Do you forget you have autism?

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I would be particularly interested to hear from those diagnosed in mid life.

Many of my friends in the spectrum have spent most of their life over adapting to a condition they could never put a name to. As a result, they still find it difficult to fully integrate their diagnosis and often forget they have autism.

No, I never forget. My sensory issues are present all day every day, whether I'm alone or with others, so it isn't just about social interaction. Then of course there's my stimming, and my low nonverbal IQ.

Even when I didn't know the name for my autism, I was acutely aware of it. I felt like it was a nameless "thing" that followed me around. Sometimes it felt heavier or more pronounced than others, but I've never forgotten it exists.

I don't usually forget.
Although I was recently diagnosed, I came to recognise all the ways it was affecting me, so that now I'm automatically aware of them.
So in the past, if I was really sluggish in the morning after a night out with friends, I'd think to myself "why am I so sluggish today, what's wrong with me, am I getting sick?", nowadays the thinking goes "oh, I probably overdid the socialising yesterday, better take it easy and do something solitary today."
So having the diagnosis has made me very much aware of my autism on a daily basis, but is also helpful in understanding why I feel and act the way I do.

Nope....can't forget. I've "had it" for most of my 60-year life.

I've been autistic since toddlerhood.

Yes I do. I was in my 50s when I was diagnosed. If I'm lucky, that might turn out to be mid-life for me. I suppose it's having 50+ years of experience in blissful ignorance of autism that gave me mental habits that were hard to drop. My awareness of my autism these days is never very far away, but it isn't breathing down my neck all the time. When I dream, I'm rarely aware of autism at all.

Hi. I was diagnosed ASD in my late 40's and so spent most my life in a kind of survival mode. Since my diagnosis I've been able to understand myself better and spend less time in that mode, but when I get stressed I fall back into that mode and forget that I'm autistic. Not sure if that counts.

I can relate to everyone so far. My sensory issues and overwhelming bafflement at how to organise and prioritise my life has been with me from the day I was born. However, I had no reason to assume that this was not everyone's experience. That is until I was diagnosed. Then I saw things differently.

Living life in such blindness (ignorance) was painful. Yet in the same way real blind people over compensate and develop more refined senses, I too did. But seeing things anew post diagnosis did not automatically take away the overcompenstion. Conditioning cannot just magically disapate. This is why post diagnosis support is very useful for many diagnosed in later life. Many of us in the spectrum diagnosed later in life benefit enormously by reminding ourselves that we no longer need to swim against the tide. We forger to give ourselves a break. This is what I mean when I say that many of us forget we have autism.

Never forget it.

But for reasons not not not-related to autism or being autistic -- with issues or lacking issues with it.

More like I never forget that I'm not allistic at all.



Just the idea that I never forgot not being allistic let alone NT is more true, than not forgetting being autistic or have autism.

Probably because the former had always been the case before I even got diagnosed.

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I guess I forget pretty often but always remember I have it at some point of any given day. If I wasn't diagnosed there is a high likelihood I would be oblivious about having ASD but I would certainly know something wasn't right.

That makes perfect sense

I have not been assessed yet, so I am not 100% sure if I am or if I am not autistic, so from my perspective, I can't really answer the question as at the moment, I can't officially say I am autistic if I am, and likewize, I can't claim I am not autistic either! I am sort of in the middle of the two until I am assessed I guess?

I was diagnosed over a year ago, and yeah, in the moments of “why am I acting this why? I am weak, I am stupid, I should be doing better.”

It’s an answer to those questions, but it doesn’t stop me from trying to accomplish my goals. I just need some adjustments.

I am just me so if I am autistic, I am still me, and if I am not autistic, I am me anyway, so in this regards I am me.

So lets say I am on the spectrum. I can't not be me. Regardless of anything else, I still do things the way I do them because that is how I do things...

It's very hard to forget that I'm on the spectrum. I have my mind in London half of the time because that's where I want to travel to. I'm the happiest when I'm creating and working on my hobbies, that I get absorbed into and my apartment gets messy from time to time as a result. The Kinks is the only rock n roll band that I really listen to. I branch into songs by other bands, but I always go back to that Special K. I've also been enthralled by the 60s since I was 14.