Discovering AA/AS and age

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My experience is about the same as stinkypuppy's, except I'll only be 28 in 29 days.

It would have been nice to know what the issue was off the bat, instead of wondering why I didn't fit in with all the other kids, why I couldn't think like them, and going through doctors and drugs and everything.

If someone had only said, you know what, her brain is just wired differently. Embrace it, and help her to do the same. Find activities she likes, be there for her if she gets made fun of by the other kids, and other than a few behaviors that may seem a little "odd", she's fine.

I'm not sure about the average age of people here, but I am just guessing that a lot of members are are quite young? (Under 30? rough guess)
There must be a lot of people in the general population who are on the spectrum but who haven't heard of it, and are going through life muddled, confused, isolated, wondering why they don't fit in, with a vague feeling that something is wrong with them but they don't know what it is.
When someone new joins who has only found about AS either by DX or self DX they always say what a relief it is, to know what it is that has caused them to feel the way they have done, sometimes for many many years. It must be a positive thing that there is more about it in the media, although sometimes it is portrayed very negatively, sensationally and occasionally downright incorrectly.
Can I ask those who found out about their Asperger's/autism late, how you feel about it, and do you wish you could have found out sooner.
My own feelings about this (I was in my early 40's) is that I wish I'd found out a lot sooner, chiefly for the reason that it would have been so helpful to know that I wasn't actually an alien abandoned on planet earth by Venusian parents I think my early years would have been a lot easier.
Any thoughts about this?

Fixed

Cant say I wish I had found out sooner there is the possiblity it might have been beneficial or it could have been harmful theres no way to know its complete speculation.

Chaos theory really puts a damper on time travel fantasies and the whole regret thing

I'm in my mid-40s and only stumbled upon AS earlier this year.I'd always known I was different
and awkward in social aspects of life,so it was a relief to find out there was actually a condition
that seemed to explain a lot of my puzzling behaviour and traits
I do wish I'd known about it maybe a few years earlier,perhaps in my late 20s.
Not sure if I could personally have coped with knowing at a much younger age but that's mainly because there was very little known about AS in those days. Now I think it's best to find out as young as possible considering there is more support and advice to be had,especially for
kids and their families who face a potentially challenging time.People also mature earlier now in general.

You mean out of three wishes, would I spend one on wishing for the Psych community to have come up to speed on AS twenty or thirty years ago?? I knew, like so many here, that I wasn't part of the 'regular crowd', but to put the AS label on it?? Hmmmmmm. It's tough enough these days to convince someone I have it. I imagine that IF I had known, say when I was in High School, WOULD I have made adjustments to my behavior?? Yes, I would have liked to known, and then do what I could to not stand so far out of the crowd. I also would have paid more attention to girls in my High School that didn't do girly stuff with their hair, wore t-shirts and jeans, with little or no make-up, and did well in chemistry class. AAaaaaaahhh, now you've made me all nostalgic ! !! !!

(BTW, Starr, how old are you now?)

Fast approaching the big 50! But sometimes I feel about 12

I found out and was diagnosed with Aspergers last year, when i was 16.
Firstly i was relieved as after many years of trying to fit in i concluded that i was defective. I had an inherent personality defect that meant that i was doomed to having no friends. It was also fascinating when i went on websites etc as i could understand and relate to, for once, other people.
However i was alos extremely furious and cursing existence in general and my diagnosis in particular as i had just dropped out of high school without finishing my exams, though i did get them on appeal.
I had a lot of problems all through my school years particularly near the end, and all, ALL, can be traced to my AS.
I Am still angry at life and my parents, teachers etc, for accepting for many years that i was just me, a little shy, a little strange, but just me.
I feel that if i had been diagnosed sooner i could have got some kind of help in coping in everything i struggled with, all the years i felt like the outsider desperately trying to fit in, the assingments i could never understand. Then maybe, maybe i wouldn't have thrown away four years of hard work, and what feels like the rest of my life.

Now i am a Watcher, watching the world go by.

Or due to the differences in the things you said and did you could have ended up being hit by a bus

I wish

Very interesting question.

I'm 28 and didn't find out about AS until earlier this year, when I was 27. Although I'm totally accepting of AS now, I honestly do not know if I would have been able to handle the AS realization when I was younger. It was already a severe shock when recognizing that I had AS finally hit me, and it took me two months to recover from that shock. Had I learned of AS years ago, the poor esteem problems that I had back then probably would have thrown me into a severe depression. So in a way, I suppose that it was good that I only found out about it now, when my life and emotions were much more stable.

It's all good now, though.

I can put my hand up for this one.

I knew I was somehow different by the age of 5.
(being the only kid in my first year at school who could read, and who wore glasses, pretty much marked me out for everybody else. My first nickname was "the prof")

forty-three years later I found out why. I'd had other tentative and partial answers before that, but AS is by far a better fit.

If it had been available as a diagnosis then, and if my parents and school authorities had taken the implications on board, yes, I can see the potential for a happier and less scarring childhood and adolescence.

And the dark possibility of being labelled mentally abnormal and written off.

My experience is like plutos. I ALWAYS attracted autistic types, and some of that stuff fit, but there was the fact that I was so different from that spec. The US apparantly rewrote the definition of autism in 1996 JUST for people like me!

Steve

I dont consider it a condition

Having said that, if I knew at an earlier age I could have better prepped myself for things like education.

Cool Thread, Starr ! !! How about we eldest spokespeople start posting our pics?? C'mon, don't be a buncha scaredy cats ! !!

diagnosed when i was 35....there is a period of reflection..the woulda, shoulda, coulda period.....but i am happy to know about it an dget on with life...drop the regret and move on...no easier way to say it...you hav an answer and are a lot happier to be shureeee.

I was diagnosed with AS at age ten or so, after my first epilliptic fit, and I guess I actually forgot about it for six years! Anyway, about four months ago, the situation cropped up again, and I remembered about it and started acknowledging it, and as a result I joined here. Knowing, but not acknowledging it, at age ten, until age sixteen, has felt like a natural and smooth bump in the road for me. Because I had known about it earlier, it just felt WAY easier to accept my differences.

Another reason why it was so easy was because my parents were extremely suppourtive. My mum said that during Primary school, she stuck up for me heaps, and when the principal said 'Oh, he's just more eccentric than the other kids', my mum said that she clearly didn't understand AS at all, and she considered switching schools. No need, I went to Intermediate the next year, and fortunately that principal is no longer in charge of that school.

Even now, my parents are behind me. I mean, why else have I been given extra time in my exams, where I can sit in a seperate room and not be distracted by everyone else and the vastness of the hall where we usually take the exams? I feel really lucky. At my age, I still have friends (most with AS start losing contact with friends after High School), so I am able to explain the why's about me. They are understanding, and have taken this into their stride, and we still hang out and laugh and cry and have fun.

So yeah, there's my life story!