I can't even begin to describe what I've been through, but "sent to mental health professionals as children for being different; or even being seen by adults as problematic" pretty much sums up my entire life. I've been seeing my current psychologist since I was six. I think the only reasons I never got diagnosed with AS were because I refused to tell them anything too personal about me... About my stims, the bullying I went through in school, my obsessions with biological subjects, everything. It took me years before I even told my psychiatrist (not psychologist) that I had really bad anxiety. She still doesn't know I'm emetophobic... She just thinks I have general anxiety.
...I think the only reasons I never got diagnosed with AS were because I refused to tell them anything too personal about me... About my stims, the bullying I went through in school, my obsessions with biological subjects, everything...
Similarly here. (See my bio for the details of dx by family friend, and the weird answer I got from a therapist.) That kind of stuff is rather embarassing, and I didn't even consider it relevant last time I was at a therapist. I just wanted to find out how to quit unintentionally intimidating my friends, and only asked about AS to get somebody off my back. I'm sure if I were to include more details about the past, I could easily get a professional dx, but then there's that question of whether or not it's a liability to have such a dx.
After learning more about it later, it just seems to fit. For my own purposes, it lets me make sense of the past. I am now in my 30's, so it's a little late for it to make much of a difference. All the bullying and crap has already happened, and my social skills will always seem artificial. Ideally, I would be able to get a professional opinion but keep it off-the-record.
It's just that "Yeah, I've got it." sounds alot more confident than "I think I might have it."
My teachers commented alot on my preference to work alone, I was often at the Doctors with stomach pains. Stress was my label for a long time. In 1990 UK a child with stress was something to be kept quiet. I suffered stress all my 20's and havent built normal relationships. Doctor diagnosed AS in Dec 2006. I didn't diagnose myself, so mybe I shouldn't be replying to this. My AS diagnosis is all about unexplained stress and anxiety pre/post social interaction and occasionally during it.
I haven't even been through half the stuff you guys have been through. But yeah I did like to work alone, and there some oddities that I exhibited all throughout schooling.
I will say that I ran into *serious* problems when I hit high school, what with school work and not being able to keep up with friends. I did eventually have a paranoid breakdown in 11th grade, and since then have been in therapy.
But I wasn't able to use the advice of the therapists. And they never mentioned AS to me. Maybe it wasn't picked up, because I learned to adopt "strict" self-control so others wouldn't notice how weird I was?
I think like Michael, most of my problems fall into a category of serious social/empathic impairment. I don't know how to empathize.
The other stuff, like serious stims and so on, I haven't had to deal with. I have had minor stims, and I can suppress them when I want.
Anyone?
I was sent to a counselor for stubbornness and a bad temper. When he finally weaseled the story of my first stepdad's abuse out of me, he figured the therapy was done.
I'm officially diagnosed Aspie now, thirteen years later. In the guy's defense, AS wasn't an official diagnosis back then.
The stubborness is way, way, WAY too apparent with me. I won't use anyone's advice, for anything.
Especially not a therapist's!
It appears I have more social/empathy issues, than the more obvious features, such as major stims.
My clumsiness and lack of motor skills was noticed by both a teacher and my parents. Thanks to that I went to Motorial Remedial Teaching. This helped a lot, after this I could even ice skate.
Other than that: during my teens my parents often 'threatened' to take me to a psychiatrist, because my behaviour was pretty odd compared to my brothers (stubbornness, bad tempers, avoiding social contact as much as possible, and I would always run upstairs and lock myself in my bedroom during a conflict because I can't handle that). Of course I didn't want to go there... I still haven't talked to my parents about AS, I really wonder what they have to say, and why they wanted to take me to a psychiatrist back then.
...during my teens my parents often 'threatened' to take me to a psychiatrist...
<sarcasm>Ah, the good old practice of threatening your kids with a psychiatrist!</sarcasm>
That just makes it sound like a horrible, bad thing. A kid's imagination is likely to conjure up images of having wires attached to your head, and being stuffed into a machine that takes pictures of your brain. (Claustrophobia, anyone? I overcame that a long time ago, BTW.) I had that one pulled on me not too long after seeing the movie "Oh God! Book II" (or, which ever one of the Oh God movies it was where they show the little girl having her brain imaged).
I am of the belief that just like you should go to the doctor once a year, the eye doctor every two years, and the dentist twice a year, there should probably be some sort of psychological check-up about once a year, for ANYONE, not just those in therapy. Everybody lives under stress, and this would catch stuff early. (They would check on stuff like self-esteem and anxiety levels.) It would be no more strange than having your teeth cleaned.
I am not especially interested in medical matters so I always assumed I was just prone to headaches and stomach pains and that this was associated with the stress I felt pre/ during/ post social situations, be it at work or in my private life. I understand the 'mechanics' of anxiety and panic. If you google stress, anxiety, depression, you don't come accross Aspergers in my experience. Being told I had Aspergers in Dec 2006 prompted me to look up the symptoms and find this site. I didn't know aspergers existed pre- Nov 2006. Using the information I have gained in the last few weeks I can track back many situations that didn't make alot of scense at the time but now AS explains them. I don't think that beyond self-awareness and understanding and employment concerns that an AS diagnosis is really relevant to people my age. As my GP said, when you are 17-18 these issues matter, but once you get to my age it's more an issue of personal understanding.
