Hello, 18 year old female just barely finding out about autism.

[Kippu]

Hello, my name is Kat. I'm new to this forum, I hope you are all doing well.

My prior knowledge with autism (before I found out the following) is that my cousin is pretty much non-verbal, and I was taught that autism was just that, with no in-between or spectrum. Then I met people that were high functioning and found them to be completely relatable, I suspected I might be an aspie for some time but I never confronted anybody about it.

Heres my story:

I just started college around 2~ weeks ago and I went in the Disability Support Services to be evaluated for a learning disability, but I came out with much more information. I have been told (on Feb. 13, 2020) I have high functioning autism + ADHD tendencies. I am now moving forward to have an official paper diagnosis with a different psychiatrist for follow up as well as being recommended multiple support groups and social classes. The odd thing is that I am an 18 year old female and I'm wondering why I was not diagnosed as a child instead? (a bit of backstory... my parents don't believe in intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses. Like how I had an eating disorder or depression growing up. They completely ignored and dismissed it and said I was just seeking attention, so anything I do is completely normal or attention seeking, they don't care unless I am in physical injury.)

Well, this prompt explanation from the psychiatrist explains everything... it explains how difficult it was to have friends, communicate and express myself, look people in the eyes, understand sarcasm or get a simple joke, my obvious obsessions and special interests and how I completely absorb myself into those things and only talk about that... and many more. It is absolutely insane how this went unheard of when I was a child. I was wondering if that was normal, I heard it goes undiagnosed in females more.

Well that is my introduction, pretty lengthy. ^^''

tl;dr: I want to learn more about living with autism and find others that are like me ^^
Hope you're all doing well!

 

[Judge]

Welcome to Autism Forums.

Well, for starters I think you'll discover in reading any number of posts here that autistic girls and women are very much likely to be "under the radar" when it comes to being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

I was diagnosed as an adult with clinical depression, social anxiety and OCD. But at a time when the medical community was just beginning to formally accept Dr. Asperger's research. Much earlier my own parents were concerned about how I would spend so much time alone, and ultimately had me "evaluated" to no avail in the early sixties.

For some of us discovering our own autism is a linear process. For others, not so much.

 

[Tom]

Hi & Welcome. That's a relatively short intro around here. Hope you find your stay informative.

 

[Isadoorian]

Welcome to the Forums! I hope you make new friends and enjoy your stay in the process!

 

[Major Tom]

Welcome to the forums. My parents were and still are similar, so I can understand how you feel. I hope you meet some friends here and find more understanding.

 

[Rasputin]

Hello, my name is Kat. I'm new to this forum, I hope you are all doing well.

My prior knowledge with autism (before I found out the following) is that my cousin is pretty much non-verbal, and I was taught that autism was just that, with no in-between or spectrum. Then I met people that were high functioning and found them to be completely relatable, I suspected I might be an aspie for some time but I never confronted anybody about it.

Heres my story:

I just started college around 2~ weeks ago and I went in the Disability Support Services to be evaluated for a learning disability, but I came out with much more information. I have been told (on Feb. 13, 2020) I have high functioning autism + ADHD tendencies. I am now moving forward to have an official paper diagnosis with a different psychiatrist for follow up as well as being recommended multiple support groups and social classes. The odd thing is that I am an 18 year old female and I'm wondering why I was not diagnosed as a child instead? (a bit of backstory... my parents don't believe in intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses. Like how I had an eating disorder or depression growing up. They completely ignored and dismissed it and said I was just seeking attention, so anything I do is completely normal or attention seeking, they don't care unless I am in physical injury.)

Well, this prompt explanation from the psychiatrist explains everything... it explains how difficult it was to have friends, communicate and express myself, look people in the eyes, understand sarcasm or get a simple joke, my obvious obsessions and special interests and how I completely absorb myself into those things and only talk about that... and many more. It is absolutely insane how this went unheard of when I was a child. I was wondering if that was normal, I heard it goes undiagnosed in females more.

Well that is my introduction, pretty lengthy. ^^''

tl;dr: I want to learn more about living with autism and find others that are like me ^^ Hope you're all doing well!

Hi Kat,

I had the same understanding that you had regarding autism. I have an uncle who is almost non-verbal, and my aunt (his sister) looks after him. Then a year ago I was talking with a cousin who has a son who has high functioning autism; his son has the same anxiety and sleep issues I have. Well in January, at age 61 a psychiatrist diagnosed me with ASD.

The one thing I will tell you is that you are the same person you were before you were diagnosed. If you were having issues maybe you can get the support you need. It's not unrealistic to have aspirations, and enjoy a full life. For example, finish college, have a successful career, and have a family. The only reason I am telling you this is that because you are a little older than some who have been diagnosed, you did not grow up believing you have limitations.

