When did u/parents knew u had AS or autism?

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I was diagnosed about 3.5 months ago. I always knew I was odd, but I didn't suspect that until my therapist brought it up.

As for my parents, I suspect they had suspicions for a long time, but they never suggested that I had AS. It was my mom that referred me to the therapist though. I have a sister who is low functioning autistic, so my parents have done quite a bit of research on autism over the years. There have also been a few times when I was a kid when my mom called me "autistic" or "just like your sister" when she was angry at my occasional callous remarks, my hyperfocusing abilities, my troubles understanding people, etc. I'll have to ask them if they suspected I was an aspie... But whatever happened, they were prepared when they discovered I had AS and have been helpful and supportive.

When they doctor said so .
I was diagnosed at 12, school referred me.

Well, my mom says that she (and others who knew me) suspected something was "off" about me from an early age, and I had a lot of testing done when I was in fourth grade, but nothing autism-related was picked up. It wasn't until my sister started working as an "in-home" therapist for autistic kids that the connection between my issues and possibly having AS came up.

I have always been a bit "off". As a child I was diagnosed with ADD, but it never really described all of my issues. A friend of mine in high school used to tease me and call me autistic all of the time and he told me he really thought it was true. However, I wouldn't hear of it as I found him insensitive and condescending and couldn't receive it coming from him.

The first time I discovered Asperger's I think I was 36. I was reading an article on Wired's blog about a hacker who found out he had it after getting arrested. This made me research what it was a bit ( I probably read the Wikipedia entry and that's about it) and see it in myself. However, I didn't go much further than that at the time since I had other things to do. It wasn't really until 3 months ago, at 38, that I really got into researching it. It seemed to make sense except for the whole lack of empathy thing. I do empathize with people and found this suggestion of selfishness very disturbing. It wasn't until I read a post on here about the different kinds of empathy that it all made sense to me. The empathy I was sometimes lacking was the kind that comes from body language and not from knowledge of something bad or good in another person's life. I also lack the kind of empathy that makes me want to alter things about myself in order to fit in a social group. I do make some accommodations but by and large I see little reason to change much just to fit in with the group.

I also talked to other people I knew to get their opinion of my self diagnosis. The people who had experience with high functioning autistic people seemed to agree with my self-assessment. I then talked to my mom who did not agree with me at first. However, she now seems to have changed her mind. We have reviewed my childhood together and came back to the same conclusion: Asperger's. I think she was in denial as to the reason for my odd behaviors. Given that her only real experiences with people on the spectrum were negative and based upon lower functioning people, I can see why she would not want me to identify with it as it hurts her self-concept. Plus, Asperger's isn't a very well known condition and this is likely her first real exposure to it. It wasn't even in the DSM until 1996, 4 years after I graduated High School.

I told my mom about my suspicion a few years ago; my dad still doesn't know.