I had a *serious* paranoid breakdown when I was 17 and 18 (in fact, exactly when I was 17.)
But they said it was just social anxiety, which caused depression. No mention of Asperger's Syndrome.
actually your wrong, fro example me and my brother john, we don't even have aspergers we have autism and no one noticed until I looked it up MYSELF. im 17 and i went years showing every possible sign of it, and no one ever noticed.
this is because peolpe are ignorant to autism and aspergers.
My dad had mental health problems in late childhood/early adulthood. It wasn't until I was 10 years old that my dad self-diagnosed himself Aspie/HFA.
I can't even begin to describe what I've been through, but "sent to mental health professionals as children for being different; or even being seen by adults as problematic" pretty much sums up my entire life. I've been seeing my current psychologist since I was six. I think the only reasons I never got diagnosed with AS were because I refused to tell them anything too personal about me... About my stims, the bullying I went through in school, my obsessions with biological subjects, everything. It took me years before I even told my psychiatrist (not psychologist) that I had really bad anxiety. She still doesn't know I'm emetophobic... She just thinks I have general anxiety.
Same here! I also refused to get too personal with most of my therapists, and that may be part of the reason why no one mentioned Asperger's to me.
I was assuming that I didn't need to mention that I have always lived "in my own little world," as people called it. They also frequently called me a "space cadet" or said I had my "head in the clouds", and complained that I was extremely physically slow. In elementary school our recesses were twenty minutes long, and that wasn't even long enough for me to get out the door.
I rarely saw or heard the events that happened around me. I did not hear verbal instructions. I spent my time being fascinated by patterns on the walls, my desk, the ceiling, the floor, people's hair or clothing, etc. I did not play with other children and I barely participated or did not participate at all in group activities. My parents put me in a choir but I did not sing. (Boy, did that make the director angry!) I was sent to swimming lessons but I did not follow the teacher's instructions and my parents eventually sent me to one-on-one lessons to learn to swim.
LOL, this is SO familiar. I couldn't pay attention to anything when I was younger, I was a complete daydreamer. I had strange obsessions and associated people with material objects. I was quite odd.
I was also sent to swimming lessons but couldn't follow the instructions, so I got one-on-one lessons.
Since AS is a developmental disorder, I tend to suspect that those who have AS to a substantial degree would have been noticed by their parents and teachers and referred to a professional-probably to be diagnosed with at least something.
I was referred by my parents to a psychologist when I was 16. I was diagnosed with "Generalized Anxiety Disorder." But that was it.
Same here! I also refused to get too personal with most of my therapists, and that may be part of the reason why no one mentioned Asperger's to me.
Same here. Been to countless shrinks. Only mentioned my tics to one, and she dismissied them and an "ocd like" trait. Didn't trust enough to mention all the other "weird" stuff I did - the lengthy conversations in my head, drumming fingers to the point of annoying everyone around me, etc. I have been told that I am eloquent in speech (by ivy league educated doctors - to most NT's apparently I sound like a textbook, or so I have been told), which may be why they never looked into any autistic sprectrum diagnosis. I TRIED to tell them what a chore speaking was! Just because I do it well does not mean it comes naturally!!!
My speech is quite eloquent and, occasionally, articulate for someone with AS, but it is a chore to figure out what I'm trying to say. Even though it seems I'm expressive, I can only put that into words with the greatest labor. I have a deep analysis that goes on at all times in my mind, putting the words together in my mind *first* usually, then trying to get them out with my mouth. Occasionally I will trip over words but not as much as some with AS.
When I'm fluent and like a "normal person" in a conversation, I think it's because I've gotten into some form of hyperfocus, where the analysis becomes somewhat automatic, with a bit less manual labor.
But.. I think the most important thing to point out is... none of it comes naturally. Or so it seems to me.. I feel like what I say is quite manufactured, there's no "autopilot" like the NTs have.
Thoughts?
I tend to suspect that those who have AS to a substantial degree would have been noticed by their parents and teachers and referred to a professional-probably to be diagnosed with at least something.
Keep in mind that many of the traits that get perceived as "abnormal" for boys are quite acceptable for girls. Being "shy", fearing strangers, not liking loud noises, wanting to play quietly in her room with tiny things and read books. Not being good at physical sports. Having a good vocabulary. Not demanding attention with "Watch me mommy!". It's okay for a little girl to cry.. etc..
I had all those traits growing up (every one of them!) and I'm a guy.
I have always been the hypersensitive one.
It was kinda odd how "un-masculine" I was for a male, growing up, with frequent crying (sometimes for almost no reason) and all that.
I have read that some with AS seem to have some "idiosyncrasies" that are outwardly perceived to belong more to the opposite gender; for example with some girls with AS, they can be more blunt than expressive, and they don't care about clothes much, so this is seen as a bit "un-feminine" (i dont want to use masculine because I don't like the implications); with some males, they're not able to figure out social protocol for getting attention from girls, and they're more passive and withdrawn than most of their socially assertive classmates.
Anyone?
for example with some girls with AS, they can be more blunt than expressive, and they don't care about clothes much, so this is seen as a bit "un-feminine"
Ah yes, I do see your point since I refused dolls, didn't care about clothes and seemed to be the only one who wasn't dreaming of romance.
People are a mixed bag, aren't they? I keep forgetting that. 
Thanks, but how about you comment on the rest of my post?