When was the first time you heard about Asperger's Syndrome?

Post Reply New Topic

I had heard about autism, and the more I thought about it the more I thought it described me. I kept noticing that I had very good intellectual abilities but very poor social ones. Eventually, I went to the library to investigate. That's when I found out about Asperger's. I instantly knew that I had it. I was crying with joy when I discovered this! That was in 2004.

The term sounded vaguely familiar, so I think I must have heard it before my self-diagnosis, but I can't remember where.

Same here.

The counsellors I went to see were incompetent at best, bullies at worst.

The episodes left me with a strong mistrust of the psychological profession.

At a message board I used to belong to around Y2K, a guy picked on another guy because he thought he had asperger's. He wasn't serious, he was just trolling him.

I read about it on the Internet in the mid-2000s... I didn't read enough about it to suspect I had it yet though. It wasn't until several knowledgable people discussed it with me, that I realized.

Charles

A rather embarrassing incident when I was 40. I did the whole "friend of mine" deal on another forum and someone said the incident sounded like Asperger's Syndrome. First time I heard of it.

I was investigating what was wrong with me. I'd plumped for schizoid personality disorder, but I guess Asperger's must have come up as an alternative to that. Well I dismissed it then, but then a few months later it came back to me, I went and read about it, and I realised I probably have it.

It was at the beginning of my 4th grade year (in late 2001) when my mom explained to me that i have it, but the meaning of it didnt really sink in until 2004 when i started 7th grade

poetic response!

i was reading a science mag, and read an article about a mom whose children were autistic and she was subsequently diagnosed with AS. i thought it sounded like a relative of mine, and i read out the list of criteria to my husband. he said, "oh, no... that's YOU' or somesuch.

i was already having problems at work and was getting help from a shrink at that time.

I first heard about it through the daycare center I worked at when I was 20.

I'd first heard of it when my parents were watching a current affairs segment about a little girl with AS and said "Ahhahaha Cherie, you're like this little girl, come see! You have a mental disorder HAHAHA!!" (it was 1996 and I was having severe bullying/social difficulties in school). Of course I forgot what that funny disorder was called until April 2006 when I was doing research on the internet to find out what could be wrong with me (social/communication difficulties holding me back at work, past relationship problems).

Funny question, because oddly enough, I have this image in my head of being at a friend's house, and I think he mentioned this as a different type of autism, and I really can't think of any context for why that would've come up. But for some reason that much has stuck with me, despite that being probably at least 10 years ago, and me not ever thinking that it could have anything to do with me until more recently.

I also remember the first time I ever heard about autism in general. It was in a letter published in Nintendo Power, a parent who was expressing gratitude that Nintendo's games gave them a way to connect with their autistic son, who was otherwise locked in his own world that they had no access to.

I can't help but wonder if the fact that I remember learning of these things is due to a subconscious realization that they could apply to me.

I probably first heard about AS in the 90's but it was just a name for a condition some people have, it only registered in my head because people pronounced it assburgers but spelt it aspergers. Then 5 years ago watching a local TV programme about an artist with AS I was amazed when his opinions on life and things in general were exactly the same as mine. I was so excited that someone thought the same way as me that I shouted through to the wife in the kitchen to "come and watch this, someone has the same ideas as me and he has the IQ of a genius". The penny still didn't drop until the wife said that is you, you must have aspergers.

I was asked what I thought about it when I was like 13-14 when they(the school, my mom, my therapist at the time) thought I had it. Was diagnosed shortly after.

I too have been wondering whether some of my relatives had autism before I recognized it in myself. That was when I watched a TV programme about autism in 1994. I didn't think much about it for many years afterwards.

I read up on AS because I was convinced my husband and my Uncle had it. I still am, but now I'm 99% sure I have it, too. Fact is, my husband is probably higher functioning then I am. :-\

I first heard about Aspergers and autism when I was about 10 years old. A teacher explained to me that a kid in a class I had, had Aspergers. My parents also told me I "was" autistic when I was younger, but grew out of it. As my eccentricities piled up and after countless teachers tried to tell me I had it, I finally came to grips that I was and always will be autistic.