Diagnosis at 40.
I always know I was not fitting in, but didn’t really grasp why until late 30s. Lack of understanding what autism is kept me looking elsewhere for answers.
I got diagnosed with adhd in 2009, and tried meds for a while (vyvanse ftl), but I couldn’t sleep, so I stopped. Then I got distracted and forgot I had it. Got re-diagnosed, along with autism, in like 2022 or something. I’m on adderall now and it’s fine I guess.
I was 40 years old when the puzzle pieces of my life finally started to come together.
(I know a lot of autistic people don’t love the old puzzle piece logo, but for me, it’s the most apt metaphor I’ve ever seen.)
I realized during my teenager years when everyone around me started drifting apart, they no longer found me interesting as an entertainment monkey. I got a diagnosis once I started struggling keeping jobs and wasn’t successful in college. It really makes me sad how normies talk about family who struggle with employment. Like I somehow chose this nightmare.
Like most on here, I knew (and others wouldn’t let me forget as a kid) that I was different and didn’t understand most other people since the start. I didn’t realize it was autism (or even what that meant in internal experience) until I was in my mid-40s.
Realized? Very young. Had the language to articulate my experience? Still working on it. From the outside looking in a lot of this must seem like an intentional choice to differ. It’s how my mom approached it, like I was just intentionally being difficult. It’s how people around me approached it, like I was just intentionally refusing to fit in. My only exposure to autism was in the form of a middle school classmate, and we were not similar, so I never expected that my condition was closer to his than to the allistic folks around me. Some weeks ago I filled out a questionnaire, the RAADS-R. Got a score above the autistic threshold, and things sort of just…became apparent. After ten minutes of reading about the actual autistic experience I was relieved and heartbroken to discover that what I was living through all along really did have a name, and was not in fact just me choosing to intentionally lead a more difficult life. So I was 33 when I learned that I am autistic.
I was 37 when I was diagnosed as autistic after self identifying the previous year. I also suspect I am ADHD as well but I’ve never sought a professional diagnosis for it. I always felt different, like an alien observing another culture even as a little kid. All my closest friends growing up were either autistic or ADHD.
Mid 30s, I was diagnosed with ADHD. Later realised I’ve probably also got some autistic traits too (all discovered after both kids were diagnosed with ADHD and autism).
Similar here. Mid thirties, my kid was diagnosed autistic so I started reading Neurotribes. Not very far into the book I was “oh… OHHH”
As fun or sad the next may sound, I am currently - and very covertdly - being acessed for neurodivergency because I walked into a psychologist office saying I feel tired and can not relate with my coworkers.
So… That is that.
I think I was 22 when a therapist suggested it, I looked into it, and before long I was quite certain he was right. Really was a game-changer to finally know why most people and I couldn’t relate well to one another and gave me a starting to point to work on that.
40s but I’m honestly not sure if it’s just in my head.
I was like a toddler when a doctor first tried to prescribe medicine for my ADHD. Not sure when I was first aware of that though.
60
over 30
25-26. I’m not joking; several ppl I follow on Mastodon are openly Autistic, which is when I started suspecting… I would have been diagnosed much, much earlier had my home country have a better psych support system though
I was 45 when I realized that the way my mind works differently than most people I know is not just me being a hard person to be around, it is a function of the wiring in my brain.
I was always a super high performer in school so a lot of adults just put up with the many many signs that something was different.
When I was young doctors didn’t really diagnose adhd or autism, forget that lovely blend of AuDHD that seems to be my personal flavour. And now that I am older my family doctor says ridiculous shit like ‘Adults don’t get adhd or autism so you are fine.’
I’ve started using coping mechanisms from meeting other AuDHD folks and they are helping to a very small extent. I hope to continue learning about the ways people deal with their own wiring without access to meds.
