Newly Diagnosed as an Adult

So what was your first symptom for autism?

Quite a lot of symptoms really. I'm still at the stage where I'm coming to realise that all sorts of things that I just thought were "normal" are actually autism-related eg. insanely good hearing, sense of touch, taste, smell etc. I hadn't realised that other people don't do the amount of thinking and analysing I do in social situations, it just comes intuitively to them, or that other people don't notice the amount of detail I notice in the world around me. The assessment really came up because I was a facing a massive change and I wasn't coping with it well at all, so that's when people started to suspect that maybe my extreme reaction could mean I was autistic and apparently they were right. Still very much trying to get my head around the idea though! 

Quite a lot of symptoms really. I'm still at the stage where I'm coming to realise that all sorts of things that I just thought were "normal" are actually autism-related eg. insanely good hearing, sense of touch, taste, smell etc. I hadn't realised that other people don't do the amount of thinking and analysing I do in social situations, it just comes intuitively to them, or that other people don't notice the amount of detail I notice in the world around me. The assessment really came up because I was a facing a massive change and I wasn't coping with it well at all, so that's when people started to suspect that maybe my extreme reaction could mean I was autistic and apparently they were right. Still very much trying to get my head around the idea though! 

I think in a way we can be more enlightened, or at least far less influenced by social norms that don't really have any basis in logic or fact. Things people just do because it's the way it's always been done or because it's the way other people do it. I think we're far more likely to question "well, why should we do it that way?" I definitely think that's a strength rather than a weakness, it's just that other people aren't very open to it and don't like being questioned on it much.

Hi Floss. I relate so strongly to everything you have said on here. Well apart from the horses, I think they're kinda scary (in a pretty way) but I also enjoy history and languages and excelled at school and was bullied for it. I had kind of forgotten about that. The ADOS assessor asked why I was bullied and I drew a slight blank but that was actually a major factor. Also my upfront refusal to follow certain social rules (particularly gender based ones, or like the expectation to be patriotic) and my vocal opposition to them. It's really funny to think that's autism related, I just thought it was that I was more enlightened than everyone else! Sometimes it is hard to understand why autism is seen as a disorder. 

I'm going with Floss on here. :) I've had some therapy in the past, but the autism diagnosis is brand new for me so I haven't had any therapy that's taken that into account yet (which might be why the therapy I have had hasn't worked very well). Have you had any? I really like medieval history and I can speak/read Spanish, French, Catalan, Portuguese, and a bit of Latin. 

I really relate to this a lot. With so many things, I've just never even realised that other people don't experience them the way I do and knowing that they don't is almost making it harder to deal with in a way. So for example I discovered the other day that other people don't actually experience "pain" when they drink a fizzy drink or when they're cold and their hair stands on end. But for me both those experiences are genuinely painful and I never even knew that wasn't normal. Loud noises also feel painful, like I'm physically being bashed over the head, and make me feel sick if they don't stop too. Now I know that other people don't have these issues, I'm finding myself asking "Why me?" quite a lot. I guess it has its advantages too, but the sensory side is particularly hard I think and others aren't always very understanding of it and just think you're making a fuss.

Hi Floss, I’m getting this too. Despite waiting 19 months to get diagnosed and really hoping for a positive diagnosis because it explains so much, I’m now finding that I’m more different than I thought I was. The way I process sound is captured really well in many sensory sensitivity videos that you can find on YouTube, and I’m becoming more aware of my rigid thinking though I can’t quite see this objectively because it’s just me (there are no videos for this that help provide that outside perspective). Also I’m coming to start to see that I fail to imagine other ways of thinking that others might have.

i have a strong drive to understand everything that I need to balance with just getting on and enjoying life I guess.

floss, since you told me you loves hisotry and language, what language can you speak? And for history, what kind of history do you like and how would you entertaint yourself with history?

And actually do you attend any therapy? if yes what kind of therapy do you attend?

and tell me what's your name? don't have to tell me your full name just your first name.

so did you grew up with him?

Erm a lot of similar symptoms to me really, except he's also amazing with numbers and maths.

so you said you believe your friends has asperger syndrome. so what is the sign of his asperger?

well as I said up there, part of my autism, i either play with children or other autistic people of all age. I don't like geting on with my peers as my peers world make me boring and i don't like their world. but usually for autistic people of any age, usually are those who has a similar world to me so normally if they love disneyland characters as a special interest, then yes.

I think my favourite is Mulan because I like how she represents feminism! 

That sounds great! I always wanted to go to Disneyland as a kid but never made it there. I have just the one friend in real life. He's not diagnosed with Aspergers but we both think he is too. We share an interest in history and we both ride together. He's the only good friend I've really had in my life though and he's currently away for 2 months so I'm struggling quite a lot without him because I literally don't have anybody else. What about you? 

mine is alice in wonderland, winnie the pooh and peter pan because these characters are so cute make me want to touch and feel them if i go to disneland again. and because these characters share autistic condition like me.

my special interest in disney characters because the chracters are so cute and some does share some autistic condition like me. when i was in disneyland and i took pictures with the costume characters and play with the characters there, i loves the touch of the characters when i gave them a hug there. so i loves disneyland characters very much. I go to disneyland every 2 years. i  go to one in hong kong usually but I've been to the one in tokyo and i took pictures with donald duck, stitch, aurora and duffy the bear and hope to go to the one either florida or Los angelous where i can take more with more characters.

so tell me do you have any friends?

Who's your favourite Disney character?

I'm not sure really.... I guess I just think it's fascinating finding out how people lived and what they thought and believed in different time periods and seeing how different, but also similar, they were to us.

alright! well it sounds like you are interested in history and horse. so why do you love history?

Sounds like you've had quite a bad time of it when it comes to other people too. I have body dysmorphic disorder as well, which involves a lot of anxiety as well as OCD type tendencies. I'm now realising that things like the perfectionism and eye for detail that come as part of my autism diagnosis definitely contribute to and fuel the BDD diagnosis. Makes for quite a difficult mess to fix.

My main love is horses and horse riding, but I also really like languages and history. I relate a lot to what you say about just not having the same interests as your peers and not enjoying the things that they enjoy. I found it hard to fit in at uni because everybody wanted to go out drinking and clubbing all the time and that's just my idea of a nightmare. I far prefer a quiet movie night with friends, or a day trip to some interesting historical place. I don't get the appeal of loud music events at all.