs, and may present an obstacle for you. Don't drop the diagnosis until you're absolutely sure you can live independently in a world full of NTs without ever needing help--even when your world gets turned upside down, like when you have to move or you're looking for a job or you're married to somebody and starting a family. A diagnosis is something that many of us here had to struggle to get--you got yours easily, as a child, and I'd advise you not to reject it until you're sure you don't need it. While you'll always have a thinking style a little different from the norm, it's entirely possible to have that autistic brain wiring, yet have no impairment whatsoever. If you fall into that category then you don't need a diagnosis. But wait until you've managed the tricky parts of adult life before you can be sure you don't need it.

There are quite a few people who were correctly diagnosed autistic at one point, but couldn't be diagnosed now. You might hear it referred to as "lost diagnosis" or having "grown out of autism". What happens, simply put, is that you're born with the genetics and the neurology for autism, and you either get a good education or you simply get lucky with your environment. As you grow older, you learn steadily, as all autistics do. You learn enough to compensate. The autism, which is generally mild to begin with, starts to cause less and less impairment as you learn more skills. Eventually, the end result is a person who is neurologically and perhaps culturally autistic, but who is not diagnosable because there is no impairment. Such people may identify as autistic, or not; they may have more in common with autistic people than neurotypicals; but they don't need a diagnosis because they neither need outside help nor require a different strategy or more effort to deal with life in the NT world.


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XFilesGeek
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17 Jun 2012, 10:41 am

1000Knives wrote:
Well, when I was your age, militaria was a special interest of mine, and I was seriously considering joining a branch of the military. One thing I'd say, too, "Aspies" are a bit better in a lot of military/LEO scenarios, due to our different ways of looking at emotions, or lack of emotion in dealing with problems. Other people will be emotional when dealing with problems, whereas we can just see things "logically" without the emotional filter other people have. Sometimes this works awesome, sometimes it doesn't. But in the military, you can see how this thought process would be ideal, especially for an officer.


Not necessarily.


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poppyfields
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17 Jun 2012, 11:43 am

Getting help at a young age is a huge help. By the time I was diagnosed at 22, there was no services available to me, so even though I'm mildly affected, I too crashed and burned at the living on my own thing. I hadn't been diagnosed then. I still think I could be successful at it, but I'd need to approach it differently and have a plan and not just think I could do it fine cause most people my age can.

But good for you on what you've accomplished. My advice would be just remember aspies are bad at life transitions. I thought I was pretty normal until I went off to college and failed miserably without having my family support around. If you keep in mind that you might have difficulties, if they do come up you will be so much better prepared than I was. If the people at my dorm knew I was autistic they could have helped me more, and that is what a diagnosis can give you - support when you need it.



Aitrean
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19 Jun 2012, 4:09 pm

Thanks guys. I just assumed there was some odd medical reason for it - now I feel a little bit special that I'm good at adapting. To be fair, the structure of the military is half of why I stick around. Although, I'm not looking forward to the real world now! :)