For those who were not helped

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Some people on this forum were diagnosed rather early and often because someone else has suggested it, be it a doctor a friend or a relative. I can't help noticing that these tend to be Americans, and as far as I've noticed Americans tend to have more interest in psychological conditions than they do over here, where they are often dismissed and hardly ever picked up on by a GP.


I suppose I've probably done my best to disguise the Aspie behaviour but as soon as I started diagnosing myself it became so bloody obvious what my condition is that I'm almost irritated that nobody noticed it before. I know I wasn't hiding it that well, so is ignorance to blame or do people just not care?

HEY, I had the SAME problem as you!

I KNEW that it wasn't some IDEA I had one day. How do you fake seeing certain lights, hearing sounds, etc??? Why would a kid apparantly not utter sounds for a while, and then just start talking SENTENCES one day!? Apparantly, my development seemed delayed, but before 2 I was AHEAD! I never asked WHY nobody had me checked out with the delay in speech, but the rest was subjective, and they probably couldn't figure it out.

LATER, with the senses, they thought I was crazy. Never mind that everyone else noticed in the same order that I did later.

As for the reading, etc...? HEY, who worries about THAT? Obsessions? "Better get out more, get some exercise, etc.....!" Bad social development? "OH, HEs only SHY!"!

BTW I'm in the US. We probably wouldn't know about this TODAY if not for the fact someone can get rich off of it.

Steve

Exactly. I mean I certainly didn't have the most caring parents - thats not having a go at them by the way, we just aren't a 'close' family. But still, I would have thought someone would have picked up on my catalogue of oddness and thought, 'hmm, I wonder if he's got a screw loose?'

Pfft, it would have made school a lot easier, 15 years of acting school with a bit of education when I could get it is all it was.

Because we are an ASD family, I'm glad I live in the US because my son got a very early diagnosis, and he's doing well, and we understand him. But I'm too old to have gotten a diagnosis. Nobody ever heard of high functioning autism back then. I was considered "bad" or "spacey." I think there is a lot of denial.

I think our healthcare system, flawed as it is, makes it easier for us to get diagnosed. If our GP doesn't "get it" we can make our own appointments with NeuroPsychs and Psychiatrists. And I'm lucky (or NOT lucky, depending on how you look at it). Health insurance isn't offered at hub's workplace, so we have free state insurance, and it's really good. Everything has been covered 100% so far (including medication). Seems like any childhood disorder abroad is attributed to ADHD. That's dangerous because ASD, even here, is often misdiagnosed as ADHD first. With us, we didn't believe it with my son, and kept bringing him to professionals who knew better.

I think I'll get a tshirt with "I'm an Aspie, just friggin diagnose me" on it.

I've heard that a lot of folk from elsewhere in the world think of us Americans as loving to talk about our neuroses ad nauseum. I find that pretty comical! It does seem to have a kernel of truth to it.

I'm 27 in the US and I had to really on self-discovery of the disorder - I missed the "boon" but I don't envy others who've recieved the full support of the system now, I just figure I was given more chances to build character on my own this way. I don't see much point in seeking out professional help now either as I'd hate to benefit Big Pharma in any way, and that seems to be the first recourse for everything nowadays....
ANYWAY, celtic I did experience that same irritation as you...but I've let it go as I don't think carrying another chip on my shoulder is going to help my situation much either.

Actually there are some whose behavior was not "missed" but there was no label of AS so it was kind of like trying to fit you into one of the labels they had. Just like when they label people today it depends on who is doing the labeling and how much knowledge they have. Of course with the internet there is much more availability of information - but back then you were kind of reliant on what the professionals were saying (and often their push for medications).

Yep. When they don't know what it is, they can't diagnose it. That was *my* problem. As for meds, I take none for ASD and my son doesn't either. Why take meds for a difference? I don't think of ASD as anything more than, say, blindness or deafness, where you have a difference from "the norm" (whatever that means) and you have to learn to adapt to something that doesn't come naturally. I know many parents, though, who are medicating their ASD kids on stims. Wonder if they know they're addictive and abused. My NT daughter abused stims and so did her friends. Since she's been clean, I've gotten quite an education on drug abuse. Adderrall goes for $10 a pill on the streets, at least here. I get angry when I think about putting little kids on speed.

In a way I'm glad I was never diagnosed as a kid. If I'd been diagnosed I likely would have to had to be in Special Education classes segregated from everyone else and I might have had to take medication, both of which would have been counterproductive and degrading for me.

I was first introduced into the "mental Health" profession when I was 16(1980).I was there for suicide attempt and they didnt look at any thing else.Many traits,(I can now see as AS),were blamed on depression........(repeating phrases,flat effect,rocking,crying,cutting self) .Lack of eye contact and no friends was...low self-esteem.All of it,according to the"experts", was because I was adopted.This included the dissociation and lack of ability to "connect" to people.Obsessions were because I had no social life.No one even thought to ask about sensory issues.
Years later,the fad was either BPD or repressed sexual abuse.The end result of almost 30 years of some kind of psych intervention is that even now,with an official DX of AS....I have a hard time believing it 100%.There is still a part of me that thinks....what if I buy into this and the aliens DO end up coming to pick me up?Wont I feel silly.....

I am glad I didnt have to go to special Ed classes,I helped defend some of the kids during recess and the other kids were really brutal to them....The only way it would have helped is if my family had excepted my differences instead of trying to change them,but that would never have happened...They would have just continued to try and pray them away.

repeating phrases,rocking,lack of eye contact and no friends was...low self-esteem

Can be caused by depression?

For me repeating phrases appears to have to do more with lack of focus.

rocking is more because of boredom, or some kind of excitment.

lack of eye contact? I could see how that could be caused by low self esteem, which could cause depression, but that isn't the case with me.

No friends is more likely a cause of normal or exascerbating chemical depression.

I was also diagnosed with depression. I think that is over with!

Maybe a lot of it had to do with going so far against my nature.

Steve

Both my parents were just like I me...or rather, I'm just like them. I didn't have any brothers or sisters and I really didn't notice I was so different until high school...mostly I grew up thinking I was fine...the rest of the world was strange.