Well, I always knew I was different

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After 75 years of feeling I did not belong I think I may have found the niche where I fit. I thought that I could explain my sense of alienation as caused by PTSD after childhood hospitalisation (recovered polio), or progressive hearing loss (I now have a cochlear implant). I am not sure what the point would be of proceeding to a formal diagnosis. Just reading the biographies of other aspies helps me realise my burden of guilt for being as I am was not caused by my choices for which I am to be held accountable. I have a unexplainable sense of relief.

Welcome to WP! I hope you like it here.

Getting so much of your past explained is wonderful. I agree!

And if you've successfully muddled your way this far without a formal diagnosis and don't need any accommodations then whether or not you get a formal diagnosis would seem to be purely a matter of personal preference. I had gotten as far being pretty sure I was either slightly on the Autism Spectrum or was almost on the Autism Spectrum and wanted a formal assessment so I could say the correct thing without feeling like I should qualify it by disclosing it was not a formal diagnosis. But, I had the advantage of being in the U.S. where apparently the path to an assessment can be shorter; my understanding is it can take quite some time to get an assessment in the U.K.

Gee another old timer like me. Welcome to the site. It took me over 70 years to figure out who I am and how I came to be me. I suspect you experience in life will help you understand why this site is named WRONG PLANET. It is because we feel like we were born on the wrong planet. We live in a strange world where we really don't seem to fit in.

I'm sure you'll find a good many things of interest here on our planet. I was diagnosed in 2008 at 45. In subsequent years I ;learned more than ever before! Things fell into place.

The oldest person I've ever encountered on the site was a woman in her mid 90s from Europe. She had found out a good deal about the spectrum and her grandkids were assisting her to make posts on the site.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Thanks one and all for the welcome.

As shown in my avatar my hands are still flapping but I have learned not to flap in public! Fortunately, I chose the right career and partner (a mutual choice) to survive as a Aspie though I might have been happier with some help for anxiety and executive functioning.

I am interested in finding out what percentage of others have physiological signs that could be coupled to ASD. My GI ones were evident from the time before my avatar photo. When 40, I was given cisapride to try and speed things up until it had its license revoked. Now have Barrett's Oesophagus. Round about then I noticed I was losing touch sensation to pin prick and pain. It was diagnosed as mono-neuritis multiplex. B12 injections seems to have halted progression. I was interested to read that unmyelinated C nerve fibres are reported to degrade in some ASD cases.

Welcome to WP!

Jimmy m,
I am wary of taking any drugs particularly for long term. I don't remember having side-effects with cisapride (the prescription said propulsid) but I don't think it was particularly effective either. I took them for perhaps a year some 20 years ago

I recall having Barium X-rays as a child but in those days the only medications I got were laxatives and suppositories.

I was given phenobarbitone while in hospital age 5 to 'calm me down' and my mother continued with this for some time after. This would be 1953/4. Its effect would have been as a GABA agonist, having a similar effect to benzodiazepines. Used at the correct dosage they are said help control excessive stimming and meltdowns. Perhaps that's what gave me enough early respite to learn enough about the NT planet to mask and survive.

welcome brother, you will find helpful insights from those with actual lifetimes of experience. I was diagnosed with autism at age 68 and it has been so helpful for insight and self understanding. Hope you find answers and peace. Its a lot to sort and the longer we have lived before we find out, the more sorting there is to be done. 3 years after diagnosis I still have "aha" moments and answers to so many "whys" of the past. glad you are with us.

Willkommen