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TheSilentOne
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13 Nov 2017, 9:28 am

I was only three, so it was my family's decision, but they decided after they were referred to a specialist when I started preschool and the staff there noticed I "wasn't quite like the other students" and that I had odd speech patterns and refused to play with the other kids. I had a lot of similar traits as my cousin, who had been diagnosed a year earlier, so I think that was another factor in them getting me evaluated.


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Benjamin the Donkey
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13 Nov 2017, 9:44 am

I think you mean "spurred".

It was my own decision. There was no diagnosis when I was young, and I wanted confirmation for what I and some others had long suspected.


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Last edited by Benjamin the Donkey on 13 Nov 2017, 10:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

ASPartOfMe
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13 Nov 2017, 10:26 am

bunnyb wrote:
I knew when my son was diagnosed. I asked the person doing his diagnosis why he had autism and she looked at me and said 'Well the apple doesn't fall from the tree' which confirmed what I was suspecting. He is a carbon copy of me. I didn't seek a formal diagnosis until I had a serious accident and spent time in hospital and rehab. I couldn't cope with it at all and the staff just didn't get why I struggled and the consultant refused to believe I could have autism because I didn't have a formal diagnosis. As soon as I could walk unassisted, I told them I wanted to leave. They did everything to try and stop me leaving. They even tried to get an independent guardian appointed to stop me but my Husband put a stop to that. I left after 4 weeks in rehab. They had wanted me to be there for months. I couldn't do it. It was sensory torture. So I decided to get what I refer to as my identity papers just in case I ever end up needing to prove a Dr that yes I do have autism.


Adults finding out they are on the spectrum as a result of their child's diagnoses is common. Either like in your case the clinician picks it up or while reading about autism to find out whats up with their child they come to realize what they are reading describes them.

I had to spend 14 months in a rehab place when I should have been there 9 or 10 months. They do want to kidnap you and keep you there for the rest of your life. Not as bad as a hospital but still the lack of privacy and sensory issues were tough. After a while, they did get to know me enough to give me some privacy and not ask me to the social events but I still had to be interrupted every few hours for tube feedings and medications. And the weekend nurses were often new and did not know me. I had Amazon send me headphones to help with the noise. Lucky I was diagnosed two years prior, without an explanation and knowing the triggers I would have become quite mentally ill. Wrong Planet helped me through the long days.


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Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 13 Nov 2017, 10:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

ASPartOfMe
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13 Nov 2017, 10:31 am

Sibling intervention following "Autism Burnout". My sister is a speech pathologist and works with autistic children and figured it out. I had an inkling but was never more than mildly interested and had no idea of the importance of Aspergers-Autism to who I am.


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Marine414
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13 Nov 2017, 11:14 am

Mark104 wrote:
Quote:
It was at once shocking and comforting. Definitely explained a ton about my life


I'm in my late 30's and didn't know anything about aspergers until about 2 years ago, I was unaware of anything about it previously but it was like one of those moments where everything I've felt or done in my life made sense and it was like there was suddenly an explanation for everything. I went to see my GP and got a referral for a proper assessment which involved an 18 month wait. I had to bring up the issue with my parents as they needed to be interviewed as part of the assessment but it was like they just didn't want to acknowledge there was anything wrong which didn't help things.

In the assessment i scored high in 2 of the 3 areas they look at but the 3rd area required evidence of childhood problems for a diagnosis which just didn't happen because of my parents view that there was nothing wrong with me. I just felt totally let down by them, a formal diagnosis was my chance to be able to explain to my partner, friends, work colleagues the reason why I don't do see & do things normally. I just feel in limbo now, deep down i know being diagnosed would have made everything that's happened in my life fall into place but the lack of a formal diagnosis has really knocked me back.

It's got to the point where i wish I'd never heard of aspergers as before all this i was happily getting through life thinking i was just a bit different but now I'm a lot more aware of the things I do which is starting to have a negative effect on my relationships and my own happiness :cry:

Hopefully all that made sense to someone as i just needed to let how I'm feeling out somewhere :oops:


Hey i had the same thing happened to me. I went in to get tested for Autism last month the psychologist did the test and said that she believes that i do have Autism but she didn't diagnosis me with ASD because she did not have enough development history. So instead of being diagnosed with Autism i was diagnosed with social pragmatic communication disorder witch is basically autism just without the restrictive and repetitive behavior. Intellectual disability (FSIQ score of 68) and ADHD. My Mom did the same thing.



kraftiekortie
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13 Nov 2017, 11:16 am

I had no speech. I was destroying things in stores. I was breaking all my older brother's things. And I seemed oblivious to the world.

i was 3 years old. My mother had to find out what was going on with me......



Redxk
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13 Nov 2017, 11:43 pm

My wife was at the end of her rope and my psychiatrist was all out of ideas. So my wife asked for a referral for an Asperger's eval. Turns out she was right.



