what was your first memorable aspie moment?

Page 1 of 2 [ 20 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

bizmack
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 15 Mar 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 221
Location: San Diego

30 Mar 2007, 6:41 am

although i dont remeber the exact age,i was somewhere in between the ages of 8-10 and i had this really wierd tic that was similar to turreates(spell check). I would sputter three foul words and humm afterwards then return to whatever compulsive ritual of the day. Usually drawing superheros and observing my surroundings. I really didnt understand until about a year ago that tic's were associated with AS, in a two month period of research i linked the two and self diagnosed myself as being an aspie. Regardless of the fact it proved to be odd and pervasive enough for my parents to put me in remedial classes because they thought i was slow. Soon after blowing through every class they really didnt know what was wrong so they put me back in a regular class again.
i went through most of my time up into my early teens odd and insecure about telling anyone up until the point i had supressed it from my mind. i am now 26 and those events of my youth did not become relevant until a year ago. its kind of funny how the brain works sometimes. its very funny how our brains work all the time. even to this day it scares me a little to recite those three ritualistic words and humm in fear that i may again not be able to restrain the need to speak them to the world.
go figure....well at least i can say i draw well now and have taken up psychology...
that aspie moment may have possibly been the defining moment of my future....



EarthCalling
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 817
Location: Ontario, Canada

30 Mar 2007, 7:21 am

I am glad you are starting to better understand yourself. It sounds like you had a rough time.

I have two that I would like to mention.

The first is my mother always breaking into my long winded one sided conversations (that I was unaware I was having) usually about some sort of not very likely to happen "what if"... She would finally call out "Earth Calling Amanda... Is anyone listening?"

The other, is a rather painful moment in Gr. 6. I was on the "edge" of fitting in, and had a few friends, not girls, but guys, for some reason I related to the guys better. Maybe it was because I skateborded and played a lot of Nintendo (and I mean, the OLD first generation Nintendo!) Anyway, a girl was having a party, and I was not invited. I was hurt, very hurt. However, the morning of the party, I guess they figured out that they could not get my "friend" who had a sterio system to the party, no ride! Knowing my mom probably would give him a ride, IF I was invited, I got a call and immediately jumped at the oppertunity. My mother was a little more reserved about the idea, but knew I really wanted to go!

So, off we went later that day, picked up the friend, the stereo, and arrived to have a good time! Well, boy was it a fun party! It really was. There was a lot of dancing, which I really enjoyed, and everyone really seemed to like my dancing, and as the night went on, everyone encouraged me to just "cut loose" and "give it my all". They where showing me new dance moves, and I was having a fantastic time! I even won 3rd prize in the dance competition that the "sister" of my classmate was holding for us! I left, feeling like Queen of the world!

I went home, and my mom could tell I was excited, (she was relieved) and asked me how it was going. My 16 year old NT sister listened in. I told her all about it, and showed her the prize, but the look on her face was concern. Finally, she interupted and told me, "hunny, no on thought you where a good dancer, they where laughing at you, usuing you as entertainment!"

I did not want to believe it, but as the pieces came in, that is exactly what they where doing, and I was teased about that night for the rest of the year. It actually left to my mother putting me on valium and a memory blackout that lasted about 8 years. (I now, by confirming it with family, that the memory that hit me like a ton of bricks, indeed DID happen) It was like I was hurt all over again when it came back!



Cernunnos
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Jan 2007
Age: 56
Gender: Male
Posts: 834
Location: Nottingham Castle

30 Mar 2007, 7:40 am

Hmm, one of the most painful ones, if not necessarily the first, was my mother telling me I had to make eye contact at a school camp. This was when I was about 11 or 12.

And so to please her I took her at her word and did - it was more like :shock: than regular eye contact, as I bored holes through people's heads. And I never even knew, until I some older kids, who were helpers, saying "That **** kid is really weird - he's always staring at us :roll:

After that I avoided any sort of eye contact and went to extremes not to do it at all. This ended with me fixing a point in the distance and staring at that as I walked by people to avoid catching their eye. That is until people started making fun of me for that as well.

I then got books and taught myself how much eye contact to make and how. Now I spend much of my time head down, with just enough looking up / around so as not to be considered weird for that as well.


