• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Hi there :)

Within the past year I got diagnosed with level 1 autism and ADHD. I still don't know quite how to feel about this and I'm a bit hesitant to identify with the labels given. I know it's not a bad thing, but I'd rather I define myself than a set of questionnaires or IQ tests. Anyway, I've been receiving outside pressure to get into a "support group" for my autism/ADHD even though they don't impact me in any severe way daily. I think people see the diagnoses and they freak out, or they're ill-informed, and the person with the diagnoses gets the brunt of the fall-out.

In either case, I'm here to discuss. I'm really quite civil, haha. I just thought I'd get that out of the way, because it's been a point of debate within myself a while and I've not had like minds to say it to.

Thanks for reading, if you did, and have an excellent day - wherever you are.
 
Within the past year I got diagnosed with level 1 autism and ADHD. I still don't know quite how to feel about this and I'm a bit hesitant to identify with the labels given. I know it's not a bad thing, but I'd rather I define myself than a set of questionnaires or IQ tests. Anyway, I've been receiving outside pressure to get into a "support group" for my autism/ADHD even though they don't impact me in any severe way daily. I think people see the diagnoses and they freak out, or they're ill-informed, and the person with the diagnoses gets the brunt of the fall-out.
Well, for what it's worth, you've found a community that you can identify with. I think if you are actively reading some of these threads and posts, you may find yourself discovering many more phenomenon that are uniquely "autism"...more specifically adult autism. So much of the available literature is pediatric autism research and even the DSM that the psychologists use for diagnosis has a heavy pediatric bias...that might not translate to adult autism.

I think too, that we simply get so used to OUR norm that we don't think it is bothersome...and for some, it isn't...but it still is not the neurotypical experience. Some of us grew up not knowing we had an ASD and just thought everyone else thought like we did...until the "lightbulb" was lit and we discovered just how different we really are from others. It's then we suddenly become self-aware.

As far as your inner circle of people are concerned, most have heard of autism, but have no real concept of what it is nor how it can significantly affect our daily lives. We lack the cognitive empathy of their experience and they lack the cognitive empathy of ours...so there is a disconnect that, frankly, will never be fixed. "Your people" will either accept it for what it is...without ever really understanding, OR they simply cannot wrap their brain around it and can be toxic and troublesome for you.
 
Think of the "label" as being more like the tag on a shirt that tells the owner how to wash it (Warm water only :) ).

The tag isn't the shirt. The tag just tells you how to take care of it.

The label that says "autistic" is the same. It isn't you, it's just a tag that tells you how to take care of yourself.

Welcome, and enjoy!
 
My tag on my shirt fell off years ago, but l just take every day as a day to understand myself better, and work on acceptance. Welcome to the forum.
 
1755030571227.webp


1755030622073.webp
 

New Threads

Top Bottom