Very Late Diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome (Autism Spectrum Disorder): How Seeking a Diagnosis in Adulthood Can Change Your Life QUOTES

1 " Linda Kreger Silverman describes giftedness as follows: Gifted children and adults see the world differently because of the complexity of their thought processes and their emotional intensity. People often say to them, ‘Why do you make everything so complicated?’ ‘Why do you take everything so seriously?’ ‘Why is everything so important to you?’ The gifted are ‘too’ everything: too sensitive, too intense, too driven, too honest, too idealistic, too moral, too perfectionist, too much for other people! Even if they try their entire lives to fit in, they still feel like misfits. The damage we do to gifted children and adults by ignoring this phenomenon is far greater than the damage we do by labeling it. Without the label for their differences, the gifted come up with their own label: ‘I must be crazy. No one else is upset by this injustice but me.’ (Silverman 1993) "

― , Very Late Diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome (Autism Spectrum Disorder): How Seeking a Diagnosis in Adulthood Can Change Your Life

2 " There are three categories of criteria that an individual must meet in order to be diagnosed with ASD. The categories are listed below along with the typical traits, which may indicate whether the individual needs further assessment: 1.Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across contexts, not accounted for by general developmental delays: lack of friends and social life friends often much older or younger mumbling and not completing sentences issues with social rules (such as staring at other people) inability to understand jokes and the benefit of ‘small talk’ introverted (shy) and socially awkward inability to understand other people’s thoughts and feelings uncomfortable in large crowds and noisy places detached and emotionally inexpressive. 2.Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities: obsession with ‘special interests’ collecting objects (such as stamps and coins) attachment to routines and rituals ability to focus on a single task for long periods eccentric or unorthodox behaviour non-conformist and distrusting of authority difficulty following illogical conventions attracted to foreign cultures affinity with nature and animals support for victims of injustice, underdogs and scapegoats. 3.Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities: inappropriate emotional responses victimised or bullied at school, work and home overthinking and constant logical analysis spending much time alone strange laugh or cackle inability to make direct eye contact when talking highly sensitive to light, sound, taste, smell and touch uncoordinated and clumsy with poor posture difficulty coping with change adept at abstract thinking ability to process data sets logically and notice patterns or trends truthful, naïve and often gullible slow mental processing and vulnerable to mental exhaustion intellectual and ungrounded rather than intuitive and instinctive problems with anxiety and sleeping visual memory. "

― , Very Late Diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome (Autism Spectrum Disorder): How Seeking a Diagnosis in Adulthood Can Change Your Life

3 " do recognise that some with Asperger syndrome (ASD) can socialise very well, but it’s at the cost of intellectual and emotional exhaustion, and this can confuse others in terms of sometimes seeing social competence but other times seeing a great need for social withdrawal and isolation "

― , Very Late Diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome (Autism Spectrum Disorder): How Seeking a Diagnosis in Adulthood Can Change Your Life

4 " During an identity-alignment crisis or mental breakdown, most employed autistic adults would benefit by taking time off work. Expecting a traumatised person to continue working in a stressful job is similar to expecting an aeroplane to reach its next destination on time after it has crashed. Downtime is essential for reflection and to consider how to start a new life. "

― , Very Late Diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome (Autism Spectrum Disorder): How Seeking a Diagnosis in Adulthood Can Change Your Life