How long did it take for you to accept you were autistic?

[Mr Allen]

I get a little tired of those lines of utter nonsense myself. I fell into the classic category as a result of speech delays. A dumbass? I don't think so.

You are correct about measuring intelligence as well. IQ testing is based on a barometer set by those who want to compare one human being to another. Some individuals have islands of genius,for instance a musical savant who may not function as well as many children in other areas and is defined as profoundly autistic.I got a savant label and even question it myself.In fact,I question ALL of the psychological labels,not just the ones pertaining to autism.

I have brought up in the past that there would be no way for people to know exactly what was going on inside a non-verbal autie's mind if they couldn't convey their thoughts in words.Maybe they are at a much different level beyond where the norm is considered as the baseline. My test scores on this matter placed me in the very upper echelon of those scales I might add and I am considered classically autistic.Like knocking on the door next to Einstein's estimated figures high.

My time spent here has been very interesting as I watch so many come and go. We have people from around the world that can turn their thoughts into English language and our cross section here is not representative of the entire autism spectrum. I stumbled across my version by accident.Nobody would have ever guessed I was autie looking back on it,they only knew I was that crank moody guy had something special to offer and exploited it during my employment. By the way,my talents took me to the top of the corporate ladder a few times as a result of being on the spectrum.Not bad for that freaky,geeky skinny kid with the bad attitude that always played with racecars, motorcycles,airplanes and machinery.

It does astound me how many that are considered aspie require support for daily functioning. Maybe we better talk about the flaws in the functioning labels so we can better sort all of this out.Maybe they should scrap the entire psych world's flawed craft and start over.Na,that would never work,it would put a lot of people out on the sidewalk,and I don't mean the people who require their services either.

I never required any intervention from the psych world until I splattered my brains out on a sidewalk.It was actually forced on me,so I had no choice in the matter That was when my real education to what I consider a black art began.So far,I haven't been impressed

Rant over,but is it really

A lot of people "On the Spectrum" wouldn't pass standard intelligence tests, but contrary to popular belief Aspies are NOT retarded.

 

[Nitro]

A lot of people "On the Spectrum" wouldn't pass standard intelligence tests, but contrary to popular belief Aspies are NOT retarded.

Who said anything about aspies being retarded? I do know you stated that you had Aspergers and not autism because there was a BIG difference. How was I supposed to take that? Maybe you need to study up a bit more and learn about both of the conditions so you actually understand what the term neurodiversity means...

 

[toothless]

i agree nitro, and rich you say it like its a bad thing,im under that label and can do anything i put my mind to-so what if it needs planning and support? i still get to do whatever it is,i also know plenty of people under the same label and they are worth a lot to society to but they have skills no ones listening to because like you they just see the word 'retarded' [though actually in this country they see the word learning disability,some people wrongly call it learning difficulty].

 

[Sylar]

I still don't know if I accept it or not. I hadn't even heard of Aspergers or autism until I was 18 when somebody brought it up in my psychology class in college after I was forced to share some information about myself. I was already seeing a therapist at the time due to social phobia/anxiety and brought it up with her and she did an informal test with about 50 questions. She felt that my results should be passed along to a specialist and I had to wait months until I could be seen. This new person did a similar test and interviewed me as well and I was diagnosed in the same day.

During the time I was waiting the suspision had been spread around my family and a bunch of them were all saying I reminded them of Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. I found that more offensive since I thought he was really annoying but at the same time reading about AS made some sense of my childhood. The specialist herself was shocked and annoyed this wasn't picked up during my school days.

One the one hand it made sense of the way I acted and why I was bullied, on the other I just didn't want it to be true.

 

[Caelix3]

I guess I was kind of surprised at first. Almost not believing it but then quickly after the shock. I accepted the diagnosis.

 

[Silverwhistle]

"Acceptance" wasn't an issue for me at all. I had a near-breakdown due to work stress 4 years ago, and in looking into why my coping mechanisms had failed in the way they did, I started investigating the possibility of Asperger's. So much started to make sense, and so I pursued formal NHS diagnosis, which I received at the end of last year (aged 50). "Accepting it" wasn't a problem, because it clarified so much: obsessive interests, difficulties with relationships, the fact I've a great academic and research record but have struggled to get work commensurate with my qualifications. And looking back, I can see that many of the friends I've had, and also historical and fictional characters who mean a lot to me, were probably themselves Aspie. We seem to have a 'radar' for each other. I can also see some of the genetic trail, too: my maternal uncle, though never diagnosed, was to modern eyes clearly autistic.

