Asking your parents about ASD?

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OK, insomniakat... WHY did you think anyone would flame you?

I stopped really talking to my mother about my sensory integration issues over 30 years ago!! !! WHY? Because she couldn't understand!

My mother told a family member that has an AS son about me. They spoke, and my mother thought I wasn't AS! For a MOMENT she thought I was very different from him. She ended up realizing we were really more similar than different.

I used to be an insomniac! I guess I was depressed from about 10.

But you say you liked girls early, then you say you never loved anyone, and then say you are a flaming homosexual? Which is it?

I'm reaally lucky, I can see that now. My Mum is a special needs teacher, now specialised in advising on autism/AS, and it was she who realised I had AS in the first place. She broke it to me by taking me to a Tony Attwood seminar and then introducing him to me afterwards, before they both kinda gently pointed out 'doesn't all of that sound a lot like you?' and giving me a bunch of books to read while it all sank in!!

I don't talk to her about it much as I'm so 'normal' now, but it's so nice to know that if I do ever have any issues she's a wealth of information in herself and brilliant to talk to about it.

I never really thought about how other people might not be so lucky, parent-wise. Not going to take it for granted as much anymore...

That's pretty awesome. Is there any better way to find out?

Ah, I can see how that would be confusing. I'm a flaming homosexual just because I look like a total dyke. I'm female, but I chopped my hair off short and dress really boyish. It suits me much better. And I always knew I wasn't particularly attracted to guys. I do think the female form is much more pleasing to my eye. However, I have never been attracted to anyone at all in that sexual way that you hear about. I've also never been in love before. Does that make sense.

And I thought I'd be flamed for this because people would say, ah you aren't an Aspie then so go away. I'm surprised I haven't been told that.

I spoke to my brother last night. He said he didn't notice anything weird about me growing up either. He did say that he didn't even know what I was doing most of the time, because I was a homebody that never really went out (we grew up in a very rural area with no neighbors, so he means outside). And I played alone most of the time. Even when I did play with others, it was only family. As he said last night, that's just how we were raised. We were really poor. He also said that he had some of the same sensitivities that I have (though not all and not to the same degree).

I think that since my sound sensitivities aren't that bad and the integration issues wouldn't become apparent anyway until I was able to talk and needed to study anyway, it might have not become apparent until we moved into town (and a very rural one at that) around middle school. They got worse when I moved away to a larger, noiser, and more crowded city for university (and never left). And it's worse now in a work environment (and thrown into a crowded noisy enviornment with many streams of sensory data).

I think this is a case of sensory issues being not noticed until the environment was not conducive to me. And the ASD-like traits are more likely just a product of extremely poor socialization steming from me not getting anything at all out of human interaction/contact (and hating that people aren't logical and don't make sense) and now that I'm forced into it due to work and such, me being really lousy at it. I have learned several things that I thought I was doing right or understood from this forum or Aspie books.

Yes, denial is something that I've seen often here with parents. I don't know if someone has already mentioned this, but ask your mom, maybe during an off-topic discussion, if you were unresponsive to her as a toddler, like you ignored her sometimes because you seemed to be absorbed in what you were doing or thinking. Note: it's a tough one to diagnose in adulthood because of the mind's ability to adapt.

-Ozzy

btw I saw your quote the other day about fire. I had to tell it to a couple people...hilarious. Simple, witty jokes make my world go 'round.

-Ozzy

LOL

-Ozzy