At what age was it obvious you weren't NT?

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Carpeta
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04 Sep 2020, 7:52 am

I was seen as special when I was reading fluently at age 2 or 3. (Not sure about my NT/ND status, though.)


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Benjamin the Donkey
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04 Sep 2020, 8:15 am

When I went to kindergarten at age 4. If course, there was no one had a satisfactory explanation back then.


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FleaOfTheChill
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04 Sep 2020, 8:17 am

My family knew I was different from an early age, but they didn't seek out a diagnosis for me. i spent a lot of time around my mother's family and they were loud, chaotic, awful. I knew I wasn't like them. I also became aware of how I was different from other kids when I was out in preschool at age three. I didn't know what autism was, but I knew I wasn't like other people.



emotrtkey
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04 Sep 2020, 8:19 am

I think most autistic people start thinking they're different between 9 to 18 months old.



Pieplup
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04 Sep 2020, 8:19 am

FleaOfTheChill wrote:
My family knew I was different from an early age, but they didn't seek out a diagnosis for me. i spent a lot of time around my mother's family and they were loud, chaotic, awful. I knew I wasn't like them. I also became aware of how I was different from other kids when I was out in preschool at age three. I didn't know what autism was, but I knew I wasn't like other people.

I find it interesting how the vast majority seem to realize this at an intuitive level.


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04 Sep 2020, 9:14 am

emotrtkey wrote:
I think most autistic people start thinking they're different between 9 to 18 months old.

I don't know how that is possible at that age as one does not really meet others ones own age until one starts school at the age of four.

The funny thing about me is that often I assumed that I was the only "Normal" person around and everyone else was "Odd". :lol:
The other issue is that to me my Mum was normal and she was VERY different in her ways to other mothers, so my concept of normality was different from everyone elses if that makes sense?

Uhmm. I am not sure I am able to put my thoughts into ways that make sense. Haha.


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firemonkey
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04 Sep 2020, 9:38 am

My father:

Quote:
but you were obviously a pretty precocious child because I remember you watching a lot of television and rushing into the kitchen to share the news of the Kennedy election in the fall of 1960'. Also you must have begun tto o read a little because you always referred to "Disney, Walt" in the index for m wnhich you could only h ave got from a printed format.


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04 Sep 2020, 11:47 am

I think it’s been apparent right from the start that I’m different. I know for sure my first special interest in insects/arthropods became apparent very early, I remember at age 3 wanting to hold a spider but not wanting to risk getting bitten, so I was calling to the spider to climb onto a book I was holding. My parents say that one of my first words was “caterpillar.”


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emotrtkey
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04 Sep 2020, 1:12 pm

Mountain Goat wrote:
emotrtkey wrote:
I think most autistic people start thinking they're different between 9 to 18 months old.

I don't know how that is possible at that age as one does not really meet others ones own age until one starts school at the age of four.


Most parents get frustrated, stressed , or disappointed if their kids don't behave appropriately. Most kids try to act better to please their parents. If you're autistic and can't act better but your parents don't know it, they'll keep getting frustrated and stressed at your behavior. If you sensed your parents weren't pleased with your behavior despite your best effort, you'd probably either blame your parents for being too harsh and feel rejected or blame yourself and think there was something wrong with you. That's how people can feel like they're different at such a young age.

Also, I used to be nonverbal and remember not talking because I was afraid people would think I was weird. Since most kids start trying to talk at 9 months and I didn't even try when I was a baby or a toddler, I probably felt different when I was 9 months old. I remember reading that autistic people start masking their differences when they are a toddler (1-3 years old).

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The funny thing about me is that often I assumed that I was the only "Normal" person around and everyone else was "Odd". :lol:
The other issue is that to me my Mum was normal and she was VERY different in her ways to other mothers, so my concept of normality was different from everyone elses if that makes sense?

Uhmm. I am not sure I am able to put my thoughts into ways that make sense. Haha.


I felt the exact same way for most of my life. I think what happened was I felt rejected when people judged me so I looked for faults in others so I could judge them.



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04 Sep 2020, 1:25 pm

Never really. I mean I was weird but always thought it's just some personal, unique flaw in me. It used to frustrate me that I knew I was weird but I didn't know how to stop it.


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04 Sep 2020, 2:00 pm

16/17/18 range when it became obvious to me that I wasn't connecting with others just because I was "book smart". Diagnosed at 18.



LisaM1031
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04 Sep 2020, 7:21 pm

I think I was about 7 or 8. I was always a loner in school and tended to be left out. Looking back though I was perfectly content with this and wasn’t even aware of how much of a loner I was until it was made really obvious, like when we had to break into groups for an activity and I had no friends to let me in their group. But unless something like this happened, I was usually pretty unaware of my misfit status. I’m not diagnosed with AS but I think this is a pretty classic symptom.



Edna3362
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04 Sep 2020, 7:27 pm

Unknown. Likely ages 7-8 related to social concerns at school.

It became truly obvious at ages 9-13.


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ezbzbfcg2
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04 Sep 2020, 7:42 pm

Hard one to answer. Could see/feel differences in childhood. I still thought adulthood would somehow be different. When it wasn't, I think that's when I realized that my differences weren't just childhood/teenage differences.

I'd say mid-20s is when I accepted it, or realized it was a life-long thing. Though I was obvious to the fact that I was different (or that most others were different from me) in elementary school. Teenage years is when the blatant schism became evident, though I didn't realize it would last (or be just as crippling) beyond adolescence.



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04 Sep 2020, 11:17 pm

I always knew I was different as I always referred to as fidgety, hyper, stubborn, and defiant. I usually played alone as a child and avoided group activities and sports. When I was 12 I stumbled on a TV documentary about autism and related so much to the kid in the show. I sort of just tried to forget about because I thought if I actually autistic a teacher or family member would tell me. It wasn't until I was in my early 20s and exploring my neurotypical characteristics that I realized I'm probably autistic and at age 26 I was formally diagnosed.



ezbzbfcg2
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05 Sep 2020, 12:17 am

GameCube wrote:
I always knew I was different as I always referred to as fidgety, hyper, stubborn, and defiant. I usually played alone as a child and avoided group activities and sports. When I was 12 I stumbled on a TV documentary about autism and related so much to the kid in the show. I sort of just tried to forget about because I thought if I actually autistic a teacher or family member would tell me. It wasn't until I was in my early 20s and exploring my neurotypical characteristics that I realized I'm probably autistic and at age 26 I was formally diagnosed.


Yeah, you always sort of knew...I think we all did. But it was never confirmed. I think a lot of us felt SOMEONE would have said SOMETHING if it were true. But we didn't understand that NTs don't think like that, and even believe it will pass. By our 20s, most start to accept it as nothing seems to change in adulthood.