_________________
Any fool can cope with a crisis. The art is in dealing with the crap you get everyday.


hale_bopp
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Nov 2004
Gender: Female
Posts: 17,054
Location: None

30 Mar 2007, 7:48 am

I don't have a lot of memories from when I was little, but probably when I was a toddler and didn't want to play with the other kids, and I shyed away when I was spoken to by anyone apart from my mother.



Clueless_Rhino
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 23 Jan 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 73
Location: KC, Mo

30 Mar 2007, 8:07 am

I'm not sure if this is a trait, and I don't really remember this, but I'm told I used to hug everyone until a little boy smacked me in the face.
Another time, there was a non-working phone booth inside a bank as a display. I got in and pretended to call Superman.
All through Elementry School I never really ran around to play. If I had my way, I would have stayed in and stayed at my desk.

I'm not really sure what Aspie traits look like in a young kid....


_________________
~JO


Mushroom
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 24 Mar 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 396

30 Mar 2007, 8:27 am

Hmm... I'll list a good one and a bad one:

Good memorable moment: I remember when I was 5-6 years old my favourite movies were the Casper the Friendly Ghost movies and I was seriously obsessed with ghosts- they were all I drew and talked about (my youngest cousin was the only one who accepted to draw things with me)... I would also just lounge by the TV and watch one of the movies over and over one day. The next day I'd watch another movie over and over... I really loved those days... :D

Bad memorable moment: Back in 4th grade, one day, our teacher was sick and the principal's daughter whom I hated with a passion was keeping our class. She was asking geography questions from people and I was drawing pictures. She told me I shouldn't draw in class and I told her I don't want to listen to her because I hate her. Then she decided to hold a poll to see who likes her and who doesn't. Well I was the only one who wrote "I hate you" (even though 90% of the class didn't really like her) and then I signed my name under it. I had to spend the next break AND classtime explaining to her why I hated her- and I pointed out every flaw she had... when I later told my mom she had to call my school and apologise for my tactlessness. I learned then not to tell people I hate them and critise them so harshly...



markaudette
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Oct 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 629
Location: Middle Tennessee, USA

30 Mar 2007, 8:48 am

I think one of my first real official Aspie moments came when I was in the 8th grade.

There was going to be a spelling bee in our school. A teacher came into the room and sought volunteers for the bee. No one spoke up so the teacher asked the room who they thought would be a good a good canidate to compete in the bee. Everyone turned and pointed at me. All at once.

And I'm sitting there shocked that everyone thought I was the most qualified in the room to compete in a spelling bee.

I went far in the bee but I didn't win the competetion.



9CatMom
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Jan 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 5,403

30 Mar 2007, 8:52 am

No memorable moments, but all I did I feel now indicates AS. If I think about it too much, I can't enjoy the good things about myself without wondering if it is a sign of "something wrong."



cruimh_shionnachain
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 22 Aug 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 913
Location: Looking for the ubermensch

30 Mar 2007, 9:35 am

7th grade.
I'd been rather clueless until then.
I used to spend lunch in the latin classroom with 1 or 2 acquaintances. I noticed a poster in the back of the room, with about 20-25 smiley faces that indicated different emotions. They had the latin word underneath. Not only was I amazed that there were so many emotions, but I had NO idea what any of them were besides the two obvious ones, happy and sad. The others just seemed to be variations on that theme. The others all knew what they were, and thought I was strange for not knowing what they were.
When I read "The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time" about a year later, I saw that the main character had that problem. That's when I knew something was up.

I was diagnosed a year later.


_________________
I'm like an opening band for the sun.
-Pearl Jam

Apathy is not a vice, it is a relieving and downright enjoyable life-choice.


sun_rat
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 15 Feb 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 144

30 Mar 2007, 5:26 pm

two moments. both occurred when i was 4.

first, one rainy day i decided i wanted to find out how my record player worked. so i located a screwdriver and took it apart. my mother walked in and lost her temper, insisting i put it back together immediately. i did, and it worked.

second, my grandfather, a rather brilliant and probably aspie man in his own right, bought me one of those childrens swingsets. it was rather complicated and had to be put together. he reached a certain point and became rather lost. my mother, my grandmother, and my father were standing there unable to help him. i remember picking up the instructions and finding the point where he got lost, then handing him the next peice he needed to continue.


