How Did You Discover You Have Autism/Asperges?

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I don't know if I have traits (I definately have traits!! !) or if I have autism/asperges as I write.

But here is me shareing via a PM to someone. I thought I would share here.


Why it has been such a BIG discovery for me is that I never knew anything about it other then assuming everyone who had it had some sort of severe dissability (The TV usually majors on the worst cases so ones thoughts tend to be "I'm glad I don't have that!") and I didn't really know what it was.... (We often think we know things but often we don't), and before I hit what could be burnout... If it is not it must be somewhere close or something like it... And apart from the need to find toilets due to nurves etc), I did not think of myself as being dissabled. I just assumed that people who didn't have an arm or a leg or a lung, or were severly mentally handicapped were dissabled. It puzzled me how the ex. girlfriend who I never got to know well enough, had a blue badge and a dissabled toilet key. I could see why her son needed them, but with her things were more hidden. Less visible. Her struggles were unseen.
Now it is not until recent years that I have had an increase of shutdowns (I don't often fully shut down.. Only if I cant recover from a partial shutdown) where everything I do is such a struggle and at times an impossibility, that I would say I am hampered enough to call what I have a dissability. Not being able to work enough hours to support myself if I was living on my own is almost a way of life due to the trade I took and the limited job opportunities. So I only really noticed when a couple of years ago, the store I worked for realized without telling me, that I seemed to work well for an hour or two, but then started to struggle, so they decided to change my 12 hour a week shifts to be working 2 hours a day spread over the week, and I left that store as it was almost costing me the same in travelling as I was getting in pay. It wasn't worth me coming in.
I just assumed it was an age thing, as on my Dads side of the family, it was rare for anyone to reach retirement age and if they did it was not by much. They just seemed to die of natural causes much earlier then expected. (My Mums side is the opposite).
You can imagine what I thought when in seperate occasions various people either said or asked if I had autism or asperges... I would laugh it off and think "Why have they asked me that... Or said that? Haha!"
One guy I know... I thought had gone really wierd... Actually he had really gone through a hard time. He had committed suicide (Almost) as he drove his car onto the Severn Bridge and jumped. People saw it and dialled 999. They found him deep under water. I think about 100 metres or feet? He was in a coma for about six months so it is probably why he didn't return my texts. Then one day he either text or phoned me. He asked me to call in. Nothing unusual here yet as once or twice a year or three times... I would call in where he wojld take me to a back room in his garage and we would have a chat.
But when I visited him that day, everything was such a shock and surreal that it was like a dream. He had another lady with him who he said was his girlfriend. (His wife was in the house. I believe this was his humour as she was a careworker, but at the time I didn't know what to believe!) He told me about the suicide attempt, and he told me why as he could never keep a job...
He said he and his wife are devorcing as she could no longer cope, and he had spent all her savings. His wife was gojng home to live with her mother somewhere in England.
And he said how he was diagnosed with the autism which used to be called asperges....
And then he said something that shocked me and made me think he was completely off his rocker. He said "And you have it". And he said how his new girlfriend was a careworker and that in the future I will be seeing her as well.
I just didn't know what to say. It was all such a shock. He said things like "Us aspies must stay together". I thought he had gone completely insane! I was like "Ok, I got to go now...!" Hahahahaha! Oh dear. I just didn't catch on did I? HAHAHA!

And it was during the time I was on the phone and internet to the kind hearted lady I dated who has asperges, and where I had asked her many questions about it and my thoughts were "I don't get it as what she describes is normal life. What is this condition anyway?"

Well. Two or three years later, with many events, I find myself here, where I'm probably at my lowest point physically due to being fragile with partial shutdowns, panicky anxiety etc, so it is like everything makes sense... So much that if I was told I wasn't on the spectrum I would be even more puzzled then I was before people told me I may have it!

I suspect a lot of people get diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder after they've had a breakdown of some sort. It was certainly the case for me.

I walked out of work after a series of upsetting (to me) situations occurred. I walked 60kms and ended up near a hospital. A security guard found me and took me to the ED. After spilling all my details, I stayed in the psychiatric ward for three weeks. I don't remember much about it because they gave me lots of Seroquel (quetiapine).

After I was discharged I had to see a local psychologist who, after a series of appointments, referred me on to her colleague who specialised in autism. I kind of went there in a daze because I didn't know what autism was and I hadn't done any reading on it or talked to anyone about it. I was clueless.

