Who suspected you were autistic?

Post Reply New Topic

This kinda mostly applies to the more high functioning and diagnosed later in life.

I was diagnosed when i was 15 but before that a majority of my family thought i was just awkward, strange, different or aloof. No one really suspected autism. But my sister was always extremely suspicious, seeing as how we spent a majority of our time together. She would go up to my parents and say " i think theres something seriously wrong with emily," and my parents would get upset or dismiss it, but when my diagnoses came along everyone just figured "makes sense".

Who in your family always suspected something?

My elder sister informed me that she always felt there was something odd about me, but didn't suspect autism until I brought it up with her, and it all kind of made sense to her because her son is autistic. It was actually my wife who guessed first and encouraged me to do some digging on the subject.

It was suspected that I was autistic because I wasn't speaking, nor seemed aware of the world, by age 3.

I was diagnosed with other learning disabilities, so people just blamed those for my eccentricities. The first person who noticed something was "off" was my nursery school teacher. Which is a hard reality because she is a close friend of my parents and I think it was really hard for her to let my parents know that this kid, who she's known since I was born, is not quite getting it. I think she used the term "requires extra attention" and "immature in many ways."

As for autism, well, the only person I've even had who's said, gee, you are clearly autistic without prompting is someone I met online. She's autistic and she was asking for help dealing with her special needs at a festival we were going to. I described to her the things that I do to keep myself grounded there. And she was like "yah. You are definately an autistic. I'm sure your membership card just got lost in the mail or something." It was the first time someone saw that part of myself for what it is. To be fair, by describing the lengths that I go to in order to take care of myself, i was showing her a side of myself that no-one ever sees.

I did suspect my daughter of being autistic when she was very little, but it didn't seem to be a problem so I didn't not consider that any longer. Untill she crashed at uni and some retries later, and it goes nowhere, she'd think she's bipolar and now is 'treated' for that, that doesn't do much actually, the employment-support is more helpfull. (Fingers crossed)

My mom always knew I had something going on but she didn't think autism. I think she thought of Asperger's at one point because she said she had me tested in 4th grade and the clinical psychologist said I didn't have it. My speech therapist brought up Asperger's in 5th grade and then my psychologist but no other doctor ever thought autism except that one doctor when I was a baby and my parents didn't take me to him again. But teachers thought I had autism when I was in preschool. I don't know about elementary school except for Asperger's which was totally different than autism then.

As a kid I had social issues, language, learning disability, ADD, I was the clumsy kid and had tactile issues. But yet my mom still thought I was normal.

I myself - secretly - and a friend, who was studying to be a pedagogue. We were 17 and 18.
My parents knew, there was "something" and very late, my mom was onto autism.
Others called me "atypical".
According to my brother, I was a spoiled brat.

The first person to suspect that something is wrong with me as far as I know was my first grade teacher who convinced my parents to persue a diagnosis for me.

Everyone but me.

When I got diagnosed, I was shocked and even in denial for a bit. I didn't suspect it and go to get diagnosed. I just knew it wasn't ADHD, like I was labeled.

My mom suspected from very early. She drug me to every doctor she could when I was tiny (under 4).

When Temple Grandin became famous, my mom told me that must be what I have. I was still in denial...

My boss said I was a little bit autistic in the late 1990's. He also said I did not make eye contact and people would think I was rude. I thought he was bullying or trying to gain some sort of advantage on me. I thought he was the wierd one for bieng so unprofessional. He did help me with eye contact though.

No one ever voiced anything to me, I think I always slipped through the net because earlier versions of the criteria would not have fit me. But I do wonder if my parents suspected something and were in denial, they always said how I never talked when I was younger (they had this justification that it was because my brother talked so much that I didn't get the chance), but when I wanted to get assessed they were very resistant to it, they started to deny that I had been a late talker after having said that my whole life. I found my baby book and child health record, both well maintained up until about age 5, both had sections about starting to speak left blank (I do think I was speaking by 5, I think it is weird it was left blank, like they didn't want to have a record of it being so late). So I really could imagine if teachers or anyone raised concerns they would not of been open to it.

As for friends, I think everyone thinks i'm a little unusual, but I think the way I have adapted I have always made out everything was through choice, I am not very good at making friends so pretended I had no interest in making more friends, unable to form relationships so pretended I have no interest in relationship. So rather than appearing as someone who had problems I appear as someone who was a bit unusual through choice.

I am annoyed it never got picked up at university, you would think after 3 years of sitting alone in silence in lectures, seminars and tutorials it would flag someone up, but I guess things were different 15 years ago.

So yeah no one, least of all myself. Never occurred to me even once in 30 years because, despite all the awareness raising there still really is only a stereotypical view out there in the general populace.

No one did until I first raised the issue with a psychiatrist years ago.

My mom first suspected I was autistic when I was eight, but she couldn't afford to get me diagnosed at the time, nor did she think it was severe enough to warrant diagnosis. She claims she first told me about her suspicions when I was twelve, but I have no memory of this. The first time I remember her telling me about it was when I was seventeen, which is when I started doing research which led to my diagnosis.

I thought I had a little aspergers mid-end 90s, because it was talked about more then, before never. And I think I was right that I had a little of it because back then, at least where I live, you needed much more severe symptoms as I did. My doctor even guessed it in a chart, which I read later but she didn't push it and neither did I, cuz they pushed other things more, such as personality disorders.

Maybe 8 years or so later, more people were diagnosed and I realized that now I could maybe also fit in. I knew for sure, the way they diagnosed now, I HAD IT. It still took a while until my doctor also realized it. After a long wait I was finally tested and it was said I do have aspergers, and it is a full diagnosis despite of some stuff that is more NT like.

So it was me all the time. Even when I read a book someone published about her autism in 1996, it rang a bell but not loud enough. I wasn't as "severe" so I figured I don't have anything, I just thought it was nice that I could relate but I didn't really question why. But I'm not sure whom I could have asked. Since most with aspergers were still diagnosed with other things here back then...

Still it was me. And maybe the Internet. We suspected it.

A lady who came to check out our house when we were trying to find someone to buy it. My mom was making conversation with her.

My mom: My daughter has a field trip coming up. She's going to Chicago.
The lady: Oh, sounds nice!
My mom: Yeah, but she has to get up so early. In her case, especially early, because she wants to make sure she still has time to eat a big bowl of cereal like every other day.
The lady: *with a weird look* That's... strange.
My mom: Yeah, it's really important to her that she follows the same routine every day. I think she has OCD or something.
The lady: ...Or autism.

Back then, my mom believed that autistic people all had low IQ's and couldn't speak, so she was really confused until she did some research on the internet. ^^ But she didn't bring it up to me for years after that. So the next person who suspected it was the school social worker, when I went to see her and told her about feeling different from my peers. When I finished describing what I meant, she said, "Have you ever heard of Asperger's syndrome?" So I also did some research, and my mom and I finally ended up talking to each other about it just months ago.