Am I alone in this?

Humm....sounds like you have a high IQ and are still unsure how to make it fit and do something for you.

If it's any consolation, they thought I was thick at school because my dyslexia caused a delay in reading (although I was desperate to read) and my spelling sucks.. until I blew the IQ test out of the ball park and teachers started to realise I could forensicaly dissect any concept I was presented with and absorb oral foreign language super fast.

Hmmm...not a vanity thing here, you just need to understand your gift v. Challenge and find an outlet for the gifts and a compensatory strategy for the challenges.

We all just have to go with and make the most of what we've got. We are supposed to contribute somehow. Hey, Einstein couldn't add up a column of figures! Some speculate he was dyslexic, dyscalculate or autistic.. can't diagnose the dead, but he sure wasn't neurotypical. 

Find your thing and smile. 

I'm 65. The days of it doing much for me have long since ended. I'm typical of many dxed first with severe mental illness and much later ASD (In my case first saw a pdoc in 1973, dxed with ASD in 2019)in that  the mental health services had all too often behaved in a hypercritical and negative way towards us. 

It took moving to a new area to be near my (s) daughter to get better support. My (s) had asked me to move near her umpteen times since her mother died, but  the fear of change made me say 'no'. It took being told my block of flats was going to be knocked down  to persuade me to move

I would not have got the Asperger's/ASD if I'd stayed where I was. I 'd mentioned ASD time and time again only to be  ignored. There was this expectation that if I did well at x I'd automatically do well at  y. Failure to live up to that was treated like a character flaw.. It's too late to make a real difference in terms of fulfilling any potential I had,but I don't hold that against the MH team here. They're kind,polite and supportive. They don't treat me  like I'm some dog poo they've just stepped in.

My (s) daughter who has worked in the caring profession for over 25 years  was aware that although I was very intelligent in some ways I was absolute klutz in other ways.

I

I fitted the third category best.. 

I'm 65. The days of it doing much for me have long since ended. I'm typical of many dxed first with severe mental illness and much later ASD (In my case first saw a pdoc in 1973, dxed with ASD in 2019)in that  the mental health services had all too often behaved in a hypercritical and negative way towards us. 

It took moving to a new area to be near my (s) daughter to get better support. My (s) had asked me to move near her umpteen times since her mother died, but  the fear of change made me say 'no'. It took being told my block of flats was going to be knocked down  to persuade me to move

I would not have got the Asperger's/ASD if I'd stayed where I was. I 'd mentioned ASD time and time again only to be  ignored. There was this expectation that if I did well at x I'd automatically do well at  y. Failure to live up to that was treated like a character flaw.. It's too late to make a real difference in terms of fulfilling any potential I had,but I don't hold that against the MH team here. They're kind,polite and supportive. They don't treat me  like I'm some dog poo they've just stepped in.

My (s) daughter who has worked in the caring profession for over 25 years  was aware that although I was very intelligent in some ways I was absolute klutz in other ways.

I

I fitted the third category best..