 

[Silverwhistle]

I don't have Autism, I have Asperger's, there's a BIG difference.

As far as I understand, the difference is mainly in early childhood, and is about whether or not you had delayed language-development. So in adulthood, that becomes less significant than the main distinctions in terms of how much support you need: high or low-functioning. But for children, the differential diagnosis does matter re: early language support, so I find it hard to understand why the US has decided to drop it. I don't mind being identified as Aspie or Autist: Asperger's is a subset of Autism.

 

[Silverwhistle]

Finding out about Asperger's has made me less 'hard' on myself,

That's very true. While I would have liked to have had more material success (and economic security), I now feel less of a failure; more that I've done pretty well, considering what I was dealing with re: the NT world.

 

[Jordan Leigh]

It took me about a year. I was nineteen at the time and felt like I was crazy and a failure. Then one day, someone (I will leave them unnamed, but suffice to say i should have been able to rely on them) told me essentially my opinion didn't matter and that I could keep it to myself. After that point, I had an epiphany that I don't share the same perspective as the rest of the world, I'm never going to. And that's okay. In fact, it's pretty awesome. I will never fit in to the mold society has created and I will never view the world the same as everyone else either, so why the heck should I kill my soul trying to to be like everyone else? I resolved to embrace every quark and eccentricity I have and be who I am. I may be a little crazy, but that's great. "No great genius has ever exsisted without a touch of madness." -Aristotle
❤

 

[OkRad]

I hate it. I know many love it and others accept it. I was DXed late after years of abuse, violence and trauma. My family loves me but degraded me often. Was told I was "freakish" and "weird" by two different profs in uni. Beat up, etc.......
Now they say I have autism? And always did? After dxing me with everything else under the sun?

What would my life had been life if I had known?

I cringe every day when I wake up, feeling quite unsafe now. I am now like a very very damaged and wise 12 year old with no coping skills.

And I have a host of physical problems after a very serious car accident......so , yeah, life sucks right now.

My goal is to learn to get into supports. I live near a centre that only does Autism stuff......but I am old now, so I do not know.....but will be going there to try to adjust.

I am learning a lot here and I thank you guys for all your posts. Some make me cry, some laugh, and I always learn so much. You guys are like family to me. People who REALLY GET IT and would not bathe in perfume before coming over

 

[Mr Allen]

Who said anything about aspies being retarded? I do know you stated that you had Aspergers and not autism because there was a BIG difference. How was I supposed to take that? Maybe you need to study up a bit more and learn about both of the conditions so you actually understand what the term neurodiversity means...

Just after I was diagnosed 17 years ago, I posted on various fora under a username about it as I knew nothing of it, and also at the time I had a website about gaming, so some guy Googled my username and found out loads of information about me, including my AS diagnosis, and posted it on a US based wrestling forum's off topic section without my consent, and they have called me the R word ever since, hence my general disdain for Americans in general.

 

[Nitro]

Just after I was diagnosed 17 years ago, I posted on various fora under a username about it as I knew nothing of it, and also at the time I had a website about gaming, so some guy Googled my username and found out loads of information about me, including my AS diagnosis, and posted it on a US based wrestling forum's off topic section without my consent, and they have called me the R word ever since, hence my general disdain for Americans in general.

Cool...

 

[Nitro]

Just after I was diagnosed 17 years ago, I posted on various fora under a username about it as I knew nothing of it, and also at the time I had a website about gaming, so some guy Googled my username and found out loads of information about me, including my AS diagnosis, and posted it on a US based wrestling forum's off topic section without my consent, and they have called me the R word ever since, hence my general disdain for Americans in general.

So let me get this right. You do not care for all Americans due to some childish crap pulled on one forum based in the USA...
SMH

 

[Servelan]

I found out when I was 60 and I was seeing a counselor, too, because I'd been in an abusive marriage for 18 years and change. It took me about 6 weeks IIRC and my counselor seemed to think that I should just accept it automatically but it took time to see how my self-diagnosis actually fit. I took the aspie test online, and passed, and started reading about it and after a while - not that long, mind you - it became part of my self image.

It was tremendously liberating - a sort of epiphany, or enlightenment experience - to find out why I'd felt like an alien in the world all those years, and to let go of the guilt and shame associated with not being socially adept or as good as NTs re: social stuff. Now, I see AS as my superpower; I know it's what makes me very smart, creative, logical, sort of with an engineer's mindset, and I embrace it as a strength, not a weakness. I don't feel I have to 'act normal' any more, just act like myself.

