Describe the day you were diagnosed with AS!

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This was July 2002. I was 14 years and 6 months old.


I had to take a day off sailing camp to go with my mother downtown to the mental building of the Montreal Children's Hospital to see Dr. Frombonne, a renowned British autism specialist who's been in the papers a few times. He was the head of that unit at the Montreal Children's Hospital. We went into his office, which had lots of shelves full of books, a desk and a round table with 4 chairs. He was a slender, baby-faced blond guy in a blue shirt, with his hair cut in a Tom Sawyer-like way. He talked with me and my mother first as we sat around the round table, then said he wanted to ask her some questions and they encouraged me to leave, because it would be easier for them. I asked questions about it, why did I have to leave? My mother gave me change to get a drink from the vending machine and Dr. F. said "Yes, just go out and relax, go get a drink and come back at this time..." I mostly hung around outside the door and stuck my ear to it. I heard my mother telling of how I was doing eye exercises I had read about on the internet to improve my vision. (She later said that he noticed I was blinking a lot).


Next he talked to me alone. He asked questions about myself; what did I want to do with my life, stuff like that, and he noticed that I was shy and looking a little to the side at his books on his shelves... he then gave me four things, apologizing for not having something better. He gave me a little plastic log fence, a little plastic Mother-Hubbard-like woman, a little plastic figurine of a kid with short curly hair wearing overalls and a jersey (this figurine was bigger than the woman) and a pencil. He told me he wanted to see how I played with them. I said the little woman was the big kid's mother. I stood the fence up and leaned the mother facedown against it, then put the pencil like a spear in the kids's hands and said that he was chasing her with a spear and she was trying to escape over the fence. He asked what happened next. I said that he went to a juvenile detention center. "So now he's in the detention center," Frombonne said, putting the kid behind the fence as if it was jail cell bars, "and then what?"


"His mother comes to see him, I guess." I stood the mother on the other side of the fence/bars. I ran out of ideas and he said that was good, that I played like that, because autistic kids were more fascinated with lining things up and looking at their parts instead of playing imaginatively.


When we were talking about how I wanted to be a writer I said that I'd written a 90-page story, which included this city that was fashioned after the Periodic Table of the Elements with each street named after the element that was positioned where it was on the Periodic Table. I went on for a little too long about it. He said later that he was interested in seeing this story.


At one point I looked down at the table and saw grease marks made by my fingers. I said, apologetically, "Did I do that with my hands?" He thought I meant the scratches on the table and said it was okay, said something about my gesturing and that it was probably the rings on my fingers that had made the scratches. (He later wrote, rather accurately thank God, that he noticed my "exaggerated hand movements" that were probably due to me trying to say something but not knowing how to say it.)


He told me that my mom had told him about my teddy bears. He asked what I did with them. Did I play with them? I said sort of. I said I dressed them in clothes. He asked where I got the clothes. I said they were mine when I was a baby. He asked if the teddy bears protected me. I said no. I think I said something about how they weren't my security objects, I just liked them because... I liked them. I think I was too embarrassed to say that I loved them. I said that I was attached enough to them where I would pass them down to my kids, and they'd pass them down to theirs, and so on and so forth forever.


As we left, he said that if I ever had any questions I should come see him in his office. He reminded me that I had strengths-- I already knew I did, thank you very much, but it was still sort of nice to hear it, I guess.


Afterwards me and my mother ate at a Chinese place.


The next day at sailing camp someone asked me why I wasn't there yesterday, I said I had to go to the doctor, she asked, concerned, "Why did you have to go to the doctor?" I lied and said it was just a regular checkup, they seemed to buy it.

I was in between breaks when in a training class for Government programs learning how to investigate Medicare fraud cases when I realized the program I had heard on that morning's NPR broadcast was ME! This guy was talking about his son, and how he was pitying his own son because he was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome and that made him a high functioning Autistic and all he heard was the Autistic and was sad for him.
The kicker was the shrink turned to him and diagnosed him with it as well. He swallowed his pity quickly!

but it got me thinking and I googled AS. . .and there it was! This is what I had experienced all my life. . suddenly almost every social situation I never got, every sweet relationship that turned to poop, every bright and shining promise in my life that was flushed away as people turned away, shocked or disappointed, every joke I didn't get, every facial or body language conversation I gave conflicting or lying representation just came crashing down on my head. ( and I am still reeling from it!)

And I knew then the answer to the $64,000.00 question, "What is YOUR problem??" that I had heard all my life.


I was touched by the Pixies. . .


Merle

Well, since Merle talked about her self diagnosis, I might as well talk about mine... It is IRONIC because I went to a psychiatrist, and had the same ind of exam as Ana54 as part of the exam. But it was 33 years before she was diagnosed, and AS wasn't considered a valid diagnosis. 8-( But WHY did I go??????? I wasn't interacting with the other kids. My grades were great. I was well behaved! I beat every milestone. But SOCIALLY? FORGET IT!

Anyway, I saw a jerk on one board try to blame his actions on AS. He had a clumsy and incomplete description, but it was enough to get me to investigate. MAN, I read down the list and just said WOW! SERIOUSLY, WOW! It was like my life story, LITERALLY, was there! Of course, I then started hitting some I didn't match, but that was IT! I came here, and looked at what some where saying, etc... I was just in AWE! I mean even when starbuline spoke about how she went in the cold with no jacket. HMMP! I said *******SAME HERE********! Oh yeah, at various times I had the same problems that sinsboldly described. It really makes me wonder about race memory, etc... That so many could be so like minded.

Ok, it happened when I was 15 so I dont remember much. This doctor came to my school (forgot his name), and I took a bunch of tests and answered a bunch of questions. I remember a drawing test he made me take and I drew a dark figure in a robe where you couldnt see his face but his glaring eyes illuminated from benieth the shadow of his hood. He ended up writing this whole description of my mental state just by looking at it lol. Its what contributed to his depression diagnosis. Thats the only test I remember doing specifically, but I also know that he did a bunch of IQ/memory and other related tests as well. I dont really remember the tests he gave me to decide that I have aspergers but I think it had more to do with the questions he asked me and by studying the way I talked to him I guess. On the side he also asked a lot of personal questions, which is the reason my mom got so upset about it cause I told him about the way she treated me. I still hate the bastard for telling me it would be confidential then writing a whole report on it and sending it to my parents . Anyway its been a while since I even saw the report and years since this whole thing happened so thats pretty much all I remember.

I was 38 and in college. I was having particular trouble in sociology (go figure) and with the whole college game (social/teamwork thing -- I liked to work alone).

Anyway, I had done some testing for possible ADD, and the school psychologist told me I actually scored "rather well" on a PDD scale. More testing, and he came up with Asperger's. I remember saying, "Wow... no kidding!" Profound, eh? Then I had to get to class, go home, care for my children, do laundry, a paper.

Oh, no one in the counseling office or my two deans ever suggested I couldn't do just fine in my chosen program. One told me I had an advantage because my field utilizes/reports objective data.