How did you feel when you were first diagnosed?

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I wasn't told when I was diagnosed, so I gradually found out over time. I did not even know the full extent of what was said about me until I got into my medical records.

i've never been diagnosed

what i do remember is the first time i met an autistic girl-just briely- , that was such a special meeting, i felt like we were truly understanding each other , and i kept on talking about it, but nobody ever responded.
later i encountered an essay in Oliver Sacks' books, and again i tried to verify if anyone i knew understood why i felt so related (they told me it was just my imagination, or some fashionable idea)

my brother works with autistic people with mental difficulties, and a lot of what he told me sounded familiar but he said it couldn't be (but now he is ready to listen and admitting i'm right)

my son's behaviour is quiet special (easily disturbed, can't stop doing things when busy, can't have changes, etc. at the point of getting realy disturbed and angry) and someone mentioned he might have autistic traits,
i looked it up and so i came to the asperger explanation, recognising myself (and a reason for being skilled but unemployed for so long, my schooltrouble, and my weird connection to the world which was always minimalised by my own friends-but they have a normal social life like work etc)

i do not know whether i will go for a diagnosis

too busy with my comeback (studying again with great succes, although bored) and apparentely i'm rather good with young children and they need language teachers so desperately, i won't have trouble finding a job when i finish my studies.

but maybe for our son , don't know, is it better or not ? does it change anything, do people understand you better ? it can also work out the other way out i think

I was diagnosed when I was 16 and junior in high school. I was like ok, thanks mom, which one more thing to add to my list of things that make me different. However, it was when I was 18 and listing to Talk of Nation:Sciene Friday (a National Public Radio show), that really understood what I had.

May I post some of your responses (names excluded) on another site where a parent was told by a social worker not to tell her child that he has Aspergers? This is the site and the thread is something like "Told Not To Tell Child He Has Aspergers" (I think) and it's definitely on the forum marked "General."

www.conductdisorders.com

Gotta love stoopid social workers

I found out in eighth grade and I was not happy about it at all. Not very much of the description fit me, like not being social and having trouble tying shoes and stuff like that (I am very social and I've been able to tie shoes since age six). It just made me feel stupid. That and embarrassed. And four years later, I'm still not completely accepting about having AS.

You have my permission, but I think it might be even more relevant to post links to this:

http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=233

And to this:

http://web.syr.edu/%7Ejisincla/bridging.htm

The first one is something I wrote, the second is something someone else wrote, but both deal in part with the topic of why it's important to let kids know that they're autistic. By the way, I think it should be done casually, not in an overdramatic way, more like kids find out they're left-handed. And it shouldn't be done in a way where autism is only brought up in terms of the things the person can't do, because that will give them a skewed view of themselves (and "autism" becomes "everything bad about myself" in that scenario). And, you can quote me on that too.

Well, I was skeptical at first because I was diagnosed suddenly and in a roundabout way. I had read about Asperger's while I was searching to see if I really did have OCD (I have both), but I didn't read much about it. What I did read focused on the severe social deficits. I'm not horribly socially inept. My Asperger's is mainly in the obsessive interests and the fact that I dominate conversations and ramble on. When my CBT therapist first proposed it and said that I did indeed fit the DSM criteria, I was doubtful because I don't like getting a label that I don't deserve. Then, when I began reading more about it and seeing that it really was me, I was truly proud. I was very relieved when I got the official diagnosis by my current therapist, an Asperger's specialist. Now I can officially say I have it and not have any qualms or doubts about it. It is really obvious. Two Aspies I'm close with knew before I did...
-OddDuckNash99-

I didn't feel different at all because after reading description of asperger syndrome and it sounding my biography I was really just seeing a doctor to get a rubber stamp on my self diagnosis.
When I was reading the description (on wikipedia in what I've heard is a rare instance of it being accurate) I was quite shocked at seeing myself described on a web page, but after years of asking the question "what's wrong with me?" several times a day I was glad to have an answer.

I was diagnosed about a week ago.


I don't really care...I am old enough (34) that I feel like I have made it though the BS.

though I did, and still do, feel twinges of guilt, for perhaps causing my children (one AS, one moderate autism) to be how they are.

I can only hope to be more understanding than my parents were (not their fault...they just thought I was a "problem" kid) ...so they aren't miserable like I was...and they can understand that everyone...EVERYONE...is different...and that is what makes each of us interesting and unique.



sorry for roaming off topic.