Who here was officially diagnosed with autism or Asperger's?

Holy crap! It sounds like you got lucky. I've heard many times that how good autism support is varies widely from location to location, and I'm glad you got things going well for you.

-Sigh-

You know that feeling when you say something to a person, they reply, then you respond, and then after that, silence? And you send a "did you get my last message?" PM, and still, no reply?

I used to think only allistics didn't respond to people like that, because autistics presumably know how much it hurts to not know if you randomly accidentally offended someone or whatever, and have no idea why they're not responding. But now an autistic isn't responding.

Never assume

I know.

But seriously. I PM the person, they reply back. I reply to that. No response, and I didn't say anything offensive or anything. I wait longer, and say basically, "Did you get my last PM?" and a bit more, and... nothing. It stings. Why do people do that?

Here's a story.

Someone I know (I'll call her Tara, which is nowhere near her real name) has autism herself, and isn't on a Discord server that I'm on. She has an interest in religion, and someone on the server said he wanted to talk to her about religion. Tara said it was okay, so I hooked the two up.

Tara later told me that she was ghosting this other guy. Why? Because his questions were naive and childlike and he annoyed her. I said, "You're just ignoring him?! Why not at least tell him what he did wrong?! You're an autistic yourself; you know how much it hurts when people suddenly spontaneously stop talking to us for seemingly no reason without telling us what social mistake we made!" She said, "If you're trying to guilt trip me into talking to him, it's not working."

Like, really? Why would you do that? We autistics constantly have people ghost us or stop talking to us seemingly randomly without telling us what social mistake, if any, we made. She even complained about it herself! Then she goes on and does it to someone else (who's also on the spectrum)?!

Edited by BonsaiForest on Aug 17th 2019 at 12:44:52 PM

Btw, anyone who wants to get involved in a discussion about autism itself, there's a thread here.

Me. I didn't actually know until a few years ago. I was 10, I think, and my parents told me that I was diagnosed with autism while we were out eating.

Dang. How did they break the news to you, and how did you take it?

I was diagnosed with autism in 2005, at 5 years old.

I was diagnosed with Asperger's when I was five, but not told about it until I was nine or so. I thought every child visited play therapists every few years to get their mental faculties checked. If you've spent any time around me online or in real life, it would be quite obvious. I have many stereotypical special interests such as paleontology, anime, Disney Animated Canon movies, and Pokémon, but never trains, calendars, or Sonic the Hedgehog. I often feel like a (wo)Manchild nonetheless, even though I have a job now and am doing all right in college.

Hey, just like me. :)

Edited by Demetrios on Aug 21st 2019 at 11:19:15 AM

I was diagnosed with aspergers when i was a kid but wasn't told about it until i was 13

Actually, I wasn't born with autism, my autism randomly mixed with my blood since I was 2 years old.

Autism doesn't work that way. You're born with it, as it's genetic, and the evidence of how it works is growing all the time.

Although what we don't know is why some people with autism randomly "regress" at the age of 2. That's what's said to have happened to me, but I was also told that even before that, I showed some subtle signs, such as pushing people away when they tried to hug me, when I was a baby.

Edited by BonsaiForest on Aug 25th 2019 at 12:42:39 PM

Really? My parents checked and genetically, there's nothing out of the ordinary for me despite my autism. I heard it's a matter of neural wiring.

Like for example, studies were done that found a few things:

• Lots of genes are associated with autism but don't explicitly cause it by themselves. Instead, each gene contributes towards either intensity of individual symptoms, or the chances of getting autism.
• Parents of autistics sometimes show very mild autism traits (to the point where they don't officially have autism), when compared to parents of allistics.
• Autism runs in families. Not only that, but if parents have one autistic child, their chance of having a second raises by a lot. And if they have two, their chance of having a third autistic child skyrockets.

Also, the genes cause the neural wiring. Genes influence how our body develops, and that includes the brain.

Edited by BonsaiForest on Aug 25th 2019 at 2:15:48 PM

I was diagnosed three years ago, when i was 14. Mild-to-High Functioning Autism and selective mutism, they said.

It seems TV Tropes attracts lots of people on the autism spectrum, I've always found that particularly curious. Discussion of media conventions is an unusal use of free time for most, maybe that is why.

Raises Hand. Well, not really Autism or Asperger's. I'm a lot higher-functioning than Autism, but I struggled to get a hold of words until three or so.

Ello, High functioning autism/asphergers diagnosed Boi here. Diagnosed... god, I dont even remember, It was in grade school before junior high, like first grade? Anyways I have to deal with it sooo... yeh.

Also Vaccines don't cause autism you utter c-

Using the same sort of Insane Troll Logic, I'm living proof that vaccines cure Autism.

Got no vaccines, have autism anyway?

Got vaccines (but not for the flu, it's seasonal allergies), can socialize better.

What the? Very strange!

You can socialize better if you're not dead due to a disease which can easily be prevented through vaccination

Yeah, but it sounded like the vaccine helped socialization compared to before.