Did you identify with classical autism at first (or AS)?

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Read the other questions at the bottom to make sure you didn't get the caption wrong.

I knew about classical autism first. I never knew about autism before I read about classical a year before I went to be tested for AS or HFA.
When I read about classical, I thought that it sounded very much like me. I was already wondering whether I was a totally unique weirdo that had some causes of autism.

At that point I wondered whether I should be worried.

I only then read about Asperger's and how autistic people don't need to have a speech delay. Which again didn't answer all my questions even after diagnosis, because descriptions of AS sounded different from those of classical in some few important aspects.

Only later I learnt about how some countries have a PDD-NOS diagnosis and that it means more people have traits that are scattered across the spectrum. I think I have a pretty good idea how I relate to the spectrum now.

Did anyone else knew of classical autism before knowing about AS?

Or for those who're classical, did you first identify with AS?

Did you think it sounded familiar or similar or totally different from you?

am have been diagnosed with several ASDs,but never identified with any,it had been assessed for at two but misdiagnosed with multiple labels as they said autism was caused by brain damage and the scans didnt show any,am didn't get a correct term for it until late teens,and only started to know about them after diagnosis.
am typical autistic [classical] but do identify with one hfa/aspie trait-am good with computers [not coding or anything advanced,but in many other ways].


am always thought were on the classic side Sora,am remember a lot of the posts that wrote-definitely seem more autie than aspie.

I originally thought I was developing schizophrenia which scared me a lot which was probably the point of the exercise. I've always had pronounced social difficulties and I researched the conditions that could cause this. AS fitted better than schizophrenia because I don't have delusions or hallucinations and I did not respond well when I took anti-psychotics. I may also be a little schizoid but that doesn't really seem correct as I have a good sense of humour. So AS with the obsessions, social difficulties and sensory issues is probably a better fit. I never thought I might have classical autism as my speech and development were both relatively normal. I can also pretend to be an NT when it has been necessary and I don't know if people with classical autism can do this. My GP's son has classic autism and I think if I displayed any obvious signs he probably would have noticed.

I learned about classical autism first, but I did not know much about it until I was about 15. At that age, I read "Nobody Nowhere" by Donna Williams and strongly identified with it. So I concluded that I was autistic, but I did not tell anyone for fear of being institutionalized.

I did not learn about AS until shortly before I was diagnosed with it.

I was diagnosed as classical when I was about 3. I recently learned about A.S. and PPD-NOS, but neither of those fit me. So, I believe that I am still a classic autie.

Classic autism.

The first time I read about autism was back in 1976, when I read a story about a girl with classic autism, called "For the Love of Ann."

I first heard of AS around 1997, and I thought the description fit me pretty well. It talked about people who amassed a great deal of factual knowledge, but were socially awkward.

I don't really identify with either, just autism in general. Some have told me that I look very much classic autistic, other's have said that I fit a very typical Asperger profile. Whichever.

I heard a story on National Public Radio and said "wow, that is ME!" two years later a psychologist confirmed my self diagnosis. I'm an Aspie.

Merle

Asperger's. I learned about it while researching ADHD, but I can't remember the first time it really made sense to me. The first diagnosis I wondered about was attachment disorder, because at that point I didn't know about autism. I didn't seriously consider it, though, because all the cases I read about were the result of severe neglect in early childhood, and I hadn't had that. My first exposure to autism was through "The Secret of Susan", which is a very unrealistic stereotype of autism, complete with savant skills, and while I identified with the autistic girl in it a little bit, the description didn't help much because it didn't tell me anything about autism. For a long time, I thought that my social isolation was the cause of my poor social skills, rather than vice versa, as I am pretty sure is the case today.

Autism.

The different social manifestation (more aloof/passive than odd/eccentric or stilted/overly formal out there in a social setting], the added repetitive behaviours [in addition to the "interest" of AS], plus the developmental delays.

That's my "official" label.

Of note, I first identified with Schizophrenia [as I knew nothing about Autism/AS], just without the visual and auditory hallucinations (I have some delusions in the form of a clinical level of paranoia). A psycho said I didn't have such for I didn't hear voices (she, obviously never heard of Simple Schizophrenia, as I fit such).

