HOW DID YOUR FAMILY REACT TO ASPERGER'S?

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For me personally my mother accepted it right away because she teaches high school Special Education. My sisters and brother had no problems with my diagnosis. The only person who refused to understand and accept it was my father. Even today he knows that i socialize and view the world differently. I hope that someday my father will educate himself more and maybe someday have a better understanding of my diagnosis. Until then he is my father and i love him very much.

My family knew after I was diagnosed at 13,
but now they use my AS against me.

My mom knew I had it when I was 5, and, like AnonymousAnonymous, she uses it against me (i.e., bullying, discrimination, etc.) IT'S AWFUL!

My mum said, "I think you have Asperger's".

I responded by saying, "Pssh, yeah right."

My mum knows I have it but she and other members of my family don't understand how much it impacts my life. She is getting better at understanding it but I still haven't forgiven my sister for her last comments about me.

Telling my parents was really a non-event, I got dxed for my own personal benefit. When my little brother was diagnosesdwith autism when I was about 13 my mum brought out the checklist she was given and checked it against me. My brother fitted into 14 out of 15 items (everything but echolalia) while I fitted into 8 or 9 of them that was good enough for an AS diagnoses for me for them. So my official bit of paper some 9 or 10 years later didn't really signify anything new.

I also have a couple of relatives with ADHD and another recently diagnosed with autism, so it's not super new or unusual for my family.

Welkome to WrongPlanet.

The WP Kink

my mom washappy to know what as was

AnonymousAnonymous! I was diagnosed @ 13 too!
*virtual high-five*

Anyways, they always suspected something:
*I didn't talk until I was 2
*I took a bunch of meds for ADD and ADHD as a child
*I acted OCD

When they found out, they put me through light-therapy.

Now, they say I use it as an excuse...and that's annoying.

My family SUCKS!! ! (that is: my extended family).

First off, I was diagnosed at 41....have ALWAYS had "interpersonal relationship problems"....at home (I'm the youngest of 8 kids)....at school (no friends etc)...and at work (have NEVER kept a job for longer than about 90 days, and I'm in my mid-40s...we are talking a lot of jobs here!)

So, my sister I'm closest to has a son who was diagnosed w/AS in his childhood (he's 20 now) & when I told her, SHE ACCUSED ME OF TRYING TO "STEAL" HER SONS DIAGNOSIS! wtf?

My Dad had died a month before my diagnosis; but my Mom gave me the BIGGEST none reaction I've ever seen. Another sister told me that if this diagnosis makes me feel better then she's happy for me....another WTF moment. I gave up then...don't remember if I've "bothered" any other of my siblings/if I did, how they reacted.

So I'm ready to jettison all that flotsam!


My husband was WONDERFUL! He read what I gave him about it all & he said "Yep, makes sense to me" and he's trying to work with me on it (just like I'm TRYING to work on it; 44 yrs of behavior, actions & thinking patterns don't change overnight!) My kids are even trying to help (being mirrors for me; I have really hard times with my facial expressions).

Well my dad's always has figured in his eyes there was something "wrong" with me that I needed fixed. So when I have been to psychiatrists and they suggested Aspergers it really put my parents at ease in a sense. Stupid that they think something is "wrong" with me

Trigas, I do view myself as "damaged" & UNLIKE Autism Speaks, I would dearly, DESPERATELY love to be cured of this disease. (So, Autism Speaks DOESN'T for me!)

yea i totally feel ya on that. The diagnosis seems to be the only thing to at least give some "relief" of a kind of answer for why.

It would be totally awesome if people were nice enough to realize something like: ok, so & so's been diagnosed with cancer...that means they'll need treatments of "x, y/z" or whatever...........ASPERGERS IS NO DIFFERENT, except that there is no "cure"....I've done the things I've done because of an organic disorder. NOT out of spite, NOT intentionally....actually, in most cases (as I get OLDER) I purposfully NOT do something or another (and purposfully ISOLATE myself) to keep from upsetting others.

It really SUCKS that they'll make exceptions for the Alzheimer diagnosed in the family but not the Aspergers diagnosed. (I am fighting, tooth & nail; getting angry, bitter and hating my extended family!)

They reacted pretty ok. But they're dumb.

Had to school them a little.

hi! My husband has AS (he is undiagnosed, but we are both 1000 percent positive about it). We had to tell his parents about it as relations between my husband and his parents were going down the hill. His father understood and accepted. He said it all made sense for him, his mother was in denial at first but now she tries to make up for, i suppose, that she didn't pay enough attention to her son as was too preoccupied with her autistic daughter all her life. Between myslelf and my husband the fact that we know about our differences saved our marriage.

hi! My husband has AS (he is undiagnosed, but we are both 1000 percent positive about it). We had to tell his parents about it as relations between my husband and his parents were going down the hill. His father understood and accepted. He said it all made sense for him, his mother was in denial at first but now she tries to make up for, i suppose, that she didn't pay enough attention to her son as was too preoccupied with her autistic daughter all her life. Between myslelf and my husband the fact that we know about our differences saved our marriage.