Poll 2 (description of mentality)

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How do you think the way in which your mentality was described whilst growing up (via terms such as syndrome, disorder and condition) has shaped your life? Do you think you would be different now if you had been told that you were special and gifted instead?


Option A
I am autistic and I think that the negative way in which my mentality was described perhaps took away a lot of my confidence and made me feel like there was something wrong with me, had I instead been told that my mentality was good I think that perhaps I would have been more confident whilst growing up and would perhaps be happier and more successful in my life today


Option B
I am autistic and I think that being told I had a disorder/etc when I was younger helped me to realise that I had problems which I needed to deal with, this has helped me to accept these problems and somewhat deal with them, making me more successful and happier in my life today


Option C
I am autistic and I was shielded from negative terms towards my mentality when I was younger, instead being told that I was special and gifted, I feel this has made me a happier and more successful person today


Option D
I am autistic and I was shielded from negative terms towards my mentality when I was younger, instead being told that I was special and gifted, I feel this was a mistake as I needed to know that I had a disorder so that I could accept some parts of my mentality being negative and try to find ways to deal with this negative side of myself


Option E
I have a different opinion/experience/dislike all of the options and have written about this below

I feel option A is the one I relate to most.

E, its a mixture of several of them.

This poll is not applicable to me as I grew up in a era when highly functioning autism was unknown. However, I can relate to "C" the most, so I chose one.

I wasn't diagnosed until age 22 and once I got my diagnosis I have started doing a lot that has helped. I feel I'd be in a better spot if I was diagnosed younger instead of just focusing only on my academic acheivements. However going to the other extreme would have been worse.

I didn't even know about aspergers until I was 35.
Growing up I was just a withdrawn kid who was told he had a lot of "potential".
My social problems as a kid we're always attributed to moving a lot and always being the new kid.
In the 70's when I was a child, all anyone knew about autism was the more severe cases.
By 13 I was into pot & alcohol so more attention was given to my misbehavior around that.

One thing that bugs me about psychology is the lack of attention paid to adult cases of things like autism.
All the focus & study is on kids. They just kinda let the adults fall through the cracks.

A & B. Without knowing about AS, I would have not been able to take initiative and "correct" many of my traits. Still, I take issue over the fact that I incorporated the idea of "difference" and "disablity" into my identity as a teen, and as a result, I have immense difficulty seeing myself as someone apart from a label.

I'm 49 and AS was something not on the radar screen. I spent the majority of my time when I was a kid trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Support from my family and schools could most charitably be described as negative; I've always been on my own.

I actually saw myself as uniquely flawed and defective until about a year ago when I asked a psychiatrist what my diagnosis was. Without missing a beat, she replied Asperger Syndrome, and went on with what she was talking about. I went home and did some research on AS and was outraged at her cavalier treatment of it. I never saw her again, and she was the only mental health professional within 120 miles of me until she left the area.

Actually, I don't need anything mental health professionals have to offer. While I wouldn't wish my upbringing on anybody, the silver lining in this black cloud is that I learned to figure out what I want, and then go for it. For me it's been a matter of putting myself in a position where I don't have to depend on anybody else. My nearest neighbor is over a mile away, and I love it.

I wouldn't want to say I'm happy, as I'm not really sure what that means (and I have a degree in philosophy). I can say without reservation that I'm content, and there is very little in my life I would change.

I knew nothing about it until I was 20 so I cannot vote and see the results.
You should have added something like "I wish I knew" and "I am happy I didn't".
I don't know I think things would be for the better if I knew AND was put in a different schooling system.

P.S. Regardless I think that all aspies are special and gifted.

I was told I was special but not gifted.

I would choose option D if I had been diagnosed earlier. People today tell me I'm special and talented or different and it doesn't really help. I need to know I have a disorder and work on ways managing it.
Most times people just say 'you're not that different from us' which makes me want to hit them because they are not acknowledging my issues as being separate from what non-autistics go through,

I think Option C suits me the best.

I have Asperger's. I think that the positives and negatives of my treatment growing up were helpful to me.
On the one hand, I was always treated as very intelligent and talented (which I am) and my disabilities were dismissed as mere quirks or things that would go away with a small effort (which they aren't). Because of this, expectations were placed on me in terms of my strengths. If this had not been the case, I believe I would have achieved less. I feel sorry for younger people than myself who because of their autism, are excused from ever pushing themselves or from suffering the slightest bit of discomfort: they'll live out their lives not achieving anywhere near what they could have if people focussed on more than what they couldn't do.
On the negative side of things, my disabilities were dismissed as lazinesss, being difficult on purpose, or something that I could overcome easily. When I expressed concern about or trouble with something, I was told to stop being so stupid and that everyone else could deal with it. One of my father's favourite tricks was to push me into a meltdown over some trivial transgression, then threaten to videotape it and show it to people I knew.
While none of that was pleasant, and the last example was probably abusive, it forced me to watch people, learn to read them (it'll never be intuitive, but I at least have a list of some rules in my head), develop coping/compensatory strategies/workarounds for my problems and to control my meltdowns to a high degree.

I guess option E would fit best because I had a mixed experience that has produced an overall positive outcome.

Well my diagnosis was hid from me until I discovered it for myself in my late 20's.
I knew something was up cause my parents spent alot of time and money trying to "fix" me. In some ways I am glad that they tried because I am probably higher functioning than I would have been without all the intervention, but I still felt like something was horribly wrong with me and there was no one else that could possibly understand.

There is no option for diagnosed, but it was kept from me....So the best one would be A....since I was exposed to so much negitivity about my condition though I did not know what it is.

Jojo

When diagnosed with autism I was told it was a positive thing and that it was due to a lack of understanding from others that I had problems, thatsociety just wasn;t autism friendly. In the long run I doubt it would have made a difference, this was last year - No one knew what was up with me as a child and no one knows now since I'm no longer diagnosed with AS.