What age were you diagnosed?

Post Reply New Topic

how did It make you feel?
better or worse?

52.
Relieved.
Better.

I was diagnosed with AS at age 47. It was the happiest day of my life. I've very aspie, and always thought I was some kind of deficient freak of nature. Until about ten years ago, I used to spend my time wondering what I'd done to deserve such a thing. Now, I wouldn't want to be normal for the world.

It helps to feel you are a part of a community and not totaly alone doesn't it

a .

Last edited by typewriter on 12 Jan 2012, 1:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

Did you not feel bitter about the time you have struggled without help?

46 and I felt better knowing that-but trying to get help and then the regrets of a lot of experiences I will never have and a life essentially wasted because of it-I can never have the experiences my peers had at certain age benchmarks.

11, parents took me to a psychiatrist because they thought I had ADHD. Turns out I had what he called "Minor AS".

I didn't like the label at all, but at least knowing I have it I know that social skills are learnable to those who don't have them naturally. Drugs help too.

It does help knowing I'm not alone, though I'm not sure about the community part. The night I got out of the Navy, I got extremely drunk and swore to myself I'd never join anything again.

Seriously, I had managed to make a place for myself before I was diagnosed. The diagnosis for me was kind of an added bonus, though I have learned much from reading the posts of others.

I was actually diagnosed when I was around 12, but I didn't find out until I was 24 (my parents initially didn't trust the diagnosis so they never told me about it, until I was diagnosed a second time later lol). It didn't make me feel any different really, it was just confirmation of something I already knew in a way.

I don't actually recall. Parents say I was about 2 years old at the time, and have stories about how I'd get frustrated with not getting what I want, having to use some sign language, repeating what characters on tv shows would say. I remember going to therapy, but none of that. Growing up, I only ever knew one other person with autism, and he still seemed pretty different from me. A lot more active, and louder, and as a result I guess he needed an aide in school. Otherwise I spent most of my time with what seem to be called NTs(a term I haven't heard used before until I came here), so I'm really not sure how it's affected me.

No.

Do you want me to?

No haha It's just that I did, and I think my mum did.

I was late 26 when diagnosed with Aspergers. I was early 27 when I was rediagnosed properly/more thoroughly with classic Autism.

I was in my mid-thirties before AS was officially recognized in the DSM. Had it been recognized while I was still a child, chances are that I would have been diagnosed then. Either way, it is not the diagnosis that affected me so much as the way people treated me - no one likes a nervous and jerky child who has little or no concept of inappropriate behavior or speach, no matter how intelligent he is.

The only bitterness I feel is toward the jerks in my life who have gone out of their way to make me feel bad about myself, whether by verbal or physical abuse.

I feel no bitterness about having AS/ASD, just relief at knowing why I am the way I am.

I was 21, and I think I was... hmm. Intrigued? Curious? Something like that. I'd heard of autism and suspected I had autistic traits, so it wasn't particularly surprising to me to be diagnosed. It wasn't an earth-shattering event for me; my reaction was more like, "Huh. That makes a lot of sense." I had by that point already had mental illness diagnoses--many of them, in fact--and I was okay with being different. So, having the diagnosis didn't really change my view of myself nor cause any major emotional fallout, either positive or negative.

The consequences of the diagnosis--being able to get the help I hadn't been able to get for so long--was what really did change my life. Having a label is like having a road map: Rather than being lost and wandering, trying to get where you're going and not even knowing where it is, you can look at the roads other people are taking, and see whether those paths are useful for you. Autism is very diverse and there are many roads, and many of them won't take you where you want to go, even though they are useful for others. But having that map lets you find the path that works for you, because other people are on the same road and can give you clues about where it leads.