Hi everyone! I am very excited to find this forum. I have a 19 year old daughter with, what I believe to be, undiagnosed Aspergers. It has been an incredibly painful and joyous journey. I have known since she was very young that she was having unique problems that could not be addressed in "traditional" ways. It has been frustrating seeing the pain that she has had to endure and feeling helpless to do anything to help her. Whenever I did try to reach out, the response was generally that she needed more discipline and I was a bad parent. I needed to "toughen up" and provide more consequences for her meltdowns, refusal to go to school, not going to being able to sleep at night, etc. The school told me that her problem was simply that she didn't get to school enough and wasn't motivated. I continued seeking help up to when she turned 18 years old with no positive results. I thought maybe she was bipolar, but that didn't really seem to fit. Then I got to reading about Aspergers and it was like a light bulb went off...finally it made sense! She is a wonderful, wonderful daughter who pushes me to do great things. But, I found that at some point I quit trying to have any friends or a relationship. Eventually, she would become overly frustrated with something and have a meltdown and I would be told what I "needed to do"...I got tired of going down that road. I just came to this realization recently and have been flooded with memories and emotions. It's like her life flashed before me and I was telling myself, "Now I understand...this makes sense now!" I am also feeling guilty for not having been a better advocate for her and angry that we were not heard. Anyway, so happy to have a place where I can go to give support and offer support, and just vent