 

[Mr Allen]

So let me get this right. You do not care for all Americans due to some childish crap pulled on one forum based in the USA...
SMH

It's not just on that particular forum, judging by the behaviour of other Americans towards me on YouTube, most of the ones I've seen online are clearly less than intelligent IMO, look who they voted in as their President recently?!

 

[Servelan]

In truth, I do not see myself as autistic and so, if being aspergers is autistic then I cannot have aspergers and even though it is not confirmed, because where I live, in France, they do not accept aspergers, more and more it is being confirmed that I have aspergers and yet, to look at me, no one would guess, UNTIL THEY GET TO KNOW ME and then they start to see things that are not the "norm".

Here in the US, they've changed the diagnosing manual for physicians to include Asperger's as part of autism, which is a double-edged sword. Saying you have Asperger's is one thing, saying you have autism is entirely different...people see autism as being something awful, while Asperger's is being 'peculiar' or 'wierd' but not 'autistic'. However - for children in school, it's important for them to get access to needed resources and the change makes that easier because autism is a federally recognized disability, and including Asperger's can get children help they couldn't access before.

 

[Nitro]

It's not just on that particular forum, judging by the behaviour of other Americans towards me on YouTube, most of the ones I've seen online are clearly less than intelligent IMO, look who they voted in as their President recently?!

Ok,you got me with that one,I always thought that Youtube is a bastion of intelligence with nary a troll on sight

I still don't get your point. Were you forced to stay in the sites where you were treated poorly? Do you remember your first encounter with me here on the music thread? I sure do. You were less than nice to me from the first time we crossed paths here.In fact,quite rude as I recall.What did I do? I brushed it off,after all,what was the point of countering your opinion and starting a sh*tstorm?


WTF does our political views in the USA have to do with your country?
I think our country as a majority thought it was a time for a change here and the populace chose the way they did.

I find your country's political system to be a sham too,but you will never see me post how silly it is for yours to support the monarchy...to me,that is foolish to want to cling to an expensive tradition just for old times sake if you want to play that game...
I see that Brexit was a total disaster to many in your part of the world,but once again,it affects me in no way,so I don't look at it very deeply.
If you wish to live in a socialist or democratic society,then by all means,do so,but try not to live a life where you feel the need to push your thoughts about it on others.

I live in a republic where we have rules in place to insure that all get a say in government,not just the popular ones or a dictator.From what I remember about our early history here,we broke ties with your monarchy because they treated us like crap. If anyone should be bitter about politics and another country,it should be the USA.Better yet,maybe if anyone should be ticked off,it should be the American Indian for what your people did when they showed up here with intentions of exploiting the place.Maybe they didn't teach that part of your history to you because it wasn't something to be proud of in my honest opinion.

Do you remember any of your history where your monarchy basically just conquered and took nearly any land they thought they were entitled to?I do,I learned that in school.



On another note,just about 100 years after we had to fight your country for freedom a second time,we jumped in and saved you from the first big war in Europe. I kind of recall having to bail you out again in the second big war. We supplied you with weapons AND manpower both of those times.Too bad there wasn't any silly old internet back then,it would have been much easier for us to just sit back all stupid like you like to think we all are and comment on the war from across the pond...

 

[Servelan]

It's not just on that particular forum, judging by the behaviour of other Americans towards me on YouTube, most of the ones I've seen online are clearly less than intelligent IMO, look who they voted in as their President recently?!

Oh, hey, dude...srsly? Don't use THAT big a brush and paint us all as a bunch of dweebs, because 2 million more of us did NOT vote for the spoiled sweet potato with tape on his tie, and I'm one of the popular voters that didn't and I'm as smart as, or smarter than you. And I have Asperger's. And you spell funny.

 

[Mr Allen]

Oh, hey, dude...srsly? Don't use THAT big a brush and paint us all as a bunch of dweebs, because 2 million more of us did NOT vote for the spoiled sweet potato with tape on his tie, and I'm one of the popular voters that didn't and I'm as smart as, or smarter than you. And I have Asperger's. And you spell funny.

I am from Sheffield, England, I am English, we spell words differently to how they do in North America and/or Canada.

Do you see?

 

[Servelan]

I am from Sheffield, England, I am English, we spell words differently to how they do in North America and/or Canada.

I know you're English, and that's why I pointed it out to let you know that I know. Now you know that I know that you know that I know. My point is still valid - don't assume we all vote or think or spell the same.