How did you discover you had AS and what did you do about it

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I found out about AS through my incurable Wikipedia addiction and promptly diagnosed myself after reading the symptoms list. It was later confirmed through a doctor. I don't know how diagnosis would work for you as you are older than I am (dxed at 17) and I have very little knowledge of the British medical system. What did I do about it? I joined this forum. That's about it. I don't usually discuss it with other people, but when I do I just tell them that I'm autistic. Incidentally, why are you worried about AS in relation to possibly having children? Asperger's certainly is not a reason to not have children if you otherwise feel you would be a good father. It's not as though your children would somehow be "defective" because you have Asperger's.

I was having all kinds of trouble in school and went through one diagnosis after another, from ADD, to Social Anxiety disorder, and had been put on all the meds that go with them to absolutely no avail. I was eventually sent to a doctor who happened to have experience working with autistic kids and he diagnosed me with Aspergers Syndrome right away. I had never heard of it before then.

I didn't really do anything about it, I went to some support group meetings for parents with kids who had aspergers syndrome but they were really more for the parents, and I couldn't relate to any of the other kids there(no cute girls ), or the kids were much younger so I stopped going. I haven't really done anything since then, that was about 10 years ago.

My journey began early last year when my adult brother started taking ADHD meds to help him "clear the cobwebs" in his mind. At first the symptoms of ADHD seemed to fit me and my dad. I took one low-dose ritalin tab and had a 24 hour trip and awful withdrawal! So I started researching some more. Like many other adults, the signs of AS seemed to fit as I reviewed my childhood/adolescence/ and early adulthood. [I am 28.] Turns out my mother is much more like an HFA, though we won't suggest any diagnosis with her, because she is also a hypochondriac.

I thought it best to get a diagnosis to have in my files, just in case. The psychologist offered to refer me to another professional for continuing support but I declined. Life is pretty manageable for me right now.

~Anna

Thankyou so much for the insight and help guys. You really have made my days of late.

Things are going a lot better with my wife at the moment. I'm back home, and she very slowly coming to terms with things.

I've got a booking with a psychologist, but reading more and more about Asperger's has really helped me in my life. Before now, I never really embraced or adhered to any routines, as I would never write anything down and would forget it pretty quickly. The routines I had were small mundane every day things like making coffee, turning on the computer, going to the toilet, making the bed etc. But since i have discovered Aspergers I have got a diary and i am organising my life, and embracing the need for routines in me.

I have just found out about a movie called 'Mozart and the Whale' which I'm eager to see. I've brought it up with my wife, and she has said she doesn't really want to see it just yet, but give it time.

She understands that what has happened over the weekend was more of a misunderstanding than anything, and we are now quite happy and feel as though we are working towards a better future.

I don't have any friends, but she has a friend that has been through a similar thing (in a way) i guess, and he has offered to be there for me to talk to. He recently "came out" after being married with kids for 10 years, and so really wants to offer that support that he never had, even though i'm not gay.

But, things are looking better at the moment. I'm curious about calling Prof Attwood's clinic (I'm in a different state, New South Wales) and discussing things with them, but i think maybe i should excercise a little restraint (very hard for an Aspie to do) and wait until my Psych consult and go from there.

Thanks again, so much, you guys ROCK!! !!

That is just great to read, TBam - especially about your wife! I agree that you shouldn't go at this too quickly. Too much info too quickly is just asking for a meltdown. Yes, wait for the psychologist appointment first before calling Tony Attwood's clinic.

Your adjustment has been great - and no wonder because you've been doing the right thing pursuing knowledge.

Well, I always knew there was something different about me, and so did the people around me, but they didn't call it autism or Aspergers. They just said that I had a perceptual disorder.

Basically I found out through my reading. I am curious about a lot of things, and when I discovered Dr. Grandin's books things started to make a lot of sense to me, why I was having the types of problems I was having. I haven't got formally diagnosed and probably won't because I don't see any advantage at my age. What the government and insurance and health care people don't know is not going to hurt them any as far as I am concerned. However, it doesn't matter, because now I have the tools I need to help me face stressful situations. For example I know why I get stressed out more often than my co-workers and I just have to learn to be more proactive about dealing with such situations. If I were to believe everything I have read so far, as an ASD individual I should not even be capable of working at the job I have, as a data person for a large and growing corporation! (Today was a very stressful day, with equipment failures and having to cover for someone and finding out they left me a mess to take care of when I already had a lot to handle. But I am going on vacation and let someone else deal with it for awhile)

from a Dan Akroyd interview, where he mentioned some of the symptoms. They resonated with me, and I went to the internet. As I researched, more and more of my life came into focus. I don't have everything (don't flap hands, and my 'stimming'...if that's what it is, is basically drumming on things to songs in my head. But then I have 2 sets of drums, so that's ok... Don't understand the heavy blankets bit, but as mentioned all through the forums, not everyone has everything. But everything I've had problems with, I hear here as well.

