About me

Hello everybody :) I'm Rachel and I would just like to talk about my experiences of living on the spectrum and if you would share your thoughts on how you cope if you expereience similar thinha to me. It would be greatly appreciated.

I havent had an actualy diagnosis but a lot of people who have had many years expereience working with autism recognised the signs in me within the first few weeks of meeting me, these people were my college tutors. I like to stick to routine I need to always know what I'm going to be doing and how I'm going to do it, I once walked into one of my classes and the chairs were set out different and I had a panic attack where I couldn't remain in the classroom and had to have time-out which lasted 45 minutes, I have sensory difficulties which include electronic constand noises such as beeping or ringing and I dont like people shouting at me, I need to have things that match and are in order date wise or size wise, I like to line things up so they are nice and neat I have social difficulties which include going to new places and meeting new people I struggle with basic conversation with people who I've never met, I dont like people sat behind me I like to see whats going on, I need space sometimea to overcome all the above, I dont like people touching me who I dont know or having people too close whether I know them or not depends what mood I'm in, I struggle with eye contact with everybody and I struggle to understand some things that all of my friends can uderstand and just get on with it. I've said all this because I want to know if anyone on here is similar and how they cope, my tutors said mild aspergers and now I think about it it makes more sense everyday. Thankyou! 

  • Thank you so much for your advice. Best wishes suri

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Hi Suri, high functioning autism HFA is the new term for Asperger's. The change in terminology is "progress" but its causing confusion. Don't worry about it too much, if you see stuff about Asperger's syndrome (AS) then it might be relevant to you.

  • Hi Rachel14.  Thank you for your reply. Starting to understand more now I felt nobody understood me (which I'm sure they did not) anyway thanks again for the reply.   Suri

  • Hi.   Thank you for replying  I have always felt I was different to other people,struggled through life trying to fit in anyway the last few months I saw a story with someone who was on the spectrum and I was amazed because I had identical symptoms so went to a new GP explained everything the GP then sent me to a psychologist and a psychatrist who then diagnosed me a few weeks ago. Now looking back everything seems to be fitting in like a jigsaw puzzle. I am on the high end of the spectrum so does this mean I have Aspergers this where I am confused because Aspergers was not mentioned. suri

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Hi Suri,

    it certainly takes a bit of getting used to! I was diagnosed 2months ago but had been reading about it and wondering about it for about 6 months before. When i got the official diagnosis it was a tremendous relief as i could really start to understand the conflict and confusion that had kept happening for the prevous 56 years.

    i felt strange to think that i am wired differently to most people! But, we are in good company. Einstein, Newton and lots of famous scientists were/are wired this way too! 

    My main advice at this point is that you can start to relax and start to work out how to deal with "normal" people with more understanding of how they differ from us. 

    How and why did you get to your diagnosis?

  • Hello, I felt the same but I also felt upset when my tutors said they noticed within the first few weeks of meeting me but you have to think of the postives, depending on where abouts on the spectrum you are meaning either it's controlable or its gets in the way of your life a lot, just try an accept it, they are a lot of postives to having aspergers, I tend to think of myself a perfectionist and in the last year my work at college has been brilliant because it wasnt possible for me to hand work in late or miss things out that I had to put in, I notice a lot of things that nobody else does.

    I see that I'm a lot more understanding than most people my age and I tend to question just about everything which can get on peoples nerves but they get it, you can see your GP and ask to point you in the right direction for support groups as some people on here tend to take a while to reply back if your really struggle. Its a really postive thing being diagnosed I can image its allowed you understand why you do the things you do, as long as your happy with doing things in certain rountines then theres nothing to be confused about. Let the people you know cloestest to you so they understand and you'll find your life will be much easier :) 

  • Hi recombinantsocks.      I have just read your post I have recently been diagnosed with asd my age is 59, I am still trying to take it all in, when they told me I felt a little relieved but now a month later I feel confused I would be great full for some advice. Thank you.   Suri

  • Thankyou very much, I enjoy being the way I am now, the people that are close to be accept me for who I am now so I'm really happy with myself, I'm finding this forum great though :) 

  • Hi Rachel14, welcome to the forums! As for them labeling you in school - like Faith Jegede said in ger TED talk about autism ( www.ted.com/.../faith_jegede_what_i_ve_learned_from_my_autistic_brother, ) - don't try to be normal, because you are extraordinar!

  • Thankyou very much, its really appreciated :) and wow 56 years?! And I'm known for all the charaacteristics You put above, after going through school and being labeled as 'naughty' or 'annoying' it upsets me a little bit because my life could have been so different if it had been noticed sooner but I now know and its abled me to understand myself a lot and I couldn't agree more, my deep thinking had allowed me to be extremly succesfull on my course at college I consider myself to be pretty lucky I like the way I am in all honestly! There are some negatives but they can be overcome and I've proved that since having my tutors sit down and talk with me about it, I'm constantly challenging myself and I love it! 

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Welcome to the forum Rachel, I hope that you will find us all helpful and friendly - I don't think I have seen anything critical in anyone's posts since I have been looking for advice and chipping in with my thoughts over the last couple of months.

    A lot of what you describe sounds as though you could well be on the spectrum somewhere. Problems with eye contact and communication are classic symptoms.

    Can I recommend a book that helped me? Living Well on the Spectrum by Hilary Gaus

    www.amazon.co.uk/.../1606236342

    You may be able to get this from your local library. Other books are recommended elsewhere on the NAS site.

    I found that this is full of practical advice on things that you can actually do to make your life more comfortable and better.

    I ended up getting a diagnosis (after 56 years not knowing what I was really like!) and I am finding that this has helped me. It isn't absolutely necessary, and it also won't change your life overnight, but you might decide to go down this route at some point

    I think we can learn to be more comfortable with who we are by understanding how we differ from other people - Aspies tend to have certain characteristics in abundance (e.g. honesty, straight talking, thinking deeply about things, sensitivity etc) that are very much valued by everyone so I don't think it should be a "bad thing" to be this way.

    Smile