ridvan

Hi there - Me, 53 male, married, living in south Wales. I was originally interested in this forum due to my now 18-year old son being mid-way on the spectrum. HOWEVER, after reading an article in a national newspaper about a father in a similar situation finding out later in life that he had AS, I undertook the Aspie questionnaire on the <a href="http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php" target="_blank">http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php</a> website:

Your Aspie score: 145 of 200

Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 57 of 200

You are very likely an Aspie

Considering that I went through years of slowly coming to terms with my son's Autism, can you imagine the shock I experienced at the revelation that I likely had Asperger's! While I await my first appointment with the GP to start the AS diagnosis process, I now realise that my years of trying to cope with the chaos and demands of being a child protection social worker have to come to an end. Having some doubts about the validity of the Aspie quiz I went through the same questionnaire with my wife and her scores reflected the reversal of mine! My wife now loves me even more since she has connected all my different behaviours/reactions/interests to Aspie traits. After all these years, it all makes so much sense! Years of trying to behave and appear 'normal' but never quite feeling that I fitted in, kind of out of sync with what's going on, on the periphery of nearly everything, and thinking it was all simply a lack of confidence and shyness - pah, now I know!

So, at the time of writing this, I was originally angry that I had only recently developed this self-awareness, sad that I'd gone through so much agony trying to fit into those square-peg-round-hole situations, and fed up that I chose a career that I've continuously been uncomfortable doing, above all, accepting it all as 'my lot in life'.

My son has higher functioning Autism, and now I know where he got it from! I love him to bits, and accept him as he is; I just never imagined that my thought processes, perceptions etc were connected with his Autism! I would love to hear from other people who have been diagnosed later in life and how it has been for you.

p.s. I was diagnosed AS on 28th June 2010 - I paid a lot of money to be told what I already know! LOL