luchog wrote:
I wasn't "called out", so much as recognized. Friends who had experience with autistic individuals mentioned that I might be Aspie. I did the research, and it fit very very well. I've never been shy about admitting it, and I don't consider it some dark secret.
I do tend to pass for "normal, if a bit weird", and at times get the comment that I seem too detached, even scary, at times by people who aren't familiar with AS. But for the most part, people don't notice. I think it's less that I'm high-functioning (because I'm definitely not as high-functioning as I seem), as much as I had social skills repeatedly beaten into me when I was a kid.
I've always known there was something a bit different about me, and my Asperger's was initially identified by one of my friends/co-workers who has a son on the spectrum. I didn't really think about it then (I previously thought my life is simply what it's like to have ADD, since I was diagnosed with that as a kid), what made me start thinking about it was my last GF, when she pointed out some of my more autistic traits, and asked what's wrong with me. I didn't have an immediate answer, but that's when I started researching, and actually realized I was misdiagnosed as a kid. Then it really hurt when she didn't believe me after I had done about 3 days of near-constant researching. After getting my official diagnosis, I have shared it with a few trusted people that mostly just know me in a professional environment, and they told me they would never have guessed. (Discussions were in private, so those not-so-trusted people don't know) The few that I have shared with are very willing to help me avoid faux-pas, and secretly feed me some info on things I may be missing from others in interactions that they are also involved in.