• Replies 12 replies
  • Subscribers 11 subscribers
  • Views 430 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Sense of Identity

JMD

I’m 64 and have been telling people about my recent autism diagnosis. So many of them have responded with - “it’s just the same you, but with a label”. Or “I think we’re all on the spectrum”. Or “ But you’re really confident and obviously high functioning.”

I am beginning to realise that nobody knows me at all. It wasn’t a surprise that I’m autistic but it is still a seismic shift for me to really see and feel myself fully unmasked for the first time. I feel like I am hyper aware of my autistic traits, feelings and responses. I didn’t feel like I was functioning well before (despite looking like I was to others), but I feel even less functioning now.

I think I need to know that other people have experienced and felt what I am experiencing and feeling. Anyone?

Parents

  • I felt quite similar. It's not that people don't know us. It's almost like they don't care. 

    At least I felt like no one really cares. At the end of the day, the pain is inside us and they can't see it. 

    I read something very interesting the other day : high functioning autism doesn't mean we feel the symptoms more lightly, it means you see it more lightly.

    We mask so much that the outsiders can't see a difference and that we don't bother them so much. 

    We carry all this pain and we are the only ones who know 

Reply

  • I felt quite similar. It's not that people don't know us. It's almost like they don't care. 

    At least I felt like no one really cares. At the end of the day, the pain is inside us and they can't see it. 

    I read something very interesting the other day : high functioning autism doesn't mean we feel the symptoms more lightly, it means you see it more lightly.

    We mask so much that the outsiders can't see a difference and that we don't bother them so much. 

    We carry all this pain and we are the only ones who know 

Children
No Data