New Joiner here

[K257]

Hello, new joiner here.

I thought I would pop in and say hello. This is the first time I have ever posted or joined a forum. I'm quite new to this computer/ Internet malarkey.

 

I have been diagnosed as having Asperger's syndrome in 2006. I was originally diagnosed as a young child, as having profound Autism or Kanner's Autism in the late 60's. I had delayed speech and was very hyper-active.

However, I appeared to get "better" and was forced to participate in mainstream education, albeit in classrooms where my "peers" were up to two years younger than myself, and was only deemed able to take classes with peers my own age when I was nine years old.

 

Suffice to say, I have had trouble fitting in with others all my life. Like many of you I should imagine, I was bullied miserably at school, and also in most of the jobs I have had since leaving education. I suffer from very low self confidence and have recurring bouts of depression. I also suffer from body dysmorphic disorder.

 

 

I hope that I will be able to not only gain insights and information to help me, but perhaps I might be of some help to others on this forum.

[Lyndalou]

Hi K257

 

Hello and welcome to the forum!

 

Lynda

[JeanneA]

Hello it's great to have you here, I'm sure you will make some good friends. :-)

[K257]

Hello, Lyndalou and JeanneA,

Thankyou both very much for your kind welcome

K257

[trekster]

Hi and welcome from another speech delayed ASDer.

[positive_about]

Welcome K257, I too suffer from depression and low self-confidence, its inevitable after years of bullying and put-downs. Its only recently that I've started to accept myself for who i am, and not be ashamed of that. You kind of have to stick two fingers up to the world and be yourself, and do what you want to do - normal people do this so why shouldn't we? I've been inspired by reading about people who are being positive about having aspergers, and its enabled me to think about the future that I want to have, rather than just living day to day.

[K257]

Hello, Trekster and positive_about,

Thanks ever so much for your kind welcome. Your advice, positive_about, is just what I needed to 'hear'. it is only now that I'm gradually starting to come to terms with knowing for certain that I actually do have AS, but I feel that joining this forum is a very positive step forward.

K257

[Shnoing]

Hello, K257.

I got my dx only after my son got his (HFA) at age 3. In 2007.

Up until then it was all guesswork.

[K257]

Hello, Shnoing,

Thankyou very much for your e-mail. I hope that you and your son are well, that having the dx -that actual confirmation - has helped make sense of things. It's strange, but for me things seem to have been the opposite way round; since I received my dx I've started noticing the traits of it in my parents !

Hopefully things have come some way forward since you and I were 3 years old (as I was in 1968), and that your son and you as a parent will have all the support

that wasn't available then. When my parents were told, when I was about three years old that I was profoundly autistic, it was tantamount, in those days, to a living-death sentence, and that I would probably have to spend my life in an institution.

Well, take care, Shnoing, and the very best of luck to you and your son!

K257

[Shnoing]

... Hopefully things have come some way forward since you and I were 3 years old (as I was in 1968), ...

Funny thing is, as I had a look into autism, I found lots of traits in my father, and in his youngst uncle (born in 1911). The three of us have professional doctorates, btw.

Looking back, I think that my family must have developped some sort of autism-compatible way of raising children: "unwritten" rules were spelled out, e.g.