How do I explain my Aspergers diagnosis to my family???

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Hello everyone,

In January I was recently diagnosed with Aspergers from a Psychology to get services with the Department of Rehabilitation. Earlier in 2015, my supervisor at my current part-time job mentioned to me at a one-on-one meeting that I might have Aspergers because I was hitting on some girls at work and they were giving me body language and social cues that I could not read.

My sister and brother-in-law think that I have ADHD and hence why I am not able to keep a job nor be stable in a career.

If your sister is the one who brought up the possibility off ADHD with you, I would start with her. I remind her that she suggested testing for ADHD, and that you went in for a psych eval. And then let her know that the psych eval revealed aspergers instead of ADHD. Hopefully, she will become an ally that will help you figure out the best way, or even if, you can explain this to the rest of your family. If you really trust her, you could show her your report. Or you could take that aspie_quiz at http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php and show her the results of that. That test is really fun because it gives you a visual that people can immediately understand. Also, if someone says that your aspergers traits are just normal, you can invite them to take the test themselves and compare the results. It's a nifty way to step around the problems with people not believing you.

*I'm assuming your family and your sister are relatively healthy, and that it would be safe for you to tell her - for example, she's not going to make fun of you or gossip about it.

I was diagnosed younger as ADHD. I honestly have a hard time talking to my sister. I know that she cares and can never seem to reach that conclusion. This is coming up right now as an issue because my sister and brother-in-law are pushing me to get a career since they see that I'm 30 and have no career.

They keep wanting me to get into the health profession but I seem uneasy about it because I love music so much and have been thinking about getting into some job involving music.

I just don't at this point. I have tried explaining this to people in my family, and the only ones that are receptive to any of this is my sister in law, and the brother I am closest to. For the sister in law it is just because she would like to know if she, in the future, will have a chance of having a kid with ASD, and my other brother is dyslexic so he understands it. I probably will mention this to my little sister as she grows older, but she is 10, and won't really understand it that well.
As for other members of my family:
My mom is almost certain to have some form of schizophrenia, and has become just a nuance to talk to because she doesn't believe psychologists, and also when explaining this to my aunt, dad's side, my mom jokingly said, "that he thinks he has autism" which I had to point out that I went to a psychologist, and they thought so as well.
One of my brothers, when I said I had asperger's responded that I have "Ass disease" and, "kids in gaza have it harder than you", just for context that my family are arab muslim, and out of all of them, I look the whitest yet is the only one who can speak arabic.
I have never really brought this up to my dad because muslim families aren't the best to explain this to. If it isn't shaitan (Arabic for satan) doing something to your brain, then it is you don't work hard enough or something. Plus my dad is on one respect a really hard working father and I can't thank him enough for that, but he is also so absent from my life, and when you account for a schizophrenic mother it becomes a recipe for disaster in my early life.