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WeirdLou
Butterfly
Joined: Apr 05, 2008
Age: 24
Posts: 16
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 Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 1:02 am Post subject: Adult Dx or Childhood Dx better? |
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I "came out" to my boss a couple days ago. I told him about my Asperger's because I was having some trouble at work and looking for help. I let him know that I had had trouble finding information and resources for adults with Asperger's, especially pertaining to work. I said the one book I did find had a single chapter devoted to work and in summary it had told me to work in a cubicle on third shift and try not to be an a** and it was too late for that since I made my career choice and started working before I knew about Asperger's. He asked if I would have been happier knowing earlier and going that route. He was asking in reference to work but it got me thinking about it in general.
For those of you who were diagnosed as adults, do you think you would have been happier/more successful if you had been diagnosed as a child?
I'll post my response to this question when I've got more time. |
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robinhood
Hummingbird
Joined: May 28, 2008
Age: 33
Posts: 18
Location: UK
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| Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 4:18 am Post subject: |
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i don't know really.
on the positive side i would have known more why react the way i do to things, and would have maybe made some better choices.
on the other hand, i might not have attempted to live the life i have, if i had got caught up in other people's expectations of what was possible for me with AS.
i'm a bit stuck right now wondering if i wished i never found it. i seemed to be "coping" ok before (apart from massive burn-outs every 6 months!!). i kind of don't what to do with this information this late on in my life. it's kind of scrapped the career plan of what i wanted to do in future. i'm having to admit that trying to pursue something like that would probably drive me over the edge (and already has done a few times)
better late than never maybe... as long as i find a new groove for myself. |
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poopylungstuffing
Bohemian Cave dweller
Joined: Mar 09, 2007
Age: 33
Posts: 3834
Location: not otherwise specified
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ignisfatuus
Raven
Joined: Feb 06, 2008
Posts: 116
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| Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 12:07 am Post subject: |
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Early diagnosis, no question. I was systematically persecuted by students AND teachers throughout elementary and high school. University was little better. Seeing these kids now receive help right from the start makes me a little jealous. Good for them though.
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"In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning." George Orwell |
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amaren
Sea Gull
Joined: Apr 24, 2008
Posts: 215
Location: wallowing in bed
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| Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 6:39 am Post subject: |
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I'm not as old as perhaps this forum intends, but I'm interested in this topic, so I'm going to post anyway.
I would have been susceptible to using a Dx as an excuse in my early teens. It's probably good that I pushed myself and found my limits - finding them didn't ruin me for life. Also, I doubt a Dx would have been much of a benefit, no one would have known what to do about it academically anyway, and telling kids to be nice to someone because they have [insert fancy words kids don't understand] just makes them meaner.
Back then I could pass exams with no study, and I wasn't required to do much else. Now I'm doing trickier things: living alone, working for a living, doing postgrad studies, having relationships... and crashing and burning at some of them. While I'm here relaxed and wrapped up in blankets in bed I'm sensible and know that sometimes I can't do what everyone else can at their mad pace, and need to take a rest. However, when I'm upset and tired, I doubt my self-diagnosis, kick myself for not being strong/smart/mature enough and try until I shutdown completely.. then I'm useless for months. At this stage (early 20s), a diagnosis would be very useful.
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Sora
Arrr~ Pirates!!
Joined: Sep 16, 2006
Age: 20
Posts: 2613
Location: Europe
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| Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 5:51 pm Post subject: |
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Depends on the person and how their individual autism manifests me thinks.
For me, childhood dx would have been better.
If I had been diagnosed earlier, I'd not have been to 6 but to 2 schools (I know another kid with AS who was allowed to stay at the school that threw me just because he was dxed). Education is what I think would have changed most and which would have changed for the better.
I think family and friends would have been a lot less crisis-ridden too.
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The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. Terry Pratchett |
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sluice
Raven
Joined: Aug 16, 2007
Posts: 116
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| Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:18 pm Post subject: |
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Don't know. I haven't been nearly as successful at life as I had originally planned. I thought I would outgrow some of the childhood problems I had and become a confident and social adult. Some help with dealing with the after effects of feeling burnt repeatedly whenever I could not excise myself from a social quagmire could have saved me much time and self-esteem. Helping me to learn to organize my thoughts and ideas into something coherent would of also been great.
