Took the Plunge

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I've known for a few months that I most likely have AS, but I kept pretty quiet about it amongst my family.

However, in my own quest for knowledge about myself, I requested student records from my former school board dating back to almost pre-school. Reading through the records, there was a lot of incidents and concerns noted on my records that would indicate AS (which I suspected, and which is why I requested the documents). For instance, the school conducted psych assessments due to language, social and concentration concerns. The records also describe in vivid detail different repetitive body movements I used to do right in class amongst the other students, things I still do to this day but have learned to hide.

I finally took the plunge and talked to my mom about it, and had her read the excellent wikipedia article on Asperger Syndrome. She reviewed the documents, which of course she had read years ago. She, like me, said it was like reading a biography about myself, and said if she had to place a bet, that I had Asperger syndrome. She was very understanding, and is going to help get me an official diagnosis.

So yeah, I'm not exactly sure why I'm even posting this here, I guess I'm just happy that I finally was able to force myself to talk about it to my mom and that she responded the way she did, and felt I wanted to tell some fellow aspies! (Disclaimer: still not officially diagnosed )

What experiences have other people had talking to their parents about this? Did your experiences go as good as mine?

Anyways, it's late, I'm going to go to bed.

I didn't tell them. They told me, and I was pissed off.

They told me when I was 6, but then they denied to themselves that I had any problems. By 18, by which time I'm sure they had forgotten about AS, I mentioned it to them but they denied I had any problems, again.

We do not mention AS in our family. This is the only place where I can speak about it. However, this isn't all their fault, because I don't open up to them. Also, last time I mentioned AS I got so nervous that I became extremely emotional, and anxious. In fact, any time I think about mentioning IRL I get into that state, which is incredibly embarrasing for me. So it is probably best not to mention it again.

Well i'm on the spectrum from self diagnosis but everyone i tell just say i'm being silly. And it's hard to put it into words to give a proper explanation which is even more frustrating. My doctor doesn't seem interested and when i tell him he just says "You been going on the internet again?"

I am going to have to broach the subject with my mother but I dread it being like when i told her i'd been (officially) diuagbnosed as having epilepsy. She yerlled "it's not real! it's hysteria\cl!" abnd stopped out.

AS dfew weeks later she calmed down but even NOW she sometimes says she thinks I've been misdiagnosed.

If she's like that about something diagnosed, what is she going to be like about self-suspected?

Julie

In all the efforts to "find out what was wrong with me", eventually Asperger's explained things. Not sure how old I was. 8 or 9 maybe?

Oh don't get me wrong, it was never directly said like that. But that was pretty much the sentiment.

Could have been worse though. I've had it pretty easy compared to an awful lot of the people on these forums.

I told my mum last week, and her reaction was like a lightbulb going on above her head. I think it released her from blaming herself over my unhappy childhood.

Haven't told my dad yet, and that's going to be an entirely different thing.

I told my Mom shortly after. She was stunned, but she realized it explained a lot of things. She's been very supportive.

My Dad acted like he couldn't give a sh*t. Typical.

My son has a diagnosis of HFA so there is not an issue in our family about it. But I did mention to my mom that I thought Aspergers sounded like a pretty good description off all the issues I had as a child and she agreed. Both of my parents would say too that my son reminded them of me when I was little. (Things like running and hiding in a closet on Christmas and screaming instead of being excited about all the presents). So while I don't have a formal diagnosis of AS I kind of take that as a pretty good indication.

My mom's a psychiatrist, so she was disbelieving for about 2 years. Hre rationale was that if I was on the autistic spectrum, she would have known, and if she didn't know, she wasn't a good doctor OR mother. She's only become okay with it pretty recently.
Sigh.

Doctor told mom, mom told me, I was already depressed and didn't think much of it.

That sounds pretty much like my experience, only I was diagnosed at eleven.

The medication the damn psychiatrists put me on when I was younger for their snap diagnoses 'ADHD' only made me worse! I don't blame my mother at all for trying to figure out what in the world was causing my issues, especially since I'd been sliding into depression at that point--and as my aunt has paranoid schizophrenia, my mom's pretty afraid of mental disorders, but she wanted to help me.

Holy crap! I just got home from work, and was expected maybe a response or two, but eleven! Too bad I wasn't this popular offline!

I was actually quite surprised by my mom's reaction. She kept assuring me that there was absolutely nothing wrong with having something like AS (I already knew that, but yeah....), and was even supportive when I told her that I thought it would be best if I quit working and went back to school full-time for a while! Too bad everyone on these forums didn't have the same experience as me

Although, I guess if it had been my dad I had talked to about this, I would get a bad response like a lot of other people had.

Like this?
Dad: "What? A nerd? A geek? Not in my house!
Mum: "Oh, leave him alone! It's only a mindstate he's going through."

Naw, more along the lines of making fun of me. He used to make fun of some of my behaviours as a kid. Wouldn't be very wise now, though. I'm 18, and I don't live with him, so I would have absolutely no problem telling him where to go and how he could get there. We didn't talk for two years once, so I doubt he would push the line too much though.

I can't stand up to most people, I have problems doing it. But with him, I have no problem whatsoever.

I actually told my mom this week. She didn't believe me at first because she was misinformed about the connection to autism. The more stuff I've told her and given her to read, the more she seems to agree with my assessment.