Hopefully you will make new friends and get some answers to questions by interacting with other members of this forum. Welcome aboard!

 

[GadAbout]

Welcome to the forum. It's nice to have you here.

 

[aspie1w]

welcome to the group,

about learning more about things is not a instantaneous soup that in 10 minutes is ready to serve and haven't to do much than an water and stir up , it come from knowledge from yourself and analyze the facts happened in the past, things that to you have made fail in things or even why or what haven't worked good and what thing to you in specific have more hard time to deal with, can also compare the symptoms in any page and ask I do this or that ou etc, can I get sayings of not literal way , or etc, every person is a world itself to discover, perhaps you noticed few things and other things you can't because have normalized that I did that too as you we never been neurotypical so we don't know what is normal from what is not. so it's so hard to tell unless analyze and perhaps you talk to your doctor and ask things to the doctor about it how or what symptoms are compatible to you what are in general terms the things alike and yourself have to say hey that I do that too and too and this too and I thought it was normal.

behind that I hope you can get along in the website and again welcome to the website!!!!

 

[Streetwise]

Hello, my name is Kat. I'm new to this forum, I hope you are all doing well.

My prior knowledge with autism (before I found out the following) is that my cousin is pretty much non-verbal, and I was taught that autism was just that, with no in-between or spectrum. Then I met people that were high functioning and found them to be completely relatable, I suspected I might be an aspie for some time but I never confronted anybody about it.

Heres my story:

I just started college around 2~ weeks ago and I went in the Disability Support Services to be evaluated for a learning disability, but I came out with much more information. I have been told (on Feb. 13, 2020) I have high functioning autism + ADHD tendencies. I am now moving forward to have an official paper diagnosis with a different psychiatrist for follow up as well as being recommended multiple support groups and social classes. The odd thing is that I am an 18 year old female and I'm wondering why I was not diagnosed as a child instead? (a bit of backstory... my parents don't believe in intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses. Like how I had an eating disorder or depression growing up. They completely ignored and dismissed it and said I was just seeking attention, so anything I do is completely normal or attention seeking, they don't care unless I am in physical injury.)

Well, this prompt explanation from the psychiatrist explains everything... it explains how difficult it was to have friends, communicate and express myself, look people in the eyes, understand sarcasm or get a simple joke, my obvious obsessions and special interests and how I completely absorb myself into those things and only talk about that... and many more. It is absolutely insane how this went unheard of when I was a child. I was wondering if that was normal, I heard it goes undiagnosed in females more.

Well that is my introduction, pretty lengthy. ^^''

tl;dr: I want to learn more about living with autism and find others that are like me ^^ Hope you're all doing well!

I learned I was autistic in a slightly different manner to you I was looking for help and saw the word autism went to the typical arrogant Doctor Who inferred I was a hypochondriac five years later I was told I was autistic at age 45 ,the feeble to let neurotypicals off the hook Reason ,given is !girls demonstrate autism differently !from boys ,which basically means we are too lazy to bother helping them ,they don’t cause us enough problems .They don’t care about our suffering ,just let them suffer in the corner,If you ever feel really stressed by something and you need help do something in front of the people that might help you to show that you are autistic like flapping your hands ,if you want to do any of those things do !!!!!!!!!,them in front !of those people they are fairly stupid and need a big sign! apparently I wasn’t autistic until I want to self stimulate what autistic people call stimming Flapping hands ,rocking from side to side or forwards and backwards,Other ones I can’t remember ,putting things in order of size, apparently from the much younger members of the forum the education received which took into account autism wasn’t exactly what would prepare them for life after education it’s better to keep posting on this forum and search anything you can think of in the search box and try YouTube you have a picture based neurology. A lot of members self diagnose that should tell you a lot about how advanced diagnostic Is ,I just thought I was very nervous ,avoided large groups of people ,avoided being looked at,Be true to yourself ,if you’re a people pleaser start getting used to saying no.

 

[Nitro]

Hi Kat

 

[Sarah S]

Hi there and warm wellcome

Like Judge says us females and the way we show our " tics " in both ASD as well as ADHD (ie more subtle & diffent ways then the men) makes us often fall under the radar and as shuch we are being diagnosed later in life then the males.

If youre alredy suspected of ADHD its a high posibility you also have ASD as nowadays its pretty much the norm that if you have ADHD you also have ASD (and Vice verce )

They dident find my ASD until i was nearly 37 and i know other girls in here that have been diagnosed later then that so youre not that late IF you now get youre diagnosis

 

[tree]

 

[Wolfnox]

Hello.

