Calling all Autistics of the Escapist

[Mikodite]

I'm a fellow escapist user who was diagnosed at the age of five with autism. I admit life hasn't been easy for me due to it, though I'm not complaining: I'm trying to make the best of things and I have improved in areas like social skills over the years understanding that I would need people for jobs and opportunities.

I'm curious as to who else around here has this condition and if they have any stories.

Thanks.

 

[scorptatious]

I remember being diagnosed at around 4. But my parents explained it to me when I was about 8 I think. When I was little I would often walk around in circles, not look at people when they are talking to me, and I often got myself in trouble for misbehaving. (Although I think the last part happens with a lot of kids regardless of whether or not they have a mental disability.)

Despite that though, I was able to make a decent sized number of friends in elementary school. It was in middle school however that I became very self-concious of myself. I ended up becoming a bit of a loner throughout middle school and high school. Hanging out only with a few friends occasionally. And I was also sort of paranoid as I became pretty hostile towards other people that I feel like are out to get me.

It wasn't until near the end of high school that I decided to turn my life around. Mainly because on the internet, I discovered a man named Christian Weston Chandler, a man who also has autism and is in a very sorry state because of his shitty upbringing and his refusal to improve himself. So I decided to apply for college, start looking for work, and even make more friends.

Right now I'm volunteering as a courtesy clerk at a place called the Food Bank. In which we give out donated food to those who can't afford to buy it. I'm also taking college, although I think I'll take the summer off and focus on finding a paying job so I can start saving up to move out of my parent's home.

I can't say that my life is perfect right now. I still have some issues I still need to deal with. But things could be worse. So long as I do my best and don't give up, the mountain I'm facing will eventually shrink down to a hill, then a mound, and then a pile.

 

[Doclector]

I think I was diagnosed with aspergers when I was 8. Didn't really bother me, but of course, the stigma is what did the most damage. The school parading it around didn't help. "gifted and talented"...BS. That ain't what it is, and it certainly ain't what you're treated as.

So, I was bullied. This damaged me far more than aspergers ever did. That I didn't really understand the social rules never bothered me, I just knew right from wrong, as long I stuck with that, I didn't care, and in recent years I've found many people don't care either. For years after school though, I was afraid to socially interact. I thought it'd all happen again. I couldn't see why not.

Now I'm at uni. It's a lot better. It bought me far out of my shell, but I still have issues, issues which I believe to be more about the treatment I recieved because of my aspergers than the "disease" itself.

 

[Khanht Cope]

Diagnosed at 21. School would have been a whole lot easier if I'd understood what was going on earlier. Becoming aware of it has been a huge help. I don't have to find myself in all these uncomfortable situations anymore, and it's been great to actually have an answer to give to people about things I find difficult. (rather than an oblivious silence which seemed to rub some people up the wrong way)

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Was diagnosed with aspergers at about 3/4, but didn't find out about it until my parents divulged it to me at age 17. I suppose it explains quite a bit retrospectively and there are certain quirks I have which I attribute to it, though I'm really not sure if finding out was for the best, I've always been awkward and socially maladroit and I think the discovery has really only served to further undermine my confidence/self-esteem. I don't let people IRL know about it (in fact I keep a lot things guarded IRL that I've no qualms discussing here, which is why I suppose I can be pretty whiny >.>) as I don't like to use it as some kind of excuse to exonerate myself from my shortcomings and I readily acknowledge that most of my problems/obstacles are things which I have incurred and man have I really fucked up over these last couple of years. Still, the condition sure as shit hasn't made things any easier for me. =/

 

[tofulove]

aspergers here, diagnosed at age 9 or 10. i want to point out, wtf where they thinking when they name us ass burgers. i know its after the doctor who did the ground work studys for it. but i bet your ass he got teased all the time for his name, hey doctor ass burgers, or hans what do you have for lunch, i bet its ass burgers. so ya, they name a group of people who are socially retarded after a word that pretty much sounds like ass burgers. i just call my self high functioning autism.

 

[Stormfire Rebellion]

Aspergers here, it was hard being the only girl in my state with Aspergers, but it was hard being a verbally-excelled aspie when we're supposed to be good at math. I have to go to class, so I'll post more later.

 

[mfeff]

You have been told you have a problem. Now you have something to overcome. Overcoming or working with the situation will give you confidence and strength. Attitude is everything. Run for high office, make a million bucks, bang the hot chick. Worst thing a person can ever do to another person is tell them they cannot do something. It's like a license to be a wolf.