I'd rather Schizophrenia, but one doesn't have a say in these things.

I knew of classical autism prior to AS, although I was aware of the wide range of functioning levels.

Given the diagnostic criteria, I identify with AS with some HFA-like aspects. It was a pretty solid connection, given some cross-over.


M.

I identified with classical autism first simply because I didn't know there was any other kind. I actually grew up wondering if there was any such thing as being slightly autistic or if it was a clear cut yes or no kind of thing. As soon as I found out about AS I knew that was the one that fit.

Definitely Aspergers. I read about it and I then knew what had been happening. With Autism, I dont think I would qualify, I had advanced speech & reading, but delayed social skills and crap fine motor skills... definitely aspergers though I know some aspies had delayed speech.

The Babysitter's Club book? That was the book that I first read about autism in, and the subject fascinated me from then on.

I heard of autism first, and (apart from that first book, and a few others that discussed only the most severe cases), the autistic people who wrote/were described in the books were so scarily like me that I had to wonder if I might be autistic. Then I read about Asperger's syndrome, which served to further confirm my suspicions.

I heard of autism before diagnosis, but not in any sense at all that told me what it meant, or made me identify with it.

I heard of Asperger much after diagnosis.

I was diagnosed first with PDD-NOS (was regarded as low-functioning at the time for reasons I do not understand and am no longer in touch with the retired psychiatrist who diagnosed me) then with just autistic 'disorder' (no functioning level attached).

In between that time I knew some people diagnosed with autism, PDD-NOS, and Asperger, mostly those who went to school with me. I did not identify with any general concept of autism at the time, but identified very strongly with a girl in my school who was autistic, and who was also the first time I ever could easily read someone's body language outside a few family members, or who could easily read mine. She also shared many of my sensory interests, as well as cats, and we ended up good friends. I knew vaguely that I was considered PDD-NOS which related to autism, and also had a lot of psych labels, but I didn't at first fully connect that with the degree to which she and I connected, especially given that I did not connect in any such way with any of my other autistic classmates. (One of whom I have run into on the net since then, and I didn't even know she existed at the time! She was diagnosed with Asperger's.)

I also identified with autistic authors such as Donna Williams and Temple Grandin in between my first diagnosis and my second, but I did not identify with outward descriptions of autism, due to a lack of understanding of how my behavior appeared to others, as well as a lack of understanding of the biases most people brought to my appearance.

I also identified with the writing of a man who was said in the book to be schizophrenic but who was later diagnosed bipolar. I mostly identified with his irregular sleep patterns (I could often go days without sleep and then sleep for days, and go from hyperactive to inactive, etc), his going from lots of activity to very little (but not the associated moods), and his drug abuse. Something diagnosed as bipolar runs in my family as well, but I don't seem to have it, although it was suspected off and on due to the family history and my activity patterns. (I have now found out it supposedly runs in the same families as autism a lot of the time.)

My earliest suspicions, because I had major shifts and losses in my abilities while going through puberty (also gains but I didn't understand that at the time for the most part), were that I was "crazy" of some generic kind, or worse, just some kind of defective that didn't have a name. When I heard that schizophrenia was caused by sensory overload (which was a theory back then, not sure if it is now) then I identified with that idea (especially since I was shutting down so much in response to overload at that time in my life), and of course many traits listed as schizophrenic are also autistic traits, plus I wasn't sure my intrusive thoughts (more like what's right now known as OCD) and extreme fantasizing weren't some cognitive form of hallucinations or delusions.

I remember also hearing from my brother about the subconscious mind, and believing then that my subconscious hated me and was trying to make war on me or something because I thought that my increased difficulties with things must be subconscious somehow. (My mother was also very into Freudian and Jungian psychology for awhile so I grew up around these ancient and very false psychoanalytic ideas.)

It took me a really long time to identify with autism. I never identified much with descriptions of Asperger's, even when I didn't yet know the actual extent of my language loss in early childhood, because they put so much emphasis on language skills and I knew my language did not fit the pattern they described at all. My length of time identifying was due to not understanding both the biases of the diagnosis and the way my outward appearance was taken, but I did identify with autistic people (some more than others) and self-descriptions by autistic people (because those always included internal experiences).