Adults, were your parents involved with your diagnosis?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm sorry. I realize I probably didn't make that clear. I meant that my grandmother has never pointed out any of my Aspie traits to me, as my mother has, but my mother's comments were incredibly mean and negative (you write so well, but sound stupid when you talk / what are you, a ret*d?). I doubt my grandmother would ever point out any of my oddities, because she wouldn't want to hurt my feelings. That's why I hadn't considered her as someone who could give an interview for my assessment.

So true!

I think that parents may sometimes blame the other parent for their child's Aspie traits... that is what my folks did it seems to me. I grew up long before there was an Asperger's, but my father blamed my mother for my shyness and bookishness. My mother blamed my father for my quietness, nervousness, and lack of respect for authority. He punished me often and yelled at me daily. Dad felt I had to learn to stand up straight, speak with authority, look people in the eye, and "be responsible." Mom thought my reading skills, and artistic bent had to be encouraged. My reading skills were tested often in the '50s. My mother had me take IQ tests twice. My father sent me to military college... I left after six weeks. Years later my father confronted my thesis professor when he wrote about me, "M sees the world differently than the rest of us." They so wanted me to be "normal."

My parents got me diagnosed when I was 12. My psychiatrist and my mother always talked. I don't remember any of the tests they gave me. I just remember going there and hating being there and I never said a word there.

It's interesting that I was the favorite grandson of my grandmother, similarly to you. She saw I'm different, so naive and clueless.

They ask questions from caregivers who most often are parents, so they would interview your grandmother as well.

My mother knew something wasn't right, and she sent me for all kinds of testing and counseling, and even put me in the nut house for 7 months after a wrong diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. She died when I was 21, and thus never knew that it was in fact high functioning autism. My father wasn't with us, and had died anyway a year earlier.

Charles

My parents have been great support. They always came with me to every appointment/meeting we ever had. My mum is still inclined to come with me now to any support groups or appointments, and it's lovely to have somebody who cares.

Yes, they were both interviewed.