Autism hidden in plain sight

I just read this article, it's very intriguing. While I don't think I have autism , I think I have a mild form or asperger's syndrome. It talks about diagnosing adults and what their lives would have been if they were diagnosed as children.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/au...ry?track=icymi

It is all considered Autism now; Asperger's is just on the mild end of the scale.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/a...l_asperger.htm

I was diagnosed autistic, but my parents never told me. My father outright denied the diagnoses, my mother educated herself about it, and played games with me designed to help me... the main one I remember was the "eye to eye" game, where we'd rub noses and look into each others' eyes. We'd wobble our faces around and make silly noises. She also taught me the "mirror" game, where I had to imitate her body language, without being too obvious about it. Then she got a book on human body language, and we used to play games to see if the other person could guess what we were thinking... if I sat with my legs away from her she knew I was being cross and wanted to leave, etc. Finally she taught me how to look as though I was looking at someone, by looking at the bridge of their nose.

When I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder the psychiatrist told me I also had autistic characteristics which also caused me problems. It was at this point that my Dad told me about the autism. I think he thought it was a less stigmatising diagnoses than anything with a schizo label. However, he still thinks there's nothing "really" wrong with me, and encourages me to pull myself together.

I could put a ____________ before your statement & just start filling in the names of probably 90% of the people I know. Have ever known! That sums up so much pain, rejection, confusion, loneliness.

What your mother did seems amazing. Do you wish they'd gotten you professional therapy, whatever was available?

I like the article. It was most excellent I think, I enjoyed reading it.

Hi Roadrunner.... In a perfect world of course I wish they'd been able to get me help, but they were dirt poor Irish immigrants, there wasn't really any autism awareness in those days even if they could have afforded it, and besides, I presented in such odd ways (as a lot of girls continue to do, even today) that I don't think there was anything they could have done. It would be obvious to any educated observer now that I was auty, but back then I was just weird.

My mother was amazing. She was fiercely bright, but tragically suffered from her own spectrum of pain and died when I was nineteen. Well, I say died, I mean killed herself.

She had an amazing gift for perceiving the pain in other people, and turning it to the good. She did a lot of voluntary work with other immigrant women when I was a kid, teaching English as a foriegn language... it strikes me funny that I'm doing the same thing now myself.

Anyway, yes, my life might have been easier with the right treatment when I was younger, but it wasn't available. All I can say is that my fiercely bright, beautiful and loving Mum did the best she could, and I've had a better life because of her devotion to me.

What a great Mum!

She was. She was bloody fantastic.

how has your autism affected you, is it very mild?

Hi Aslan, do you mean me, or the OP?

Probably you, but I don't know