If you are self diagnosed/found out on your own how did you?

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I know with the internet that it has become easier.

What I am asking is were you just googling and happened to see the word autism or aspergers?
Or did a friend bring it up, or a book, etc.

I thought of that I might have it a year before my mom or psych even considered it. Kind of silly how but 2 different people said it sounded like I had aspergers on omegle within 2 weeks. I looked it up, and it fit.

I had never heard of Asperger's before I saw Michael Burry on Bloomberg TV (he's an investor) several months ago, talking about his obsession, hyper focus and need to work alone. This totally resonated with me on an extreme level.

Then I did a few online tests which came up positive. Then I started looking into other traits and I couldn't believe how this described very personal things about me -all the things that made me realize that I was different - throughout my entire life.

I stopped doing personality tests after that because it seems like I've found my answer.
I'm only 99% sure of my Dx, and I may be schizoid - but either way, I have so many traits, it's comforting to be here on WP with others who are more like me than anyone else I know.


Edit to add: Not only have I always known I was different (I guess I became aware of this around 3rd grade), but as an adult, people have called me weird/odd to my face. The most recent was an instructor who gave an 8 student class on business writing and communication. She told me privately that my thought process is very odd.

First time I heard Asperger's and remembered it (I watched Mozart and the Wale before it) my mum told me to look it up while I was self-investigating whether I had dyslexia.
One very bad and confusing failed relationship later I was really trying to work out how I went so wrong. I was in Yahoo Answers every day and was now a regular member answering questions and obsessed with getting those points or goals or whatever tally system they had. There were a lot of answers to somebody's situation that said he had Asperger's and I completely related to everything he said, so I started my own thread asking whether they thought I had it.
They told me the usual...sounds like it...find a doctor etc.

So I got really obsessed with self-investigating. Told my mum after I printed out pages of symptoms, and she said 'oh, makes sense.'
Read a whole book about autism by Lorna Wing, the woman who decided to add AS to the DSM IV.

Two years later officially diagnosed, put on some job disability service and then put on disability.

I've already mentioned here somewhere that I was suspected of Autism as a small child in the 60s. No Asperger's back then, and most Pediatrician's were ignorant on the subject those days. So when I regained my voice after being non-verbal for 1.5 years, they dropped that.
But I've been "odd" all my life. I heard of High Functioning Autism for the first time, reading Donna William's first book. Rang many alarm bells. But I was dealing with a lot of crap & trying to cope with my very often active Crohn's disease so I sort of dropped the ball.
I do recall asking my Mother about whether or not I was autistic a couple of times, too. She is the Queen of the Nile I'm afraid. <sigh>
Heard of Asperger's in the summer of this year. Started reading up on it. Holy *beep*! That symptom list was my childhood biography. To be totally honest, I also show a couple of classical autism traits too.
Trying to get the official word now..
None of my close friends were even surprised at this revelation, BTW. I guess its pretty obvious that I have difficulties with some things. And some talents at a few, too.

Sincerely,
Matthew

I first heard of it when I read Augustine Burroughs book, "Running with Scissors" about 3 years ago. Some friends kept suggesting I read it. (Maybe it was a subtle hint too vague for my Aspie mind to fathom, they also told me about Temple Grandin, but that went over my head also). Finally I did read Burroughs book. He describes his now-famous AS brother (John Elder Roberson) and that was my first exposure. But I am female, not a train-spotter type, so it didn't click.

A year later, a friend's son was being considered for a diagnosis, so I looked into it more. Then it all went "Click".

Figuring it all out was one of the most liberating moments of my life and it had nothing to do with shrinks or the internet. It was a simple matter of meeting a young child who I knew had this mysterious thing called Aspergers. I had more or less given up on discovering the source of my own peculiarites until watching her in action. After spending a day seeing her interact with my own child, I pretty much knew. When I mentioned my suspicions to my wife (who has a background in early childhood education), she easily agreed with my assessment and said she had already suspected it about me. Further research has validated my self-analysis.

For me, it was mainly two things:

- my sister was working for an agency which did in-home therapy for autistic kids, and with what she learned from this combined with the child-development classes she was taking in college, she suspected that what was "wrong" with me all these years has been Asperger's. (although she is NOT qualified to make that sort of diagnosis)

- one of my female online friends had been diagnosed, and as we got to talking about symptoms and all that, I began to suspect that I, too, had Asperger's.

Had some issues as a kid, looking back they were pretty much identical to the symptoms looked for when diagnosing Asperger's nowadays. Parents took me to see several shrinks but knowledge of Asperger's was pretty much non-existent at the time (mid to late eighties).

Always had serious issues relating to or dealing with people, always knew there was something wrong with me, but never knew just what. Had a lot of contact with with a doctor, a GP, while dealing with some unrelated health issues. He brought up the autism spectrum at one point, suggested I get evaluated. My only experience with autism at the time was a cousin who fit the low-functioning non-verbal stereotype, so I rejected the idea.

Several years later, after some rather disastrous social failures, I came across an article about Asperger's. Could relate to it all too well. Started reading more and more about it. The more I read, the more I could relate. Reading the DSM criteria for diagnosis clinched it for me.