KanyeWestFan
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14 Nov 2017, 12:39 am

ASPartOfMe wrote:
KanyeWestFan wrote:
and I heard of Aspergers when I was watching Scrubs in Elementary school and they made a episode about it. I felt a connection to the topic so I went to do research but I was too lazy to do proper research


This episode?


yes



renaeden
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16 Nov 2017, 7:56 am

I had a mental breakdown (like an "I've had enough of everything" type breakdown) when I was 27 and ended up spending 3 weeks in a psych ward. Afterwards I had to see a community psychologist once a week for a while. While seeing her one day, I happened to see an open book on the table and it was opened to Asperger's Syndrome. This was like a "holy crap" moment as I read it. The psychologist said she thought it might be worth investigating and offered me her colleague's details - a psychologist that specialised in autism.

Luckily I was working at the time so I could afford this specialist psychologist. She gave me an IQ test and asked me a lot of questions. She took me out into the staff lunch room where there were other people. I ignored them and instead programmed the time into the microwave (it had been showing 0). This was part of the psychologist's testing but I didn't know that at the time.

Also, I told my mum that a psychologist would be phoning her to talk about me but I didn't say the subject would be autism. So my mum was interviewed and as it progressed she started to feel that I was indeed different from my sisters as a child and felt an element of guilt that something wasn't done back then. But there are a heap of reasons of why I didn't get diagnosed back then.

About a week after my appointments my psychologist phoned me and said I had HFA. She recommended a psychiatrist to see to have it confirmed. So then I saw a very nice psychiatrist who talked with me for ages and he said he agreed with my psychologist.

I was dumbfounded by a lot of this because beforehand I'd never even heard of autism. So in a way my breakdown led me into finding out more about myself that I would never had known otherwise.



Edna3362
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16 Nov 2017, 8:43 am

Age 8 is when I realized I'm different, yet the term never came up. Then somewhat start accusing people that they'd betray me for being the same with everyone. I just denied that the odd out one.

At age 10, I had multiple major meltdowns, mostly at school. Then I got tested, put on SpEd tutorials. While the term of autism did came, I just denied it.

At age 14, that's when everything came to a closer view of the term autism. After years of hoping that isn't true, my last point would be exhaustion. That's my true breaking point -- I stopped going to school and going out. It lasted for 2 years.
Sometime during or after this point, that's when I start researching and get on with things. Then I start listening to my intuition... I just know what to do with myself since, then went on with it little by little...


I got better afterwards. And I mean, my mental and emotional health. :twisted:


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naturalplastic
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16 Nov 2017, 8:51 am

Its "spurred".

Not "spurned".

What spurred me late in life a few years ago to get a dx:Family crises, and bunch of other factors



Embla
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16 Nov 2017, 9:11 am

I didn't seek a diagnosis, it pretty much just fell down on me. It started when I was hospitalized for being "suicide threatened", and three different doctors pointed out that I'm showing signs of AS.
Was let out without follow-up and I didn't think more of it. I just denied it. Mostly I think, because my brother has AS, and is at much lower functionality than I am, so I could only see how very different we are from each other, completely missing all the things we have in common.

Later I fell over a blog written by an autistic lady, and was shocked about how much of myself I could recognize in her stories. I was still in denial though.

It was brought up again once I sought help for depression and anxiety, three years after the hospitalization, and my (freaking fantastic) psychiatrist saw that AS was mentioned in my journals from the hospital, and went straight into evaluating me for that. I got more and more accepting of the possibility that I might be autistic.

I got 100% convinced about my autism halfway into the asessment, when I saw a video on youtube, with a girl (on the spectrum) talking about special interests. When it was just a list of traits it was easy to deny, because even if I could relate to every single trait, they could still come from somewhere else. But when I saw that video, it just wasn't possible to deny it anymore. Because not only could I recognize every single thing she was talking about, but I saw myself in her, and I related to her more strongly than I ever have with another human being.

Got into the psychiatrists office a few days later and he said "You seem more comfortable. You already know your diagnosis, don't you?".



BCTucker
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16 Nov 2017, 4:13 pm

*Disclaimer* I'm still in the dx-seeking phase, but here's WHY I started.

Towards the end of college, I took an elective class on families living with autistic children and found myself having a lot of "huh." moments throughout the class. I came home from class most days convinced I was autistic, but my boyfriend and I just joked it off.

8 years later, after finishing college and a master's degree, and working a "regular"job for four years with growing anger and anxiety issues, I had what I now believe was an autistic burnout. Ironically, I had a weekly volunteer at this job who is autistic, and while he bothered some of my coworkers, I never minded him much. By the end of my time there, I felt like the demands of day-to-day life were literally killing me, just ever so slowly. I left for a part-time job and started my own business and things got a little better, but they didn't improve the way I thought they would. I guess it wasn't just the job that had been killing me like my boyfriend thought. I worked myself too hard with the self employment, too, and burned out again.

