What age did you realize that you were "different"

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I went through several layers of realization regarding my differences.

About age 6 I started to realize that the other kids were interacting in ways that I found confusing.
I also noticed that not many of them seemed to want to be around me. I said and did strange things.
I had few, if any friends. Most of the time I retreated into independent fantasy-play and ignored my peers.
That's about the age I first noticed a concrete "difference".

This became more apparent throughout the school years, and everyone seemed to think that it was just the result of my upbringing. The autism-spectrum was a totally foreign concept. I grew more introverted and isolated.

I moved out when I was 19 and continued the isolation and introversion... so far gone that for a while I believed that somehow I was the normal one and everyone else was crazy and unstable.

3 weeks before my 27th birthday, someone I knew suggested that I take an online test for Asperger's Syndrome. I had never heard of it until that day. I took the test (one of Baron-Cohen's Questionnaires) and I was absolutely floored. Now I had a profound, glaring, and searingly precise answer to the question: "why am I different?"

This was the fundamental realization of difference. No delusions about myself. I get it now.

Right around age five comes to mind for me. I had watched from my bedroom window while the Indiana Toll road was been constructed, and then I used to go stand at the fence and wonder whether anyone like me might be out there anywhere ...

... see my sig line!

I was 4

I was 14 years old when I first realized that I was different. I just wasn't interested in the things that other girls my age were in to.

i probably noticed when i was about 4 or 5

20, just before i joined WP.

started getting an idea i wasnt suited for normal society at 15, spent most of my time abroad till i was 19, subconscious made me run i guess.

I think I was 10 or 11 when I first really noticed a difference between me and the other kids. I seemed to be the only one who enjoyed reading encyclopedias, or trying to explain the physics behind how lasers worked, or explaining the difference between the special and general theories of relativity. I found it more fascinating than kickball.

Since I was a kid, I realized I was too shy. I think I was about 6 years old, then. Never gave too much importance to it until some years later.

When I was 12, my peers were beginning to avoid me (some of them were actively ridiculing me, but, since I have a sharp tongue, it didn't really bother me). I think it was because I was somewhat childish, while all of them were trying (but failing) to appear adult at the time.

At 14, I moved to another part of the city and had to transfer to another school. I had already lost my friends from the other school and was expecting things to get better. Unfortunately (and, in retrospect, unsurprisingly), they didn't.

At 16 years, it finally hit me. Suddenly, I knew I wasn't simply shy. I spent the next 3 years wondering if I was crazy or not. Those times shall be known as "Dark Ages" (hey, it's a catchy name). During the Dark Ages, I became depressed and lazy: my grades were falling, I was held back during two years; I didn't want to look for jobs et cetera. I became useless.

In 2009, I got my first job (my mother almost had to drag me to the office). After a terrifying first day, which actually turned out great, I started to recover my self-esteem. A few months later, I was on my second job, where I finally made some friends. Even though I was doing much better, I still didn't know why exactly I was so weird.

Finally, last year, I read about Asperger's Syndrome on TVTropes (of all places) and began to research about it. Finally, I had answers. Actually, I heard about AS way back, in 2007, but didn't pay too much attention back then. Doesn't matter; as they say, all's well that ends well.

Right now, I've gone back to studying and got a related job (which I will begin at May 9th). Things are getting better; I only need to get over the social anxiety I've developed during the "Dark Ages".

Around age 4 or 5... I was sent for an assessment at just over 5 but it was the early sixties and so they didn't know what to make of me. We had no special classes so the teachers tried to keep me busy by sending me out of the classroom for any errand they could think of as they couldn't deal with me in the class, totally overwhelmed and meltdowns all the time.

I always knew I didn't fit in with most others and was called odd by many. My family didn't know what was up with me and just hoped one day I would become normal. At age 51 it became clear at long last and I finally understood that I had AS. I was relieved to make my discovery and have an explaination for all my struggles.

I had inklings when I was four or five years old. As I grew older it became more clear to me that I experience life far differently than everyone around me. I felt extreme isolation and alienation by the time I was seven or eight years old, and those feelings have continued to this day. I didn't even know about Aspergers until I was nearly forty years old. Being diagnosed with Aspergers explains much about my experience of life, but having a label to put on my condition doesn't help me function any better. I turn fifty-one this summer.

In the womb Seriously though, probably about 4 years old.

When I was four, I remember kinda wandering around my preschool play area feeling really lost. The other kids were playing, but I didn't know how to play like them. The teacher, Ms. Lucas, directed me to a girl and told me to "go play with Ariel." I was clueless about what to do, so I just copied what she was doing. I didn't actually interact with her. I think the reason I remember this so well is because it's the first time I felt different.

I actually should clarify that I started realizing that something was "off" in my late 20s/early 30s while trying to cope with my inability to manage things, but I didn't realize it was because anything was different about me, I just thought other people had a much better idea of what to do about it.

At age 5, I noticed that all of the other kids had more friends.

When I was 10 or so, I realized that I was more annoying than (and bullied more often than) most kids.

When I was 14, my dark and cynical sense of humor came out. Naively, I frequently said inappropriate things.

I sank into a deep depression in college, largely driven by anxiety, that I have yet to come out of. This is what started the chain of events that ultimately led to my unofficial diagnosis.


However, my professional success has taken off exponentially in the last few months.

When I was about three I realized but didn't know why.

I copied other kids growing up but I copied the wrong behaviors too unfortunately. I also used to follow kids around on the playground when I wanted to be their friend. My friends hates me following them , I don't know why. Isn't that what friends do? Follow each other?

I always figured I was different because of how I was treated and I had to try harder. I also went to a special school for toddlers with development delays when I was 3-5 and then I was in special ed full time when I was six and seven. Then I was in regular ed when I was 8 and mainstreamed special ed.

I had friends of my age until 4th grade, it started to get hard because they wanted to chit chat and do things I didn't want to do and I just found chit chatting difficult. They also started to push me away and then by 6th grade I had no friends my own age. It was like I got left behind while they all grew up.

For me, aspie traits began to appear when I was about three. I first noticed I was different when I was four. It was my first day of school. I noticed that I didn't have as good motor coordination, I didn't care to do the same things they did, I couldn't read their expressions, and they thought I was weird.