The diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome, autism, or a learning difference sets the stage for young adults to get the help needed and gain the self-awareness necessary to make a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood.

Young adults have little self-understanding of their diagnosis or what their specific profile of strengths and challenges looks like. By thinking in broad strokes about what it means to have a disability and coming to the conclusion that it doesn't apply to them, these young people try their best to blend in. No parent or teacher can blame them for this.

I know all about this from my own life. It wasn't until after my diagnosis in my fifties that I recognized my social deficits and began to try to accept them. So much has changed for me since that fateful day in 2003 when CIP's Academic Dean walked into my office and asked if she could talk to me. She started by saying: "I hope you will listen to me, I don't want you to be offended by what I have to say, but I think it is important, so please hear me out."

She took out a piece of paper and said, "This is a list of characteristics for individuals with Asperger's Syndrome." She then gave me examples of situations and incidents that had occurred during the past ten years that matched the characteristics of Asperger's Syndrome.

I listened then told her that I had been thinking about this too and for quite some time. The rigidity of my thought processes, my trouble with eye contact and my problems with social relationships, to name a few.

Looking back at events during my childhood and schooling, my late-in-life diagnosis explains so many of the situations and difficulties I experienced as a child and was still experiencing as an adult. As an adult with Asperger's Syndrome it was time for me to get past denial and resistance and take my own journey toward self-acceptance, self-awareness and self-advocacy. I needed to start practicing what I had been teaching others and use my diagnosis as a source of strength. The diagnostic label that I was able to see in others now applied to me and I began preparing a plan of acquiring skills for my most challenging problems including my social understanding difficulties.

The reality and truth for me was that my diagnosis was a huge relief. I could finally put a name to my way of being in the world. I know that without my diagnosis, I could have easily gone on with my cognitive rigidity - unchecked - for the rest of my life.

I know that young adults must be courageously honest and willing to learn flexibility so they don't repeat patterns they have exhibited in the past. Teaching that Asperger's and autism are learning differences not learning disabilities is not semantics - but a real understanding that is necessary to help young adults understand and accept who they are. Once young adults start to accept that they are wonderful the way they are, diagnosis and all, they grow without fear and learn to self-actualize. This is the true power of accepting a diagnosis.