I am an early 50s female, who self diagnosed in my late 40s after finding out about Asperger's. I don't recall the exact year. I took an online test, which confirmed my belief sometime between a year and two years ago. My older sister, not knowing of my personal research and testing, contacted me a while back and said she had recently read about Asperger's and believes I have it. At that point I told her of my own discovery, research, and testing, which confirmed that.
Back when I was young Autism/Asperger's were not known as such. We were diagnosed with emotional/behavior problems, and as being discipline problem kids. It was thought that we could be cured by the right combo of drugs, therapy, and discipline. Anyone not cured was believed to be not cooperating with the therapy, and was thought to be fighting the cure efforts, so often more drugs, therapy, and/or more discipline was used. There were some non spectrum kids who were "cured", but their problems were usually caused by family issues, not by a neurological problem, as we have.
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If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away.--Henry David Thoreau