New to Site - Adult who may have autism

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Hi.

I am a 38 year old mother of two. My 4 year old son has recently been diagnosed with PDD-NOS. He is verbal (but delayed), affectionate (but shy around new people) and currently being helped by a wonderful consulting team and two excellent ABI's. He also loves preschool.

While I was waiting for a formal diagnosis, I was concerned about his speech delay and some behaviours (such as being sensitive to certain stimuli - haircuts, showers, loud noises, etc). I started reading information about Autism and the symptoms.

I started wondering of I had a mild form of Autism myself.

I remember enjoying preschool and school in my very early years. I remember starting to feel "different" starting about Grade 1. I couldn't seem to fit in with what others were doing. I would have moments of anxieity. I had trouble fitting in right through to high school (few friends, NO boyfriends). I remember liking to sit in my room with the lights. I found it comforting to sit and stare at the wall.

I also remember NOT liking noisy places (most teenage girls want to go to dances/clubs). I found these way to noisy. Although I liked amusement rides (roller coasters and such).

I was not good at math or computers, but enjoy reading information (I remember my dad saying that I was "weird" when he saw me reading the dictionary when I was a young teen. I found the words interesting and liked reading pages and pages of words and their meanings). I guess I always felt my interests were "weird".

Anyways, I had trouble with jobs as I sometimes had trouble following verbal direction and never really fit in with my co-workers.

Strangely, I always was interested in the human body (having taken First Aid courses just to learn more and to be able to help people in need). I enrolled in a Vocational Nursing program and graduated. Still didn't fit in well with my classmates and wondered what kind of nurse I would make. I ended up getting work with a nursing home and worked with people with dementia. I liked working with this client population because they are easy to "read" - if they are happy - they show it very obviously. If they are sad, mad, hurt, etc. they are very clear with both their words (if verbal) and body language. I am not a perfect nurse (but who is really) - but I think that I make a positive contribution to the health and well being of the people I work with.

I am also very lucky that I have a strong unionized environment. There were times I clashed with my co-workers and had anxiety attacks. But I was not penalized by my employer.

Looking back at all of this (and so much more that I didn't include here) - i wonder if I am autistic too. My husband might be too (he teaches math/science and shared that he also has traits as described in the literature that we have read).

In many ways - I am glad I have learned about the signs of autism. I feel more at ease and at peace with myself. I am even getting along better at work as I recognize my limitations and am careful to be extra observant when dealing with people and getting clarification when I am unsure what they are telling me.

Anyways - I am hoping to hear from some other adults who may have autism (or are high functioning formally diagnosed). I would love to hear your stories and coping strategies.

Canadian Rose

Welcome to WP.

You seem to have AS/ASD traits and experiences. I'm a 40+ male diagnosed a few years ago with AS, and with a long history of misdiagnoses and attempted diagnoses going back to grade school. Something was clearly very off about me, everyone saw it, and no one quite knew what to do about it. The one thing that no one considered was to listen to me and let me do what I wanted to do.

My coping strategies involve precise lifestyle management, living and working alone (but with two cats), medication for seizures, and more. Since I have sensory issues and synesthesia, I have a very unusual home (almost barren, meticulously organized) and lifestyle (I cut my own hair, for instance).

You'll find many adults here with lots to share about their own experiences, or experiences with children on the spectrum.

Hi there, Canadian Rose.

A lot of people who are diagnosed with autism as adults realised that they may be on the Spectrum after a child in the family was diagnosed.

I'm a 41 year old woman, my 7 year old son was diagnosed with Asperger's earlier this year, and I recognise many traits in myself, my husband and some of his extended family, and in my mother's side of the family.

Like you, I've found it helpful to recognise these traits in myself. I have approached my GP for a referral so that I can be assessed for Asperger's myself. I have learned my way out of a lot of the traits I exhibited as a child, but I am curious and would like to be able to find out more about myself.

Welcome to WP!

Hi Canadian Rose. Welcome to Wrong Planet.

I have always loved reading the dictionary. It's my favorite book and one of my special interests. I sometimes go there to look up one word and wind up spending a couple hours because as you know, one word leads to another.