 

[Pats]

Hi Kat and welcome

 

[Federico Fernández]

Hi Kat from the land of penguins (?), lol just to say Argentina, you know I'm 27 right now, and I was recently when I joined the forums diagnosed with autism, I was misdiagnosed within the schizophrenic spectrum for years, and I also questioned why I wasn't diagnosed as a child. The answer is short; 27 years back, not in Argentina, but in my small town, nobody spoke about autism. I was just the "weird boy". Enjoy the forums! :love:

 

[clg114]

Welcome to Autism Forums!

 

[Rocco]

Welcome aboard!

 

[Alexej]

Hello, my name is Kat.

tl;dr: I want to learn more about living with autism and find others that are like me ^^
Hope you're all doing well!

HI there Kat.
this post is not tl;dr there are other posts on this forum which fall into that category imho.

Please having out on the forum a bit and jump into some threads, and try reading some of the older threads - where there is a lot of experience.

 

[Adora]

Hi it’s actually quite a common occurrence for women to fall through the cracks and not find out until they are older. I went many years without knowing and also got misdiagnosed with things like Schizoaffective disorder,Psychosis and even the possibility of Schizophrenia and Agoraphobia. I got diagnosed by a psychologist when I was 31 and because I grew up in a abusive household I was also diagnosed with Complex PTSD, Many women like myself can present differently from men and also I believe that because many don’t get diagnosed until they are older it makes them miss out on early intervention and a higher risk of developing co occurring mental illnesses which sometimes can overlap with autism symptoms.

 

[Ken]

Hello, my name is Kat. I'm new to this forum, I hope you are all doing well.

My prior knowledge with autism (before I found out the following) is that my cousin is pretty much non-verbal, and I was taught that autism was just that, with no in-between or spectrum. Then I met people that were high functioning and found them to be completely relatable, I suspected I might be an aspie for some time but I never confronted anybody about it.

Heres my story:

I just started college around 2~ weeks ago and I went in the Disability Support Services to be evaluated for a learning disability, but I came out with much more information. I have been told (on Feb. 13, 2020) I have high functioning autism + ADHD tendencies. I am now moving forward to have an official paper diagnosis with a different psychiatrist for follow up as well as being recommended multiple support groups and social classes. The odd thing is that I am an 18 year old female and I'm wondering why I was not diagnosed as a child instead? (a bit of backstory... my parents don't believe in intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses. Like how I had an eating disorder or depression growing up. They completely ignored and dismissed it and said I was just seeking attention, so anything I do is completely normal or attention seeking, they don't care unless I am in physical injury.)

Well, this prompt explanation from the psychiatrist explains everything... it explains how difficult it was to have friends, communicate and express myself, look people in the eyes, understand sarcasm or get a simple joke, my obvious obsessions and special interests and how I completely absorb myself into those things and only talk about that... and many more. It is absolutely insane how this went unheard of when I was a child. I was wondering if that was normal, I heard it goes undiagnosed in females more.

Well that is my introduction, pretty lengthy. ^^''

tl;dr: I want to learn more about living with autism and find others that are like me ^^
Hope you're all doing well!

Hi Kat,

Welcome to the forum! Your story is almost identical to mine. Especially regarding what my parents believed about mental conditions. So, yes, I think much of your experience is normal – even for boys.

However, you are way ahead of me. You are 18 and starting college. School was an incredible struggle for me. I didn’t graduate until the age of 20. I tried a college prep course and realized, to my devastating disappointment, that I would never make it through college. My school diagnosed me as retarded. I don’t think autism was even known about in my general area.

It turns out that I do not have a learning disability as I was diagnosed. I have serious social disabilities, thus unable to learn by being taught by a teacher. However, I can learn on my own just fine. I even made it through life and have recently retired as an electronics design engineer.

So, I don’t believe that autism is a disorder. I believe it is a different mental configuration, that in many ways can be very beneficial. That difference is what gave me innovation and obsessive focus which propelled me in my career, even exceeding those with highly esteemed degrees.

For me, the social thing is the worst, but over the years and may terrible experiences, I have learned how to cope with and avoid bad social situations. I have learned how to see them coming.

I love to see more young Aspies, because although I know many of the differences will be challenging, the contribution of Aspie’s to society is profound. I guess you know that many of our greatest minds were (are) autistic? For example, Albert Einstein was an Aspie. Here is a list of just a few others; History's 30 Most Inspiring People on the Autism Spectrum - Applied Behavior Analysis Programs Guide. I think we are in good company.

A big welcome to our world and thank you for joining us!