 

[Klaflefalumpf]

Going to throw my piece in here and say Aspergers, diagnosed at 9.

Tricky part is learning that every social instinct you have is wrong and learning to manually override it. First instict that is, resist the urge to react automatically and think. Gets easier with age. That and the anger, that's a kicker.

Whole reason I was diagnosed was my school was trying to expel me, if that happens once you're screwed - you don't want to go to the schools that take kids that others will not.

Getting diagnosed gave my parents a means of putting said school's bollocks in a vice, saving me from that fate. Followed by some fairly terrible counselling and group sessions.

I'm told the main give away is my bluntness. I am far from subtle around people, had a few work evaluations come back as "Could get on with anyone, if he wanted to." But to be honest that isn't something I've ever sought to change. Saves time.

Oh and as for my maths skills... they're pretty good given enough time to learn.

 

[JoJo]

You have been told you have a problem. Now you have something to overcome. Overcoming or working with the situation will give you confidence and strength. Attitude is everything. Run for high office, make a million bucks, bang the hot chick. Worst thing a person can ever do to another person is tell them they cannot do something. It's like a license to be a wolf.

Ha, that's a good way of putting it. I was diagnosed at 9 or 10 but parents and teachers had apparently had suspicions for years that something was amiss due to various oddities in socialising, speech and behaviour I had, I become withdraw around my high-school years and only really learned to socialise on an acceptable level (I still come across as different, "reserved" as one of my newer friends put it) when I started university a year and a half back. This summer I'm actually travelling to America alone to work for a few months so yeah, since then life has been pretty awesome!

In summary, my message for any fellow Escapist Autistics reading this is to not give up on trying to socialise or overcome your personal challenges, it won't be easy but you can do it, I believe in YOU!

 

[Lugbzurg]

I am autistic. I have Aspergers, and it's awesome.

It's what has made me who I am, and I would not trade it away. I say this, because, there are people out to "cure" autism, thinking it's a disease. It's not. Not in the slightest. If someone were trying to inject me with a needle that would remove my aspergers, I would have to give them several warnings, before beating them senseless. You kill my aspergers, you pretty much kill me. It's how I've been able to create everything I've come up with, and why I tend to be so different from everyone else. And I love it! I just can't stand normality, and often walk backwards down the hall, or strike action poses or Matrix moves when doing something athletic, just for the fun of it. No one else around me seems to be like this, because, they all like to be normal.

If it weren't for my autism, I never would have come up with the following under my own completely standard mindset...

One day, the craziest videogame idea I had ever thought of popped into my head during one of those "Don't do Drugs" presentations in high school. That should give you some context. It's called "Noble". And it makes no sense at all.

Reginald Noble awakes from his chambers and strolls around the military base. He is the only one dressed casually, and the only one in the entire complex speaking informally.

When war breaks out, Reggie breaks out his three-headed chaingun and charges out against the enemy forces in a brown/gray environment, with plenty of cover, and some extra second gun (like a shotgun, or something). It all seems like your average cookie-cutter shooter for a few minutes, until the freaky monsters start showing up.

Before you know it, you're fighting elephants with machine guns, pixelated things inside a 16-Bit dimension and battling flying textbooks that breathe fire and horrible flesh-hungry food in Mr. Noble's old high school.

It plays in a very oldschool style, reminiscent of Serious Sam, Duke Nukem or Quake. You've got weapons that shoot things like chickens and fireworks. Mines come in the form of wet cats, Reginald's melee attack is a headbutt and you gain health by chasing down anthropomorphic food that screams and runs away when it sees you (mostly doughnuts with eyeballs), all like the cheese or the key in Conker's Bad Fur Day.

Did I mention this game makes absolutely no sense and solely exists to be as ridiculous as possible?

 

[RaikuFA]

I'm an aspie. I enjoy the mental part but I do wonder if my life would be diffrent if I didn't have it.

 

[Blow_Pop]

I'm going to throw in for my brother. He was diagnosed as autistic at the age of 22. Bullied like hell through school bad enough that in high school we HAD to home school him because the school wasn't working with him(we knew he had some learning disabilities but not the autism)and they weren't doing anything about the bullying. As such, my brother has developed absolutely NO social skills. He is practically the poster child of socially awkward child. He is a great artist but all his disorders combined(honestly I don't remember them all, just the autism and the ADHD)make it so that he will most likely never have a job. His only relationships with people that he can maintain are online. We're currently fighting our state's social services so that we can help him get the help he needs and to make sure that if I move away like I want to and my parents eventually die he won't be left alone. He's a brilliant cook too. I just feel so sorry for him and his situation. The only way he'll ever get a job is if he can find a job in like a warehouse or something that doesn't deal with other people and doesn't require him to be social. He wants to work but his social awkwardness and his lack of a drivers license at almost 24(his birthday is near the end of the month)are both strikes against him and none of the employers out here want to deal with that. Though technically through social services I'll wind up being his "main caregiver" since I'm the one who watches over him more than my parents can due to their jobs. I will say though, I freaking love autistic people. The smartest people I have ever met have almost ALL been autistic. The human mind absolutely fascinates me especially concerning disorders such as autsim/aspergers.

