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saddington

Just wanted to encourage you that autists can still have very meaningful and fulfilling lives... i am proof of that.

http://john.do/autism/

i mean... shit... even this autistic adult got on the front page of hacker news! fuck yeah.

http://john.do/fp-hn/

and i did it twice in the same week...

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As a fellow, certified autist (High Functioning Autism diagnosis since 2009), this article resonates with me on many points.

Since the diagnosis, my life has improved 100 fold. Not so much because I got go to some courses and group meetings about the subject, but because I was finally able to understand who I was and why. All the weird and inexplicable things I saw in my past, suddenly fit. Like a giant puzzle you've been trying to solve for 30 years and in a matter of weeks, every piece just falls into place.

And more importantly, being able to explain to others who I am and not feeling the need to try to 'fit in'. I learned it is perfectly OK to be me and this almost solely improved my mood, energy and ability to function in daily life.

For those interested, I've also written up a few articles on my experiences in various daily things:

- https://jteeuwen.nl/autism/hfa.html - https://jteeuwen.nl/autism/a_night_on_the_town.html - https://jteeuwen.nl/autism/phonecall.html

I just read your post, and though it may be hard sometimes just remember we are all unique and you shouldn't use autism to define you as a person. A lot of intelligent people experience these symptoms and psychs are always looking for your weaknesses to put labels on and prescribe pills for (I've been diagnosed differently 3 times, once with Aspergers). You are a smart individual, you don't need Aspergers to tell you that. Good read nonetheless, thank you for sharing.

EDIT: changed some wording

I know some people who consider it an important part of their identity - because, as exch says upthread, "All the weird and inexplicable things I saw in my past, suddenly fit. Like a giant puzzle you've been trying to solve for 30 years and in a matter of weeks, every piece just falls into place."

I also know plenty of people who're diagnosed and consider it one fact among many and not worth much mention.

So I'm not sure "shouldn't" is quite accurate.

Maybe "even if autism is, to you, an important part of your identity, remember that a diagnosis is meant to enable you instead of restrict you" better expresses the meaning I -think- the rest of what you're saying implies you were aiming for?

On a related note, here is an essay written by a high-functioning autistic person which I read once and found illuminating on the identity issue:

https://www.fysh.org/~zefram/allism/allism_intro.txt

Can recommend. He and I have worked together on many open source projects, and drunk beer together.

He was one of the people I was thinking of as "part of identity".

I am not sure where you lay on the spectrum but you appear to be very high functioning and possible only have Aspergers, which is rumored to lose specification in the Autism spectrum in the next DSM.

DSM-IV came out over 20 years ago (revised in 2000) and DSM-V came out in 2013. I don't think we are expecting a new DSM for some time now.

Under DSM-V, Asperger's was rolled into ASD and lost it's classification as a subcategory. That is how I understand it.

Thank you. This was a great read.

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