_________________
sun rat


Ian
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 17

30 Mar 2007, 5:58 pm

I think my earliest memory would be when my younger sister was showing my mum that she had 'tidied' her room, and was telling my mum she took all the items off her shelves and put them back. At this point the NT brain thinks 'ah, they've been reorganised. She was receiving praise for this, so I decided it wouldn't hurt if I did the same. I remember looking at my sister's shelves and thinking that the objects were in different places, but were really in no discernable order (as always).

So I took all the stuff off my shelves and then put it all back on the shelves in the same places (since the system is already in perfect order). So I showed my mum, and when she pointed out that everything was in the same place I explained that everything was already in the right place, and that I had still 'tidied'.

I'm pretty sure I didn't get the ooh/aww praising I expected. There might have been laughter.



SamuraiSaxen
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Sep 2006
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,465
Location: Mexico

30 Mar 2007, 6:23 pm

When I was 4, my mom gave me a Mickey Mouse coloring book, and I loved it. But I didn't like people touched it.

One day we were to my grandma's house, and my cousins were there. They took my coloring book and colored it. I was crying and very angry, although I hit my cousins they were older than me, and my mom said I said "I'll grow up, and I'll kill you all, that wil be my revenge" while I was crying (I don't remember that part).



Hamster
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 232
Location: New York

30 Mar 2007, 7:42 pm

Well, considering AS wasn't even heard of when I was a child, I'll state my first memory of what I now know to be an Aspie moment:

I loved (and still love) to stare at gemstones or costume jewelery and crystal, and when I was in first grade, there was a fake diamond-encrusted tiara in the dress-up box that I desperately wanted for my own. I wanted to sit in my room alone and just stare at the many prisms for hours, so much so, I stole the tiara. I brought it back to school the next day and told the teacher what I'd done.

A bad one and good one pertaining to high school days:
I was in eleventh grade, new school in a new town, and a girl that I sat next to in homeroom asked me why I "walked so weird." I knew what she was talking about, because kids in my old school used to tease me (good-naturedly) about my "strut," as they liked to call it, and my brother used to kid me about how I "lope like a giraffe." I was never self-conscious about my walk, however, until that girl asked me that question. I lied and told her that I'd hurt my knees in an accident.

Even though I'm still very conscious of how I walk, and can't do so comfortably without some sort of "security object" like a purse or coat, I now walk, after years and years of practice and discipline, like a runway model. 8O

Although I had no friends all through junior and senior year, and barely spoke a word to anyone, I received a bit of respect from some students in science class during a game the teacher held -- we were broken up into teams, and the teacher would ask for the answers to random historical and scientific facts, and the team with the most points would win gift certificates to McDonald's. Guess who won for her team? :)



scrulie
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Aug 2006
Age: 55
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,738
Location: Kent, UK

30 Mar 2007, 9:55 pm

At age 5 I failed a colour-blindness test because I made my own weird interpretation of what I was being asked. My mother insisted for years that I was colour blind and I knew I wasn't. I couldn't explain to her why I'd failed the test, though - I just couldn't articulate it. Also at about that age I used to get confused about putting my clothes on and stuff and used to get in a bit of a tangle :lol:


_________________
*it's been lovely but I have to scream now*


MsTriste
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 7 Dec 2005
Age: 60
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,307
Location: Not here

30 Mar 2007, 10:15 pm

Every day in grade school while on the playground at recess, watching all the other kids.



Clueless_Rhino
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

User avatar

Joined: 23 Jan 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 73
Location: KC, Mo

30 Mar 2007, 11:05 pm

When I was young, but well old enough to walk and know better, I forgot to take off my socks before I stepped into the bath tub to take a bath.
When I was older I dismantled my mom's alarm clock. She was in the Army and needed it to wake up at 5:30 am the next morning. She saw all the many pieces and flipped. I told her I could put it back together again. I did, and the alarm started going off when it was supposed to, again.
When I was in High school I was in ROTC and that day I had to wear my ROTC uniform with Jacket. I forgot to wear a bra. I didn't want to embarrass myself so I kept my jacket on even though it was a hot day, it was before there was air conditioner in schools and I had sweat dripping from my face. Everyone else in ROTC class had their jacket off and draped across the back of their chairs.


_________________
~JO