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Hi!

Was self diagnosed/suspected for a year or so, recently professionally diagnosed with ASD Level 1. At 64 years of age, no less!

I always knew that there was something different about me, but could never quite put my finger on it. Have dealt with anxiety all my life, but didn't start taking anti-anxiety meds until my mid 50's. In retrospect, I should have started taking them in my teens.

My first clue that I was different was when I started school at age 6. I kept wondering, "How does everyone else always know what to do?", and "Why don't I? What's the matter with me?". This caused in me a bad feeling that I DID NOT LIKE. I now know that this bad feeling was anxiety. Anyways, after grade 1 things went downhill.

I've lived a life that looks pretty normal to others: long-term, fairly stable marriage (with some bumps along the way); went to university and got a professional doctorate; raised 2 great kids; have had a pretty successful career; but...

About a year ago I read an online article about adult diagnosed autism. The article had links to a column of online tests which I completed methodically, top to bottom - which, in retrospect, is kinda suspicious for ASD. Long story short, every test put me deeply on the spectrum. I was shocked. I immediately went and told my wife, who was not shocked. I started studying ASD with a vengeance, and everything I read confirmed it. However, being a skeptic, I am suspicious of everything I find online. And as someone who works in a clinical environment, I am even more suspicious of self-diagnosis. So last fall I bit the bullet and arranged for an assessment by a psychologist who specializes in neurodivergent disorders. And now I'm here.

These days I'm spending a lot of time looking back over my life. No regrets, per se, as I kinda live in the moment and am not prone to agonizing about the past or the future. But as the Grateful Dead put it:

"Lately it occurs to me,
What a long, strange trip it's been".


Thanks for listening,
Ken

Ahoy-hoy.

Welcome to WP!

Hello and welcome to wp

Welcome to WP! I was also 64 when I was diagnosed. It was wonderful to finally understand so much of my life.

I hope you find WP a pleasant diversion...I do. I don't try to monitor all of WP, just the bits that interest me.

Take care.

Yep....welcome aboard Ken.

Welcome to Wrong Planet! I hope you enjoy it.

kvgdvm, Welcome to Wrong Planet.

I didn't realize I had a condition called Asperger's Syndrome until I reached the age of around 70. But that explained a great deal about my life.

Humans are a very advanced being. This is because we have multiple brains. Our brain has two sides. One on the left side of our skull which normally becomes the dominant brain, the daytime brain. The other on the right becomes our night time brain that exists in REM and deep NREM sleep. But sometimes an accident happens and our daytime brain dies and our night time brain becomes our daytime brain. It is a brain flip.

That is why we feel like we do not belong. Like we are living on the WrongPlanet.

There is a couple books worth reading to learn a little bit more about the human brain. These are books by Jill Bolte Taylor, PhD. Her first book is called My Stroke of Insight. It describes a massive stroke she experienced around age 35. But her second book called Whole Brain Living is really quite unique. She breaks apart the multiple brains that exist in human construction.

Many thanks for the replies. I feel at home already. I'm looking forward to interacting with people without feeling the need to explain myself.

Love your location.