Hello. Are there any people here who were born in the 70s and 80s, always different, now diagnosed with high-functioning autism? Like me?

I'm almost 50 years old, and I've always felt I was different. Even in preschool, at the age of three, I felt it clearly. But it wasn't a problem for me. I functioned very well. I asked my mother why the children at preschool were different from me. She didn't understand my questions. So I decided she was different too. As if it were natural that most people are different from me, although I don't know why. But I never wanted to be like those others, even at three or four years old. In a sense, I felt they were a separate species, even though they looked the same. To simplify a bit – like a dog and a cat. Both species, in a simplified description, have the same physical characteristics: fur, four legs, a tail, ears... But they're different species. And that's normal. That's how I felt in preschool. After that, it was different.

Parents
  • Like Oscar, I'm in my 70s and have felt a failure all my life. I adopted a host of various labels such as introverted, intolerant, fussy etc and assumed I just a completely inadequate person who had to hide my real inner life from everyone in order to get by. I'd come to the conclusion I had ADHD until my closest friend (whose husband is autistic) recently suggested I ought to take a look at autism. Oh my! I had no idea! In my youth, autism = boys with severe problems, and there was no understanding of masking. As I took the tests and did a little reading, it was all there - all the stuff I'd desperately hidden. I'm still trying to come to terms with it.

Reply
  • Like Oscar, I'm in my 70s and have felt a failure all my life. I adopted a host of various labels such as introverted, intolerant, fussy etc and assumed I just a completely inadequate person who had to hide my real inner life from everyone in order to get by. I'd come to the conclusion I had ADHD until my closest friend (whose husband is autistic) recently suggested I ought to take a look at autism. Oh my! I had no idea! In my youth, autism = boys with severe problems, and there was no understanding of masking. As I took the tests and did a little reading, it was all there - all the stuff I'd desperately hidden. I'm still trying to come to terms with it.

Children
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