After the first burnout, I started to research what could be making me feel so exhausted and anxious and angry all the time. I also started to have physical symptoms that I couldn't explain, so I went to the Dr. and was tested for diabetes, thyroid, lyme, lupus, and RA. I desperately wanted to know more than anything else what was making me feel so anxious and exhausted and like I was struggling so hard to get through every day, but I didn't have the courage to go back to the Dr. just to be told I was making it up or it was no big deal or it was normal because my tests were fine.

The second burnout has left me virtually unable to leave the house or take care of myself or do anything, but while I've been in my cave, I happened to see a FB post about the ways autism can look different in girls than in boys. The experiences in that class I took 8 years ago prompted me to read the article, and the article prompted me to do just a little more reading, and just about everything on the first "Women with Autism" list I found resonated hard with me. I took a couple of the online tests, talked my closest friend (her response was, "Stop it, you're not autistic.") and talked to my boyfriend (his response was, "Well, that's for a Dr. to decide.). And that's what actually pushed me from being satisfied with a self-diagnosis to wanting a formal evaluation, so I have an appointment with a psychologist coming up week after next.



ASPartOfMe
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16 Nov 2017, 4:41 pm

BCTucker wrote:
*Disclaimer* I'm still in the dx-seeking phase, but here's WHY I started.

Towards the end of college, I took an elective class on families living with autistic children and found myself having a lot of "huh." moments throughout the class. I came home from class most days convinced I was autistic, but my boyfriend and I just joked it off.

8 years later, after finishing college and a master's degree, and working a "regular"job for four years with growing anger and anxiety issues, I had what I now believe was an autistic burnout. Ironically, I had a weekly volunteer at this job who is autistic, and while he bothered some of my coworkers, I never minded him much. By the end of my time there, I felt like the demands of day-to-day life were literally killing me, just ever so slowly. I left for a part-time job and started my own business and things got a little better, but they didn't improve the way I thought they would. I guess it wasn't just the job that had been killing me like my boyfriend thought. I worked myself too hard with the self employment, too, and burned out again.

After the first burnout, I started to research what could be making me feel so exhausted and anxious and angry all the time. I also started to have physical symptoms that I couldn't explain, so I went to the Dr. and was tested for diabetes, thyroid, lyme, lupus, and RA. I desperately wanted to know more than anything else what was making me feel so anxious and exhausted and like I was struggling so hard to get through every day, but I didn't have the courage to go back to the Dr. just to be told I was making it up or it was no big deal or it was normal because my tests were fine.

The second burnout has left me virtually unable to leave the house or take care of myself or do anything, but while I've been in my cave, I happened to see a FB post about the ways autism can look different in girls than in boys. The experiences in that class I took 8 years ago prompted me to read the article, and the article prompted me to do just a little more reading, and just about everything on the first "Women with Autism" list I found resonated hard with me. I took a couple of the online tests, talked my closest friend (her response was, "Stop it, you're not autistic.") and talked to my boyfriend (his response was, "Well, that's for a Dr. to decide.). And that's what actually pushed me from being satisfied with a self-diagnosis to wanting a formal evaluation, so I have an appointment with a psychologist coming up week after next.


I hope next weeks visit starts a process that will be helpful for you. Let us know how it went.


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“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


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16 Nov 2017, 6:42 pm

My mom always knew I was different and instead of looking for a label and trying to figure out what is wrong with me, she just only wanted to know how my brain worked and what my learning style is so she would know how to help me and how to teach me. She didn't need a label to understand me but it was until sixth grade when my school was trying to say I have behavior and my language was now considered normal and they figured out I had more going on than cluttering so I needed a diagnoses. My therapist was suspecting I may have Asperger's so my mom wanted a professional who was qualified in it to check it out so she recommended us to this psychiatrist in our area who specialized in autism. I was also there to see if I actually had ADD and if I also had OCD. I also left the place with an anxiety diagnoses along with the other three diagnoses.


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17 Nov 2017, 2:51 am

i had a meltdown and tried to hurt my sister and then i hurt myself, my sister called the police on me and i was taken to the hospital and was evaluated and put into therapy and after seeing 2 psychologists and 1 psychiatrist i received a Aspergers diagnoses . i did not seek a diagnoses nor did i know what ASD really was. there was attempts before that to try and diagnose me with other things like poor hearing, ADHD, and bi-polar but most people just chalked me up to a oddball that prefers her own company.

i have a sneaking suspicion my mother was aware but never did anything about it because when my dad told her about my diagnoses all she said was " i know" and still hasnt said anything more about it to this day.


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