Diagnoses at 53 years old

Hi Stuart, welcome

The best manager I ever had i Stuart as well. 

Are all Stuarts good people? 

Steven said:

It only dawned on me two hours after

It might be autistic tendency too, I get it like that as well. I say we are good in objective retrospection, and hopeless in subjective interaction.

Hello from the vibrant North West, diagnosed a month ago and trying to focus on the positives.

And hello back, Stuart, from the crowded noisy South East. I am brand new here, and not formally diagnosed aged 60. I envy you the North Western desolation: I like some peace, and space, and hills! Flat and dull and too London-ish here. Bye now.  D

Oh my goodness, yes! NT people seem to think we're all psychic. Why can't they just spit it out? I imagine being polite and so very English might be part of it but what harm would it do to say: "Well, our time is up now" or something like that? I had a psychotherapist who would gently say "Well, it's time" and that was that. I never found it intrusive or ambiguous. So: I'm all for bluntness ;-)

Hi Stuart

I am in the North West, and was diagnosed last year also at the age of 44. I am 45 now.

Like you I am still adjusting to the diagnosis, but more and more each day I learn just how autistic I am.

It has been a very difficult 12 months since my diagnosis and I feel the diagnosis at such a late age has been hard to take, especially given many of my autistic traits were missed by MH services for so long.

I am learning I overshare, miss social ques and am quite isolated.

I feel the last 17 years of life has been missed, and I don’t know where to start with getting on track!

Welcome Stuart and congratulations on starting your new journey of self discovery and welcome to the Spectrum community :) I was diagnosed with Autism, ADHD, OCD and a whole host of comorbidities in 2018 (aged 48) and rode a roller coaster of responses, settling somewhere between "happy to be me" and "ah, that makes sense now"... Enjoy the ride!

Most of my family have autism and think I may have it as showing all the signs but don't I know how to go about it and find out more and get tested 

I struggle with directions. And I take a while to process instructions, and what is being said. I need it to sink in if you will. So I prefer written instruction etc. Where communications is concerned, I am spot on with body language and reading people, but since NTs expect you to know what they are inferring without specifying it in the conversation, it can sometimes be missed.

Yeah if its not black and white .

Hi, Stuart. In our defence, I think it's easy to misinterpret cues that are subtle. I had a meeting with two advisers the other week and, when they apparently considered that time was up, one of them offered me their phone to call a taxi. I had a phone with me and didn't want to cost them any money unnecessarily, so I politely insisted on using my own phone at the appropriate time (i.e. "No, really, it's fine." etc). The cue I *think* I missed (merely by being polite) was this: her offer was actually a kind and arguably subtle way of telling me that the meeting should end. Ideally, I would be told directly - "The meeting's finished now, Simon. You can go now" - instead of what for me was merely a kind offer. Was my misinterpretation entirely my own fault? I'm not 100% sure, even if I suspect it was. It only dawned on me two hours after the event what the lady had really meant by her offer.