Hi there

Hi there,

My name's Gary and, at 49 years of age, I've been diagnosed with autism quite late in life.

What started the ball rolling with regards to eventually getting this diagnosis was that I was seeing a psychologist for counselling following my beloved foster mum's murder and it was my mentions of feeling strangely disconnected compared to how the rest of my family were that particularly interested her.

At first my psychologist was looking at PTSD and dissociation disorder, but then when I happened to mention that I went to a special educational needs school when I was young she became quite curious as to what diagnosis I'd been given way back then.

'Oh I wasn't given a diagnosis' I replied, adding: 'I was just told by everyone that I was slow - though that's never sat well with me, but hey, this was the 1970s. I have wondered whether there was something like an autistic spectrum disorder or ADD going on back then, though - something that would be recognised now, but "didn't exist" back then'.

...Anyway, that started the ball rolling with various assessments last summer and has led up to my eventual diagnosis this July.

I decided to have a look at this forum because I was curious to see if anyone has had a similar experience to me with regards to being diagnosed with an ASD relatively late in life.

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  • I'm a published illustrator. 

    - - - Currently not working because a combination of booze addiction and bipolar disorder made me pretty much unemployable for many years; however, now that I've got 8 years sobriety under my belt I'm keen to get into self-publishing webcomics.

    Most recently I've really embraced digital art, getting into Photoshop big time and have been having fun doing some caricatures of friends.

    Here's an example of the type of thing I do (hope these will load on the page okay).

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