Working in childcare. I had two key children with survear autism, who's behaviour I just 'got'; after a little bit of internet research I talked to my mum about it (she's worked in education four about thirty years, and is almost as good as the SENCOs), who's reaction can be best summed up as "well duh".

I had a few things happen in quick succession that led me to a "well duh" moment about myself.

My daughter was officially diagnosed with autism. We'd (her dad and I) been validated by her team for our instinctive application of accomodations for her at home.

Then we found a few books:
Temple Grandin
Born on a Blue Day
Horse Boy
Look me in the Eye
Curious Incident of the Dog in Nighttime
Send in the Idiots

In the last one, the author mentioned that quite a few people on the spectrum also have parents on the spectrum. Ding ding ding...

This brought a lot of relief in finally understanding why things--like relating to other people especially-- have always been so hard. I had always blamed myself for just "not getting it" or worse yet being too stupid and naive to ever get it.

Now I don't care so much

Going on 4 years ago now I was reading posts on a personality forum and they were discussing Asperger's and there was a link to the Aspie quiz. I took it and it said "You're very likely an Aspie." I didn't know what that meant and I basically laughed it off. You know, just another stupid internet quiz. But since it mentioned autism my interest was piqued just enough that I started looking into it more. The more I read, the more I saw how I fit the description. Still though there were some aspects that didn't quite fit either. At this point I feel I'm a bit too mild to receive a diagnosis but still I'm closer than anyone I know. My life experiences are more like aspies than NTs. At least I have a better understanding of myself and no longer force myself to try to do things that don't work for me just to appear to be more like other people.

I saw a post about the connection between autism/Asperger's and introversion in an introversion forum I belong to. I started researching from there out of curiosity.

I had been reading about autism my whole life, but that had always been low-functioning classic autism. I gained a college friend who was a non-verbal (for the first few years of his life), diagnosed autistic, and come to find out he was a genius-level and photographic memory synesthete. He and I became instant best friends and we got along very well. Shortly after then I was reading the Wikipedia page for autism (for the umpteenth time), and I saw the Asperger's link, so I clicked and read about the "little professors." I knew exactly the type of person it referenced, but I still didn't think it fit me exactly. I found a whole slew of similarities, but I still didn't think that was me, for the same reason that while I have OCD, I can sit and watch As Good As It Gets and know I'm nowhere near as OCD disabled as Jack Nicholson's character, although I do closely resemble Monk, it's just that none of my OCD patterns are detrimental to social interactions (any OCD traits that caused me to get negative looks from others I learned to adjust in some form or fashion while growing up). Fast forward a couple of years later and thoughts keep progressing in my head and new social issues have caused me to start really questioning things, and I finally asked my autistic friend very timidly, thinking that I would upset him for ever even considering the notion, if he thought I might somehow have autistic traits. "Oh, you're most definitely on the spectrum," he responded. I still didn't completely take it in, but more issues in the next couple years led me to start trying to deal with my symptoms without knowing the cause. I've never been diagnosed, but I know that everything I have read and heard about that helps others on the spectrum has helped me, and that's really all that matters for me.

My mother and I were trying to figure out some things my nephew was doing that appeared neurological in origin (odd movements). The only thing that fitted was AS. Funnily, it also fitted me.

We're both diagnosed with it.

I first heard about Asperger's last month when a lady on a message board I read said her son had been diagnosed with ADHD and Asperger's.

I was diagnosed with ADHD in 2008 but had never heard of Asperger's before so went searching on Google. I found blogs written by those who have it and it was like they were talking about me! I always thought I had more than ADHD because the members of the ADHD community I belong to didn't seem to have all the same troubles I do with things.

After reading those Asperger's blogs and threads here on Wrong Planet I feel like I've found my people... LOL!

I watched this movie when i was young ( i was 5 ish) called the bad seed. It's about this little blonde girl thats a sociopath and goes around murdering people all the while giving this outward appearance of a perfect little girl, always polite and well behaved. Then she'd do something nasty like push someone down stairs.

After watching it, not long after, a relative died and as im watching everyone cry over it im sitting there and not feeling anything at all. That was the first moment that i realised that there was something wrong with me. Obviously im aspie but back then i was really fearful that i was a sociopath. Really fearful.

I then spent my whole childhood obsessed with not being selfish and feeling guilty for just how uncontrollably selfish i was. I was already really polite and well behaved but i think it drove me to extremes, it just made me very strict with myself and my own thoughts and behavior. The sad thing is, i was already nicer than 99% of people but because i didn't feel like i was nice naturally my guilt would drive me to make even more effort to be nice. I'd always blame myself for every horrible thing other people did to me and i'd just try harder to be a better person, i always just saw other peoples bad behavior towards me as being something i deserved. Sad that i never outgrew blaming myself for everything that goes wrong, i still feel that way.


That was how i knew there was something different with me and then i spent the rest of my childhood observing myself and trying to put my finger on it. I wasn't obsessed with it, just i knew it was there so i put it on the back burner with the intention of coming back to it when i had more information. I eventually worked it out when i was about 24-25, the thing that made it click was when someone said, "aspies have to understand intellectually what others understand instinctively". After i read that i knew without doubt, it just made everything click into place finally, although i admit i still had doubts until i got officially dxed.


I've never mentioned that fear about being a sociopath to anyone before, seems weird to type it out.