When did you know you were different?

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Maybe in 5th grade, we had these orange math books you would write the answers in. I would collect a new one every 10 minutes or so. I honestly thought the people in the class were "challenged" somehow. I spent so much time rocking on my chiar through school just to complete any work they gave me in 15 minutes of class, i never understood why people were so slow to complete it. I couldnt write an essay to save my life however.

Later in primary school i took some IQ type test after a long time off sick and did so bad i got in remidial(?) class, they had me retake it some time later after explaining it to me first. Then they accused me of cheating it.

I remember trying (in vain) to figure out the secret to why I didn't have as many friends as the other kids, and didn't get picked to play on teams, etc. I thought it was a code to crack...I searched for patterns. Sometime between K and 2 my parents started going to a support group and took me to see a psychologist on several occasions...but I had NO idea what that was about! In 2nd grade I landed in the Gifted & Talented program, but even there a division existed between those who were Gifted, Talented, and Weird...and Gifted, Talented, and with social skills. In 5th grade, I had resigned myself to always being "weird, awkward, smart, and shy"...the labels the other kids had foisted upon me. I realized that there wasn't a code, puzzle, or pattern, but that I just wasn't like the other kids. I was a total loner for years. By 10th grade I was able to impersonate the other kids pretty well, and as a result I made friends with kids who were in the grades behind or ahead of my own...they hadn't stereotyped me yet. I could do my little act, follow others' leads, and seem totally normal, but it took a lot of effort! My late teens and early twenties are when I decided I actually wanted an answer to why everything was such a struggle...and here I am.

I'd say young as three. I noticed something being different but I didn't know what. I just felt different than the other kids. But as I got older, it became obvious I was different because; I was mistreated, bullied, ridiculed, etc. and I was an outcast and lot of kids in my neighborhood hardly wanted me over at their house and I wasn't really good in anything other kids were good at and that's how I knew I was different. Also lot of kids didn't like me because of that reason. They also thought I was rude, selfish, and stupid. I was called more than that but won't go there.
I can also remember kids were always getting mad at me and I didn't understand why. Of course took me years to learn when kids start to yell at me, when they tell me to stop, I have to stop.

The first day I attended kindergarten, when I was 4. Two years of living hell.

I can't remember a moment of realisation, but I've known I was different since I was in preschool. (About age 4.)

Ever since I was young. I used to get bullied alot in Kindergarten. I thought I just needed to act different to fit in. Then I realized I was really different when in 2000 my grandma died, and I was in her funeral, and I couldn't really cry like everyone else. I remember looking around at all my cousins and my family crying hard, but I just couldn't. I had to force some tears out. From then till now I just figured I was just really weird, and I needed to act different.

My teacher said to me that i was very quiet and also said i was a clever child which was a good comment as my teacher said your very different from most other people as they are immature where as i was mature and took things a lot more serious.

In kindergarten I had this idea going on in my head. I was between 3 and 4 years old.Well, I didn't think that I was different... I was sure the whole other world was different actually. I mean, come on, these kids and adults, they all made these noises, ran around, did things I failed to understand. I was sure I was different. Special. If I'd have known what an 'ego' is, mine would probably have boasted.


I realised that I was the one who is different at age 12, in sixth grade, after two years of bullying and not being schooled properly. The realisation was as much of a shock that I considered jumping out of the window one evening, until I decided I certainly wouldn't want to die, just because the world (as in various people, guardians, caretakers) wanted me dead (literally).

Ever since I started school. I was always the kid at the back of the classroom talking to myself and always being ignored. This was from the age of 4 to the present day.

When I started school, that was when others noticed too. I went from being without problems to being a violent little jerk.
To this day I have no idea what triggered the change... I am just happy that I changed back. Or rather changed into someone new who I could be proud of.

When I was very little, I started to notice that there was ***me***...and then there was everyone else...In pre school I started getting singled out by teachers, but things didn't start getting really bad until first grade.

I can relate to this. When I was younger i used to sit and stare at my hands and watch them move haha.

Anyway...I first realised I was different when I was about 10-11 years old. Before then I didn't know why I wasn't making any friends.
When I was 10-11 I started to notice that I had different interests than anyone at school. From then on I just started to notice more and more things. I still am to this day.

I realized I was different at about 11 years old, when the kids I was friends with in elementary school suddenly were not my friends any more in junior high. How did two months of summer break change everything about me or them??? Our shared interests were not 'cool'.

Never really figured it all out, in Aspie terms, until last year as an adult.

I've known that I'm different for as long as I can remember... my memory only goes back to during kindergarten, but I was definitely aware that I was different from the other kids. It never bothered me at the time, I didn't find the social games appealing and didn't feel any want for them. I was always the quiet child, and a gullible crybaby. When my family moved to a new area, the kids at that new school started calling me a ret*d and bullying me more. The teachers found out about the ret*d comments and tested me (it was a sit-down basic subjects paper I had to fill out), the results of that test apparently clearly said that I was a smart kid. But even then, I just felt the way I was was just something different but perfectly acceptable.

It didn't really dawn on me until I got to highschool (grade 7-10 here in Australia) that there was something seriously wrong with me aside from the depression. That eventually led to my diagnosis in 2001-2003 (which I didn't know about until September 2005).

age 6

the thing was, i never knew i was different, not until when im in my late teenagers years. probably because i always have my twin sister with me. she is always there to provide me comfort and almost accompany with me everywhere.

but you know, looking back now, i think i was feeling a bit alienated while i was 7 i think. no one would come up to me and strike a conservation, or that they would invite me for lunch. i never notice anything odd about me then.