Disclosure of diagnosis...

Post Reply New Topic

...when I got it later in life.

I was diagnosed w/Aspergers 3 yrs ago (at age 41). It answered a LOT of questions (WHY did I ***HAVE*** to wear sunglasses when outside; why do soundtracks at the movie theatres bother me so much sometimes, not to mention my "employment situation" that I've talked about here already {my therapist called me a 90-day wonder...about the average length of time I spent at any one job...} problems w/people my WHOLE life, etc & so on).

So now I'm on facebook, meeting up w/people from my past. Am wondering what will happen if/when I tell 'em about my diagnosis?

Has anyone else been here/done that?

P.S.-the reaction I got from my family SUX & so part of me is shying away from telling...just don't know...)

Yep. I've had a variety of reactions, but they were mostly positive. It depends on if the person you're informing has a high or low level of understanding.

Family members will almost always have a more exagerated reaction to any significant new revelations than friends and aquaintances. With family all sorts of feelings comes into play;
Is it genetics? Was it my genetics? Should I have known? Had I known could I have been more helpful to the child aspie? Denial. Anger. Anger at the pediatrition. Etc

Friends and aquaintances simply don't have any of those feelings/connection to cope with.

I'm not really later in life at only 22, but I was diagnosed after being separated by college from my closest friends I've ever had.

What I did was post on google+ "Tuttle has been labeled - received diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome and a recommendation to use roleplaying to help with this". The mentioning of roleplaying in a gaming heavy group meant that people did talk about gaming to help with autism at an intellectual level as well as got the message about my Asperger's.

After that point I just didn't hide comments I wanted to make that related to it. Never explicitly stated it again, though I regret not posting on facebook as well because some of my closest friends aren't on google+, but it feels wrong to do so at this point.

It was generally positive, partially neutral. People have only been supportive, even when they weren't close to me.

Thanks for the insight, y'all.

I really love your username, MsMarginalized! That has been the story of my own life.

I "self-assessed" here on WP just about two years ago now, and none of my immediate family has ever responded/commented at all. I am now 900 miles away from all of them and I do still have some communication with one of my two daughters, but even she has never said anything or asked any questions related to my AS/HFA.

One long-ago friend (now on Facebook) readily accepted my report of AS/HFA, but she already knew a little about it and could easily see how that could explain how I was "back in the day" when she and I were neighborhood friends during High School.

Another friend of mine from later years had a completely different kind of reaction, but he did at least try to remain friendly even though he just could not comprehend and accept the reality of our differences being neurological.

The very best experience I have had was with my employer after I had offered a list of symptoms/characteristics for review, and the folks there remain extremely friendly, understanding, accommodating and supportive today -- I was on the phone with one of them just this morning -- even though I have now been away from there altogether for more than a year.

Overall, I find people's reactions and responses to be greatly dependent upon their own states of being.

I've told some family friends who've known me since I was a kid. Most didn't seem particularly surprised - they hadn't known about autism but they'd known I was a weird kid.

That's usually the case for boys, they were looked at as just "weird" when they were little (I'm assuming you are one; if I'm wrong, I'm sorry!)

I wasn't "weird"; I was annoying....seems that all I could do was p!$$ people off. Now that I have the AS diagnosis, some are claiming that I'm just using THAT as an excuse to continue being annoying (my sisters/brothers) that's ok, take me with my diagnosis or I won't be around at all.

Thanks for all the insight, y'all....& to you, leejosepho (it was REALLY EASY choosing a name for this group!)

I'm not officially diagnosed yet but I know I have it. It's like the more I read and watch, etc, the more I see it in myself. My sister actually listened to and supported me. My parents are helping me with doctors but don't want to hear about it because they obviously have their own issues but choose to ignore them. I've thought about posting it once it's official on FB just so people will understand me better but IDK and what if I can't get a doctor to agree with me but still know I have it.