Afraid of not being believed?

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I used to care when I was less sure about the diagnosis, but I'm thoroughly convinced now, and I don't really care if others don't "believe" me. I'm not the stereotype of AS, and I can pass as normal but quirky in everyday life. So, it's not surprising to me that some people don't believe me. They don't know the TRUE me, so how could they ever suspect my AS other than in very obvious ways I can't hide? People don't believe my OCD, either. I'm just very good at hiding my symptoms, probably because I've had them all my life and had to learn early, early on to hide most of my deficits in order to succeed.

After I started this thread, I was talking to my friend about worrying that people wouldn't believe me. She said, "They might not be as surprised as you think." I said something like, "You didn't believe me at first!" BUT, apparently she did believe me, she had just been thinking of other possibilities for my social struggles as well. But, now that she has thought about it, she does believe me. (It's my guy friend that doesn't this I have it.) Anyway, my point is that I think what you're saying about yourself might be true for me as well... Maybe people wouldn't be as surprised as I think.

VeggieGirl.

Its all a process I figure. I'll start telling more and more people this next year just to see if they DO agree... it'll help me figure out if I do hide it well or not

I have that fear and experienced that fear all the time. The reason is because when I tell others about my symptoms (including both my autism and schizoaffective disorder) they think I am lying. This includes regular people and doctors. Especially at the hospital when I am having a psychotic break. I have gone to the hospital almost every year for several years and usually I get this jerk of a doctor. For years he didn't believe I was autistic or schizoaffective, but after years he finally realized the autism in me. It comes out during times of stress. My current psychologist believes me fully and knows for an absolute fact that I am autistic. She also says that my anxiety is off the charts. Many doctors know about that. In fact my anxiety causes all kinds of weird symptoms. I have it so severely I have constant severe pain all over my body. I have a friend that has schizoaffective disorder like myself and he seems perfectly normal to me. He laughs and jokes like other people. He is one of my best friends. I have 3 main friends that I hang out with. My social skills are better now than when I was younger. I had zero social skills when I was first diagnosed with autism and now I appear more normal. Most people unless they specialize in the area of autism would not notice my autism.

Same thing with me.

I've tried to bring it up with my mom but she doesn't want to hear it. My boyfriend is doubtful about it, but he hasn't read the literature I have, and he never knew me when I was a kid. I think my teenage self was much worse than I am now.

I am terrified to bring it up with my parents, they aren't together anymore so it's gonna be awful 2 times.
I have absolutely no idea how to bring this up also i really do not want them to feel bad for anything even though that might be out of my control
When i first talked with my dad, a couple years back, that i suspected i had something like ADHD he promtply answered "No i don't think you have that"
so that scares me off a good bit

Now i'm 22 and I am 100% sure i have autism to some degree, probably asperger's, the school psychiatrist agreed with me when i suggested i might have it
and said it explained a lot of what we've been talking about... just like my whole is being explained to me as i read more and more on my condition, it is such a relief.

And i'm rambling

I had a boyfriend once who I told I had Social Anxiety Disorder. His response: "No, you don't." I think maybe he couldn't see it since he was just as bad socially as I was. I had to tell him, "Yes, I am. I'm not paying that therapist for nothing."

However, after I got diagnosed with Aspergers, I immediatly told most of the people close to me. One was a lady that I work with at my church. Her response: "Well, of course you have Aspergers." She's known me for ten years, and she just always assumed that I had already been diagnosed.

We basically told everyone we know after I was diagnosed. I've always been an open person, with nothing to hide from anyone. The few who didn't believe it are people who thought I was faking it so I could get Social Security Disability, and since then my entire family stopped talking to them... after all of us gave them a piece of our minds for it. My mom had the best answer to that, IMO. She said, "Since when are you on Social Security's panel of medical experts that decide who qualifies for disability?"

I have a paralysing fear about it, in regards to going to an autism professional to get a diagnosis. Both because I'd get money off my mum for the diagnosis, and because I never in my life got a diagnosis I felt like agree with, so I feel like I have no reason to believe it'll happen this time.

I am a high functioning AS girl who over time has developed alot of coping skills and by passing my AS traits can go unnoticed to aquantances. I have read that girl's with AS are social comelions and I can realte to this. Infact I can pass so well for an NT that i even shunned my own diagnosis for along time, but if you ask the people who are close to me. i.e my partner and family they would say without a doute I am the embodyment of AS. So yes I so pick very carefully who i tell about my diagnosis.

I have been told in the past even by a doc that they didn't think i was, but they do not know me, the real me and they are not the specialists that diagnosed me, so to me what they think means very little. I am who I am and my diagnosis has helped me to realise that.

(p.s sorry for the spelling because well bad spelling is part of me to)

The best comeback to people who don't believe you is "I'm sorry as I can be that you don't believe I have it, but <insert professional's name who dx'd you> certainly thought so. You may be right though. I'll call him back and tell him you said he's wrong. What are your credintials again so I can pass that information along too?"

Asperger's isn't really something one can kid around about and get away with. People need to take it more seriously.

Yes.

My boyfriend and I started getting in some heavy fights about a year into our relationship, when he moved out of his parents' house and we began to hang out more often. My traits became much more noticeable, and when I tried to explain my reasoning for things or my thought process, he would tell me that "people's minds just don't work like that." So, I finally got up the courage to tell him I suspected Asperger's, and he shot me down immediately. He said that I was 'fine', 'normal', and 'nothing is wrong with me.'

I had a conversation a year or so ago with a friend and co-worker whose nephew was diagnosed with Asperger's. I decided I would tell her that I felt I also had Asperger's. She scrunched up her face and was like, "why would you think that? I don't think so at all." It was silly of me to think she'd get it, now that I reflect back, because her only knowledge of Asperger's is from her experience with a 6-year-old male, not a 20-something adult female.

The main reason I want a diagnosis is so that if something comes up that Asperger's would help me to explain, I would feel comfortable saying 'I have it', as opposed to saying, I think I have it, and being met with a lot of doubt. For instance, all of my friends/co-workers who I very much enjoy now (and always liked) admitted to me a couple of years ago that they thought I disliked or hated them when I first started working there. I was mortified to think that I had come off that way to people I genuinely liked! Anyway, it would be nice to be able to say..."I'm so sorry. I think you guys are awesome! I have Asperger's, so sometimes I might seem a little cold socially, but that's just because I'm not sure how to interact with people I've just met."

I did receive a diagnosis when I was in my teens, mostly because of a complete break down at the time. This was before 94, and once I received that diagnosis every seemed to wash their hands of me. I went from gifted student to defective. I've never really talked about being autistic with anyone because of that-- I was afraid I'd just get a big red D on my forehead and they'd walk away if I let them know.

I was diagnosed with NLD a few years ago and I haven't told anyone except my fiance and my mother. Well I tried telling 2 different psychologists but that was a waste of time. Basically I think people are idiots when it comes to understanding/believing in things that they have no experience of themselves. I am not scared of how they might react, I "know" how they will react.

When I was diagnosed with ADHD, I only knew one other person who had it. When I told him, he said, "I don't think you have it." Few people I've told have ever believed me or taken it seriously. I eventually stopped telling people. I can't imagine it would be any different if I said I am autistic.