Yes the dictionary. For me it was a whole encyclopedia. I supposed I could have spent my teenage years on underage drinking, screaming my head off, and generally acting like a back patting, high fiving idiot. There's lots more that can be learned from that! (sarcasm)

Hehe Dictionaries are nice, but I liked encyclopedias much better.

You definitely have some autistic traits there, and it's no surprise considering your child is autistic. Maybe it will let you connect with your child better than a completely typical parent might; I hope so. When you are growing up autistic the whole world, practically, is telling you you're either a pitiful walking tragedy or a freak who should stop being so weird, and it's nice to have mom on your side. I mean, obviously you're not going to be the same as your kid; people are different and autistic people are more different from each other than most people; but sharing the experience of being different can give you a head start on understanding your kid.

Welcome to the party CanadianRose!

It seems like you have aspergers to me... but I'm not a doctor, yet. I hope you learn and connect in all kinds of strange and interesting topics here I like have. It's nice not to be completely alone.

Try this test. It's pretty accurate.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

Welcome to WP, Canadian Rose!

You sound about as mildly affected as I consider myself to be. Growing up I never really "fit in" like the rest of the kids, had mild sensory issues, spent hours in front of the tape recorder talking and singing to myself, and basically lived "in my own world" through junior high school. There were other differences, too, but those were the big ones.I had very supportive parents growing up, and I think that has helped me more than I ever realized before.

Ultimately I don't think it matters a whole lot on which side of the "line" us mildly-affected adults fall. I've come to learn it's less of a line and more of a fog that no one can draw a clear boundary around. I'm functioning great, I know what my limits are, and I've constructed my world to fit those limits. That's good enough for me.

Hi and welcome,
It sounds to me like you have Aspergers or high functioning Autism

Welcome to WP, you do sound to me that you might have AS. The difficulty in reading people is a strong indicator to me, as is reading non fiction (in your case the dictionary).

Please sit back relax and make yourself feel at home.

Most of the folk here are very nice and you will find that WP is much less of a bear pit than many online communities. However if you ever need to contact a mod then I would suggest that you contact one of the following people (there are other mods but I never can recall the names of all the mods).

Quatermass
SinsBoldly
makuranososhi

well only investigated the Autism/Aspebergers stuff when I was in my late 30's and found I fit the profile myself, done some of the online tests and found I score really highly as to Autism/Aspbegers. Pretty much functionally Autisitic. When I grew up we were just reguarded as very shy or just very odd.
Even got sent to the idiot class when I was 6 because they felt I was retarded in some way, well was moved out in less than 6 months as they realised I was not stupid just not paying attention in class because I was in my own little world. They managed to point me in the direction of C.S.Lewis Narnia books and I have never looked back.
Looking at my own family it seems the traits are everywhere both my grandfathers were shy non talkative types my own mother is not a touchy feeley type and hates gossip.
Whatever you do not try to shield your child from the real world as at some point they will need to deal with it, it may not be fun it will not be pleasant but will help them hopefully to learn the skills to compensate.
As you know the real world is not nice and nobody owes you anything. All you can is try to prepare your child for the big bad world out there, and encourage any healthy interests that will make them a productive member of society.
My own daughter liked to read the dictionary as well but seems to be a social butterfly.

Welcome to WP!

Sure... it's the same for me. And with the encyclopedia too.

As a kid I would sometimes grab the dictionary of foreign words when I was at my grandparents and just sit reading in it. The adults noticed it and would marvel at what an intelligent kid I was.

But it seems that dictionary reading is very aspie-like. One thing that hit me when trying to find out about AS, and I saw here on WP that others had done that. I just thought it was an oddity of mine all alone.

But it was a good example of how I recognised myself more in the descriptions people on WP gave of themselves, rather than in the doctors' diagnostic descriptions of AS.

Your childhood sounds a lot like mine, CanadianRose, except that I spent more time with medical encyclopedias than dictionaries (I didn't like having to wade through all the common, easy words that I already knew). Those medical encyclopedias were the "Wikipedia" of my childhood- one symptom or disease would reference another, and so on, until I was using all the fingers on one hand to mark places in the book to return to. Nowadays, there is the "back" button in the browser- much easier on the fingers!

I am dx'ed with NLD (nonverbal learning disorder) by the way, which is a cousin of AS.