I'm picking up a little bit here and there, seeing my actions through other's eyes, and hopefully learning to cope in a world I never made...

i picked up a copy of forbes magazine while waiting to see my neurologist to read an article about cognitive behavior therapy and it kept mentioning aspergers. i had never heard the word before, so (borrowing from an earlier post) me being another i-must-learn freak and having the medical profession as one of my obsessions, i googled it.

I found the wiki article, which didn't really explain it for me.
Then this http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/aswhatisit.html which was more helpful.
The one that really clicked in for me was this link http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/medical/brain/asperger.html

i don't really remember which link pushed me over to WP. But reading these forums was the final link that went ok, yes this is sooooo me. There is a specific post, the "You Might Be an Aspie If" post. I started cracking up, because, except for a few off topic ones, I was going, I do that, I do that too, and only missing a few. (and some of those i missed i was going oooo why did i never think of that?)

I was so relieved. I had started reading up on CBT because I was tired of being the odd one out. I could never quite understand why people moved away from me. (I am a really nice person) I had started to think that I was going crazy because I repeat entire conversations, and make up entire conversations with real people so that i don't actually have to have them. I also do the more common form of echolalia where i repeat what I say. It was getting bad enough at times that it started sounding like stuttering.

I have gone back since and i have an entire written list of points that i specifically remember in my childhood, or of stories that were told to me by family that confirm my self Dx. When i walk into the doctor's office to do my real Dx i will just hand it to him/her.... because i know i will not remember. Every time i step into a doc's office my brain shuffles out a window.

It was 1995. I was sitting at my art desk doodling like I always did while watching a late night news report on TV. Earlier that day I had heard an advertisement for a report that talked about autism and "social disorders." It was the "social disorders" part that caught my attention due to the fact I was and am a recluse who would rather blow my foot off with a shot gun that have to constantly be out in public conversing with people all day. I dismissed the autism part because in my mind it brought up images of a person with down's syndrome or some autie kid causing havoc on the end of his mother's bungee cord tether. Here I was a seemingly well spoken, seemingly adequate intelligent man. So the roport came on and I sat there drawing and listening to the report.

Aspergers Syndrome. It was the first time I ever heard the phrase. A "social disorder" in the autism spectrum. And like true Aspie fashion, I tried to look it up but in 1995 there just wasn't that much information about it ANYWHERE. This was the era before small town libraries with internet access. There were no information in the books. I didn't have a home computer. In order to look up AS, I'd have to carry around a crumpled piece of paper with "Aspergers Syndrome" scribbled on it for the next several years. In time I got side tracked and forgot all about AS.

It wasn't until 2003 or so that it all began to click. My Dad has never been diagnosed but I have diagnosed him myself as an Aspie. I even talked about him with my therapist and described all his symptoms. And my thgerapist agreed that he exibited undeniable symptoms of slight autism with OCD tendencies. And without diagnosing him herself, my therapist said that my Dad was a strong canidate for AS. So dealing with my very peculiar father my whole led me to eventually take a good hard look at myself. That's when that news report came on. I spent the next decade in retrospection. And evetually I came to realize that I most likely had AS myself.

Then I began the task of telling people about it. And letting them know about AS. So far I have told those people closest to me. And I like to think of my life as a fence. There's the side of my life when I wasn't even aware of AS and this "social disorder." You know - the dark ages. And now there's my life on the side of the fence where the grass is greener - the side where I'm aware of my AS.

It's really nice to finally be able to put a name to the crap that has been wrong with me my whole life.

I'd say that if you're seeing any signs of stress or depression then it certainly might
be worthwhile suggesting AS as a possible factor.If on the other hand he seems happy
enough at the moment then it may be
best to leave it for now,unless you think his AS-like traits are seriously holding him back.