Hello from Portugal, diagnosed around 43/44 :P

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Hi all, I'm 44 now (few weeks ago), and found only 10 months ago I was autistic.

I'm a self-taught polymath with savant traits in some areas, and as I adapted very well to Society, everybody always taught (even me) that I was a typical neuro-typical guy, although people always saw me as eccentric, as I was caught several times alone writing stuff on an imaginary board with my hands on the air like Howard Hughes in the movie "The Aviator", as it seems I'm a visuospatial thinker, like many of you probably, but although I was considered somehow an eccentric guy (even more for having to use sunglasses inside rooms with bright lights), I was always seen as a neuro-typical guy.

But on December 2018 I found some reports saying I was a somehow severe autistic child, not wanting to talk to anyone, see anyone, rejecting eating, etc, on the kindergarten (at home I was a little bit more typical), and that I was autistic, having pendular motions, etc.

I couldn't believe it, then my mother confirmed. At the time in my country (I was born in 1975), there was only the being autistic (currently level 3) or neuro-typical, nobody thought about it as a spectrum here, so my doctor told my mother to try to put me in regular school to see how I would develop.

After 2 years, seems I adapted and was acting more like a neuro-typical child.

And I don't remember much about being "autistic" back then as my world was pretty normal for me (specially because I was very introvert I wasn't seeing what others thought about me, for me everything was normal haha). So, I never imagined I was autistic as my life seemed typical.

Then one friend who is a shrink confirmed me I was autistic and said "I told you so" (like 10 years ago), but I never studied autism so I was confused because I still had the wrong idea that autistic people were only the current "level 3 autistics", but then I did the tests, and etc, and after all I'm autistic, and everything made sense in my life.

Found a cool friend from Sweden, won't tell her name without her permission here, that explained some cool stuff about autistic persons, it made me learn more things about me.

My ability to learn things very quickly, specialize in lots of areas, learning well alone, enjoying being alone, my visuospatial thinking habits that made people think I'm eccentric, using sunglasses everywhere, etc, and other stuff, all made sense.

And I thought: "well, so this is what gave me my gifts: Autism". So I consider Autism, my best friend in life, as it only provided me advantages (I think), and some you may think I have like having to use sunglasses, for me are advantages as I see well at night, etc. So I love everything about what I have.

And as I found this board several times, I decided to answer a question about polymaths on another thread (thread 4271, post 8361467, about polymaths, as I can't share links here), I decided to present myself here also.

I'm not much active on boards or chats, but as I've answered one thread, better present myself here also.

So, hello all, and cya some day, I don't use to participate on boards, but I may participate on other threads one day if I find them again on Google searches.

Welcome to WP!

Welcome

Welcome to Wrong Planet.

Thanks!

A very warm welcome, Goncalo ! Hope you enjoy it here. It's so good to read that you have such a positive experience of life and acceptance of yourself ... that would be infectious for those around you. I've known a few savants, and all are such lovely people, incredibly talented, in spite of their challenges.