Hi y'all

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Just wanted to say hi. I found out about this forum via AVEN (asexuality forum). My therapist recently (unofficially but I'm convinced) diagnosed me with autism at the ripe old age of 40. As a result, many things make sense...and yet other things about life and people continue to not make all that much sense. Happy to find this forum.

Welcome aboard.

I wasnt diagnosed until I was over 60 myself.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome to WP!

40?! YOUNGSTER!

I was diagnosed shortly before my 65^th birthday, after which many things made so much sense.

Welcome!
I was diagnosed when I was 53, or was it 52?
Granted it is a really small sample, but I've heard that so many times how once one is diagnosed, everything makes sense. I remember thinking that. It found it interesting that some people I knew told me "Oh. I knew you were on autistic spectrum." Oh. I thought I was just "weird" or to be more kind, "weirdish"

I hope the new knowledge helps you in life, if even in little ways.

LOL! (the youngster comment. not that you were diagnosed as an early 65th birthday present)

How do you feel about being diagnosed relatively late in life? I remember thinking I wished I knew it when I was younger, but on the other hand, being older provides new perspective on the past and the present. I think if I had been diagnosed when I was in the single digits age range, it might have defined me and how people treated me. 40 seems like a good age.

I really hope bare_trees is okay with the diagnosis.

Yeah.

Thank y'all for the warm welcome. I really wish someone had brought it up in my twenties at least, but I'm glad to be educated about it now. Read Unmasking Autism by Devon Price and The Electricity of Every Living Thing by Katherine May and I'm always on the lookout for more to read, as it's been helping to put everything in context.

I think the label would've been a problem when I was young...up to and including when I was a youngish adult. In many ways I've been very fortunate in life. A number of good things happened for me over the years. But I think having the label "Autistic" would've made some of those lucky strokes unavailable to me. My life would not have been, could not have been as good.

Note that I'm saying it is the label that I think would've been a problem. Whether I knew it or not I was Autistic but I did reasonably well for myself anyways. Autism may have actually helped me in some ways but I think the label could've hurt me.

Yet it was nice to finally find out that I was Autistic. It explained so much.

I could've stood learning about the Autism a decade or so sooner, though. Another couple of years delay and I might not have found out at all.

If you want to read the construct of humans, I would recommend reading a book called Whole Brain Living by Jill Bolte Taylor. Humans are much more complex then currently thought. We have 4 different characters living inside us. Two are daytime brains and the other two are nighttime brains (REM and NREM) that exist in our sleep state.

The only thing that Jill hasn't figured out yet is that some of use experience death either before we are born or prior to reaching adulthood around age 12. Because humans are a very complex creature, we survive by doing a brain flip between the left DOMINANT and right SUPPORT sides of our brain. The subordinate right side steps in and keeps us living. But our return makes us very different people. It is almost like we came from the WRONG PLANET.

Hi and a very warm welcome to you! There are certainly pros & cons to earlier diagnosis. Main thing is that you now understand & are learning more & more about the past & the present of your life. Good to have you with us.

Hello.

Welcome bare_trees, glad you found your way here!

welcome, diagnosis as an older adult is sort of like culture shock! I got formal diagnosis at age 68 and it was such a relief. So many painful whys of the past finally understood. Glad you are with us.

Willkommen