 

[mfeff]

You have been told you have a problem. Now you have something to overcome. Overcoming or working with the situation will give you confidence and strength. Attitude is everything. Run for high office, make a million bucks, bang the hot chick. Worst thing a person can ever do to another person is tell them they cannot do something. It's like a license to be a wolf.

Ha, that's a good way of putting it. I was diagnosed at 9 or 10 but parents and teachers had apparently had suspicions for years that something was amiss due to various oddities in socialising, speech and behaviour I had, I become withdraw around my high-school years and only really learned to socialise on an acceptable level (I still come across as different, "reserved" as one of my newer friends put it) when I started university a year and a half back. This summer I'm actually travelling to America alone to work for a few months so yeah, since then life has been pretty awesome!

In summary, my message for any fellow Escapist Autistics reading this is to not give up on trying to socialise or overcome your personal challenges, it won't be easy but you can do it, I believe in YOU!

QFT While I am at it...

Get a tat, hit the gym, hit the books, get mad... but always remember, a viking grinds axes, a warrior polishes a sword. In life there are three varieties to discovery in one's journey...

The one's for your hip (***** repellent), the one's for your mind (idiot repellent), and the one's for your heart (this covers everything else).

Ahh what the hell, lemme just toss this in too.

 

[lacktheknack]

It wasn't until near the end of high school that I decided to turn my life around. Mainly because on the internet, I discovered a man named Christian Weston Chandler, a man who also has autism and is in a very sorry state because of his shitty upbringing and his refusal to improve himself.

Oh God. That was an unpleasant Googling.

http://sonichu.com/cwcki/Christian_Weston_Chandler

Scathing, sardonic and hurtful, but also really really sad.

OT: I'm not autistic, but like Regnes above me, I had horrifying Tourette's Syndrome that faded quickly as I grew up.

Thankfully, I never had coprolalia ("feces-mouth", the swearing condition), but alarmingly close to me starting school, I developed an overnight crippling case of laliophilia ("mouth-love").

<youtube=G7RgN9ijwE4>

-me on a good day. On a bad day... Mom has a video of me taking six or seven minutes to say "turtle".

I managed to get speech therapy right away and went to Kindergarten with minimal speech problems. My impulsiveness, odd behavior and warped logic ended up with me being home-schooled from grade three to grade seven, though.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I was born clinically dead and addicted to antidepressants.

Either that is the reason for my mental state or it's the aspergers.

I think I got diagnosed about 12 years ago, so around age 17.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Asperger's, OCD, and ADHD over here. Diagnosed at age 6.

Yeah, social interaction have been hell to figure out, but I managed it. I know have a job, a wonderful girlfriend, and will graduate college in December, which is far more than the doctors originally thought I was capable of.

 

[persephone]

I don't have autism, but my close friends and siblings often compare me to those with Asperger's because of my social skills and tendencies; my siblings say I'm "spergy," and my mother, who works with autistic children, says that sometimes the similarities between their behavior and mine is uncanny, to the point where she occasionally asks me for insights into their behaviors. Furthermore, part of why she's so good with autistic students is because of raising myself and my siblings.

I do have sensory processing disorder, which is in some ways loosely related to autism. I was told I had the disorder at age 10, and I was also told that there was no reason for it to ever stop me from doing anything, which I have done my best to take to heart.

I never had any trouble learning as a kid, but I did have really horrendous social skills; I never realized quite how bad until recently, because I did very well in school, which meant no one labeled any of my behaviors as a problem -- my grades were high, all was well. In retrospect, though, I wish I'd somehow spent more time learning proper social skills, especially for a work-related environment. I think that I'm worse off than many "average" people who didn't have high grades, but who learned the social skills they'd need.

I've also come to realize recently that my bad social skills made (and still make) me act in incredibly selfish ways that are hurtful to those around me; I am currently in the painful process of trying to identify my selfish behaviors and replace them with healthier ones. Not an easy or fun task!