Adult Aspies, When did you discover you were different?

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As an adult with Aspergers; as you were growing up, when did you first notice that you were "different" than your peers?

In hindsight, I'd say starting Kindergarten at just before I turned 5 years old. Those are some of my earliest memories, and I suppose the earliest ones of noticing I'm different due to being the first time I was around a few dozen of my peers 5 days a week.

Probably around 15. It had nothing to do with autism, though. I had this strange attraction for a boy around the same time I just stopped hanging around people in general. My schoolmates were essentially strangers to me and I felt I didn't belong in HS.

I definitely felt different in Kindergarten, but I think it really solidifed for me in 1st or 2nd grade when I had an IEP (I think for ADHD) and met with a school psychologist. It didn't seem atypical at the time since a bunch of my childhood friends also did (they were also eccentric people). I'd say it wasn't until 5th or 6th grade that it REALLY psychologically set in that I was a very different person from everyone else around me.

Probably around 3-4 while in daycare...basically, some of the first interactions I remember with other similarly aged people. I didn't know what it was called until just last year, though.

About 6 months ago, when I discovered Asperger's Syndrome. I'm only half-kidding.

I knew I didn't know many people like me, but I thought it was because most people were morons and that I was somehow intellectually superior to them. My mother has been telling me for decades that she thought there was something "wrong" with me, because I was so introverted and fearful of people and scared to talk on the phone; clumsy, highly intelligent but unproductive and seriously lacking in "common sense." And I kept saying "There's nothing wrong with me. I'm fine. Stop worrying", as I was rocking back and forth, tearing sheets of paper into little teeny pieces and zoning out every 10 minutes.

When I started reading about AS, I just went "Ohmigod!" I fit everything so perfectly, scored high for AS on every test, and behaviors I thought were common to everybody, suddenly became markers for AS. It explained things such as my anxiety and housekeeping problems and my lack of social skills. It even explained my unique walking style -- side of my feet on to my toes, and I take really small steps for as long of legs as I have. I've been trying to figure out for eons why I was picked on in school -- from 1st grade up until graduation. I guess I was more obviously an oddball and misfit than I ever realized. something those with an abusive personality seem to pick up on instinctively.

When I was 16 and I started reading about social anxiety cause I knew something was wrong. But my parents were in denial that I was different my whole life. Later to find out, it wasnt SA and it was aspergers.

I found out the first time I started interacting with a large group of kids at a daycare center. Of course it doesn't help to be a math and science genius and sucking at everything else eather. I always assumed that I was a Nerd/geek and believed that the smarter you where at math and science. The dumber you where at socializing. The thought had never occurred to me that something else was wrong.

I wish I could put a definite time frame on it. I think that I've always felt different. Kindergarten through the 2nd grade weren't so bad for me, but I can remember times where I felt like an outsider no matter what I did. I think it really hit home in the 3rd grade, when it just seemed that out of nowhere people started bullying and picking on me for the oddest things. I didn't have many friends, never really did. I would always look around and see these people that had these..."connections" with other people. They could talk about things that just seemed to go over my head or fall short of my interests.
I never really had much to say to anyone about anything. I've wondered for years what could possibly be wrong with me. It wasn't until about three or four years ago that I ever heard of Asperger's. I was talking to someone and just out of nowhere they asked if I had it. I did a base amount of research and wrote it off, but since then it's come up several more times. Just recently I decided to do more extensive research and with every passing day I feel more and more strongly that I DO have it. Which would answer a lot of questions I've always had about myself.
Namely: "Why am I so different?"

Preschool age. Around age 4.

Ditto, but 14 for me.

I knew something was wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Went to the doc and got a SA diagnosis (she spent 15 minutes diagnosing me). I went through therapy and was medicated, but other than my anxiety, my symptoms persisted. After being roughed up socially at college, it finally clicked something else was wrong.

Aged around 5. Difficult to express how. It was more a case of somehow not fitting in or being rejected by other kids and teachers alike. I was often punished by teachers for behaviour that I didn't understand was somehow wrong. More often than not I couldn't comprehend what I was being punished for.

Three or four years old. I just knew somehow despite that I had all working body parts and looked like everyone else. But I never put much thought into it then so I didn't really care. I saw myself as different and normal. Then at age ten I really knew because it's when I started to care.

I think I have always felt different and have always been independent.

In retrospect, I knew I didn't belong with those around me (outside of my family) as soon as I had to interact with them, which was around when I was 4 years old. And I think even at that age I instinctively knew I would never be one of them. I always felt I was pretty much surrounded by predators. As I grew older it got further and further confirmed and took more concrete shape. Even now nothing has really changed. Only recently I found out why.