Then again, I find it easy to make excuses why I haven't done something, or why I forgot something. If I would have known that I had a legitimate excuse, I may have never pushed myself forward when I didn't want to move. I know my odds of achieving the things I wanted aren't nearly as high with age becoming a factor and lack of treatment, but I still believe I can make something out of myself. All in all, late diagnosis has given me my own perspective on life that I doubt I would have under some guise of protection with that label happening early in life. |
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Xenon
Mutant Space Bug
Joined: Feb 10, 2006
Posts: 1708
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
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| Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:52 pm Post subject: Re: Adult Dx or Childhood Dx better? |
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| WeirdLou wrote: | For those of you who were diagnosed as adults, do you think you would have been happier/more successful if you had been diagnosed as a child?
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Yes! Absolutely! Completely and totally, without reservation.
But then, when I was a child, Asperger's was unknown, and the educational system was geared towards making everyone conform. At that time, even just being an introvert was viewed as some form of maladaptive behaviour that had to be corrected.
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ebec11
Missing In Action: Innocence
Joined: Jan 18, 2008
Posts: 5251
Location: A Bubble in the Ocean
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| Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 12:16 am Post subject: |
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The earlier the better in my opinion. When you know early, you can work on the problems quicker, so you have a chance to lose many of the symptoms you had (I sure did!)
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ignisfatuus
Raven
Joined: Feb 06, 2008
Posts: 116
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| Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:21 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | the educational system was geared towards making everyone conform |
It still is.
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"In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning." George Orwell |
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Scheherazade
Snowy Owl
Joined: Jan 15, 2007
Posts: 154
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| Posted: Wed Jun 11, 2008 4:02 pm Post subject: |
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Hmm..I have a mixed response to that, too. I'd probably say no overall. I probably would have used it as an excuse. I still do use it as an excuse sometimes. A lot of times I use it to keep myself depressed. I think I'm such a lousy person. Then I tell myself, well, I'm never going to grow out of it, I have a disease, so why bother to improve.
That said, thouh, I think it's helped me to approach self-improvement in a different way. I've realized that if I want to learn how to do something, especially something social, I have to learn the "rules". So rather than forcing myself to go hang out with some people and "try to fit in", I tell myself to go hang around people and try to observe them. I pay more attention to what people say in certain situations and then it's easier to mimic, and eventually produce naturally, NT behavior.
Perhaps if I'd be diagnosed earlier I might've been put in strategic situations to try to build those skills, but not every therapy is useful or reaches its intended target. Now that I have a name for my problem, I can pursue my own strategic therapies. For example, I started taking improv classes, because I can learn "rules" of social interaction.
I think it could have really helped my relationship with my mom - because she always accuses me of "acting snobby" when I don't want to hang around other people and she doesn't realize that my fear comes from a lack of social skills, or that I'm not going to just "pick up" those skills if I hang around people long enough. |
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nominalist
This WP Supporter climbed the pecking order ;-)
Joined: Jun 29, 2007
Age: 52
Posts: 1685
Location: The Kansas suburbs of Kansas City (originally from NYC)
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| Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 2:00 am Post subject: |
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Difficult to say. I was, like many aspies my age (52), misdiagnosed with childhood schizophrenia and was hospitalized, given electroconvulsive treatments, put on neuroleptics, etc. The problem is that the Asperger's diagnosis was not put into the DSM until 1980, when it was called "schizoid disorder of childhood and adolescence." That was too late for me. I had to wait until I was 51 to be diagnosed an aspie.
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makuranososhi
Purple Monkey Dishwasher
Joined: May 13, 2008
Posts: 1923
Location: Arizona
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| Posted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 5:36 pm Post subject: |
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While an earlier diagnosis and realization of the connective issues would have been helpful, in my opinion... I am also thankful that I wasn't treated differently and was relatively accepted despite my quirks and obtuse behaviors. Now in my thirties, the teardown process to begin restructuring coping mechanisms does have some... mildly traumatic moments of realization, for lack of a better way to describe it.
M.
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