After one appointment for half the assessment (it took two appointments), the psychologist phoned my mum who I had warned earlier that she would be getting a phone call but not what it was about. Mum ended up in tears during the call because there was a lot different about me that she either hadn't noticed or had just seen as me being my quirky self.

After I had the second appointment, the psychologist called me at home and said she was pretty sure I was HFA. The report was coming to me in the mail but I had to see a psychiatrist who would confirm her diagnosis. That's how it works in Western Australia.

The psychiatrist was very nice. I only had to see him once. I got a letter in the mail from him, too.

So that was it. I felt very depressed afterwards about it because for a while I had no one to talk about autism with. My mum was on a huge guilt trip and my sister asked me to stop obsessing over it.

Went into burnout trying to finish my degree. My daughter was having a particularly challenging time and her preschool teacher suggested we look up Yellow Ladybugs. I started reading their website and then googled female aspergers. I read a page on myaspergerschild.net (i think that's the site), and was bawling my eyes out. It was like someone wrote out my whole life there.

Went to gp, he referred me for "stress" to a clinical psychologist. Just happened to get one who is experienced with autism. Initially diagnosed ASD 1, later revised to level 2. I realise now how blessed I was that it happened so quickly. Within 2 months of hearing that autism can be different in girls I had a diagnosis.

2 years on, I wish I could say it had made life better. I have more information, but it doesn't feel much better

Thank you all who replied. What comes as a shock to me, is that people can go for years and years without having a clue what the condition actually is, and yet it is only when something sparks the interest off, that they start looking into it, and even if they don't have the condition themselves, it is still a massive eye opener.

I've always known I was a general neurological freak, but, for most of my life, didn't have a name for it. I assumed it was nothing more than coincidence that I happened to have so many quirks.

I first heard about "high functioning autism" in an online forum back around the year 2000 or so. Someone suggested that I should look into whether I might have HFA, due to some quarrels I got into with various people in that same forum.

I completely dismissed the idea at that time, because (1) I got along fine with most of the people in most other online forums I had participated in, and (2) the stuff I then read about HFA, including "lack of empathy" (period, end of story) didn't sound like me at all.

In 2008 I was introduced to the man who eventually became my boyfriend. When he told me he had Asperger's syndrome, and told me what it was, I looked it up, and, lo and behold, it did sound a lot like me.

At around that same time, my niece's oldest daughter was diagnosed with autism and was wondering who else in the family might be autistic. Various relatives thought of me.

I didn't pursue a diagnosis then, because I was not under the impression that there was anything significant I could gain from a diagnosis. I was not aware of any worthwhile support groups or therapies for adults.

Also, while I had been involved in various oddball subcultures in the past, it did not occur to me at that time that autism/Aspergers itself could be the basis of any kind of meaningful community. The other subcultures I had been involved in revolved around common interests, common beliefs, common sexuality, etc.

Not until early 2018 did I begin in-depth online research into both ASD itself and the autism community. Soon afterward, I began attending local support groups and got on the waiting list for a diagnosis by an "extern."

I was shopping for a duvet cover and I kept complaining about the different textures. I can't touch or sleep with ruffles, pleats, corduroy, buttons, gathers, flannel, lace, fringe, linen, silk, denim, cording, ruching, or basically any texture except cotton sateen. My friend got very frustrated and said "I would swear you're autistic like my younger brother". I asked what she meant, and she went on to describe nearly all of my profound sensory issues. I was speechless. I didn't even know about the social aspects or the stimming until I got home and googled.

Around 10 years old. I already realized I was different at age 8, there's just no name or explanation for it.

There were two sides of me fighting; one of denial and anger, and one of acceptance and understanding.
The former is my ego's pride who thinks everyone is wrong and I'm right because they kept treating me wrong when I didn't do anything bad. The latter is a wise part of me who would see certain points of view and forgive the self and other.

For being too young and ignorant, I took the former, because I thought that side of me is being too soft and because the 'world' is too 'harsh' for such.
And been wrestling with it for like at least 4 years.

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While recovering from my 3rd or 4th breakdown ( due to burnout but not knowing ) my GF watched a program about a teenager who struggled with autism and she saw the similarities and told me she thought I had autism. I googled it , dismissed it , googled so more and found WP - after reading through hundreds of posts without joining the penny dropped.

My parents were forced to "discover" that I had autism. My behavior when I was a toddler was that of a "classic autistic" child.