How Old Were You When You Were Diagnosed?

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I was 12 when I was told I had Asperger's but no one told me it was autism nor did they tell me it was an autistic spectrum condition. I was never told I had autistic spectrum disorder. That was my original diagnoses while I was seeing my psychiatrist. It was his way of saying I don't fit anywhere with autistic disorder or AS and I was between there.

As early as 10, as late as 14.

It could've been earlier if it weren't for various reasons.

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On the cusp of 16 and 17. Despite being placed in a variety of 'special' classes during school and generally viewed as a bit of an eccentric/weirdo/outcast/whatever word one would use.

I believe I was a toddler, 3 or 4 years old when I got diagnosed. My parents noticed that I didn't quite connect, ways that I would dump toys out, and would mostly recite nursery rhymes and phrases from TV shows. I had a really good memory but would script a lot as a really little kid and repeat myself. I am still guilty of repeating myself, but I can say more of substance now, and gained self awareness. Recently when going to a psychiatrist to get a medication perscribed, my mom said that she felt like there was a "veil" between her and toddler/preschool me because of my lack of connection to the world, and she wanted to connect so much.

People often noticed my intelligence in certain areas even though I struggled to connect in other areas. My kindergarten teacher told my mom I was the smartest kid in the class and I still get compliments like that even though a lot still is alien to me. It's kind of become a part of my identity and it frustrates me when people underestimate me due to the way I present.

I literally cried hearing the "veil" my mom described because I kind of knew I was different, I had trouble fitting in with other kids in my school and was often excluded and talked about for being different and things not coming naturally to me, I had trouble making friends, while I was young when I got the diagnosis, I was 11 or 12 when my parents actually told me, but I was just a toddler with special needs so I didn't quite know that extent of it.

I was 8 when I received a formal diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome.

I was diagnosed as a toddler, and told of it around age 11-12. I wish they hadn't have waited so long to tell me.

I believe I am starting to see a logical pattern here. Looking at the pole the two age groups where the most people were diagnosed are the teenage years (Which are usually the years where one changes school and everything starts to get difficult and signs start to show... (If they werw not noticed earlier), and in the 40's where people like myself start to put two and two together... (I am not diagnosed yet, but it is only recently I have considered the possibility, so for me if I am on the spectrum it is at the tail end of me in my 40's).
It is actually interesting to see pattersn like this...

When I was a kid, my father wanted my mother to take me to a psychiatrist but my mother said she didn't want to because she didn't want the psychiatrist to think she was a bad mother.
She went by herself and when she got back she told my father that the psychiatrist told her that both I and my father were schizophrenic.

Years later when I read that the refrigerator mother theory had been debunked, my first thought was that finely lets my mother off the hook.

I got diagnosed after starting preschool at around 5 years old. I had a difficult time socialising with other children, and when I did try to socialise with them, I sometimes wasn't very kind, or very "normal" about it. I think I was frustrated that I didn't know how to interact with the other kids and yet they were able to interact with each other, so I sometimes took my frustration out on them instead.

When I was 5, when I began speaking, I had a slight desire to interact with other children; I probably felt safer with adults.

My interactions were often one-sided---I usually sought to beat kids at something, rather than cooperate with them.

I never deliberately hit a kid, though...and never started a fight.

I wonder where the cut off point is between those who have been diagnosed very early as being on the spectrum , and those of us who had to wait till middle age , or later , to get a diagnosis.

I think I was 22.

I was 42, and still am. I had suspected for about five years.

However my daughter was diagnosed last year at age 11, and hopefully will benefit from knowing at a much earlier age.

19 for ASD, but misdiagnosed with DAMP at 6.

I was 12 when a psychologist first suggested it as a possibility (I didn't understand at the time what that meant), but my parents couldn't front the money for an official autism evaluation. It was the 90s though, so they sent me home with a much more affordable ADHD diagnosis and a bottle of ritalin instead (kind of joking, but this did happen).

As for now, I'm really fortunate to have a good job and health insurance, so I don't need the kind of financial resources that a diagnosis would unlock. As such, I don't know what I would gain from it at this point besides peace of mind from just knowing. Sadly, I don't make that much money that I can splurge on something like that. For now I'm happy to just keep walking that blurry line between neurotypical and ASD, getting advice for how to deal with specific challenges as they come.