Female newly diagnosed at 45

Post Reply New Topic

Welcome to Wrong Planet! This is where you'll find people who care and understand you .

Thanks Carl means a lot

Thank you everyone for your kind words I feel much less anxious about being here now. If anybody could help me with tips on how to understand this site and what to do I would be grateful I find it very confusing to navigate

Thanks

Just be brave and try things.

Can reccomend that " veiw posts since last visit" will give most current communications and topics to visit . Then play with links around the top of the page . Read the rules in the forums section which will give you alot of places ( forums) to visit here . Feel free to make posting within reason . As response to the titles in the various forums and links . Have fun or be as factual as you care to in responses.
By observing interactions in responses to postings ., you might get a feel for the way people here interact ,

Don't worry. Just type away. If you do something wrong someone will soon say so don't worry.

(1) Read and follow the rules.

(2) Remember that Autism is a Spectrum disorder...even on WP. Some folk are very mildly affected and consider it to be a "difference", others are severely affected and consider it to be a "disability". (And they might all be right! Autism's causes are not yet well-understood and it might well be a spectrum containing a multitude of biologically different disorders!)

(3) Remember that WP is international! Other people here may have very different backgrounds than you do, live in a different culture, and might phrase things differently than you do.

(4) Remember that folk on WP are also on a spectrum of ages. Some are children; some were senior citizens before those children were born.

(5) And if you find something (or someone) on WP is making you unhappy just move to a different thread...you don't have to leave WP in a huff.

I just wanted to reach out and say hi and welcome! I am newly diagnosed at 37. Been a puddle of tears since, more from relief than anything. It is a freeing feeling, but scary too.
I hope to find more people like me too, so very nice to meet you.
You're brave to reach out and post despite your fears. Keep typing and posting away.

Welcome to you, also!

Glad you are here too, shellebelle. Welcome.

Thank you both for the welcome!

Welcome, new members!

I have just been diagnosed, I am 63 and have always felt different to other people and saw that as a fault on my part - why couldn't I be the same as everyone else. So I am relieved to find out that I have something recognised, with a name, but at the same time I am anxious. At this late stage do I tell my family and friends or should I just be happy that I know what it is? Will people view me differently with this label?

I have been unable to form relationships, it is difficult enough having friendships, should I just give up? Should I be happy being by myself and try and make something for myself?

the world around you may not change with your diagnosis , but understanding of your world could change quite abit . Found it very validating of my experiences in life. . Now at a greater age of understanding myself . It has taken a burden off of my mind .
And in time helped me to understand that being by yourself is not always a bad thing ...!
Just been taking things as they come , trying to be care to filter my experiences
Sometimes. With a eye towards possible autism tendencies .

Welcome to WP! And congratulations on the diagnosis! (That sort of tells you my feelings on my diagnosis...which was at age 64.)

Regarding telling folk that already know you...they probably already think you are kind of odd. At least, my family did.

Regarding relationships...I think that definitely you should be happy being yourself...with or without a relationship. And, beyond that, I am not qualified to offer much useful information. I gave up on ever getting married when I hit about age 40. Somehow, inexplicably, a nice gal I met when I was 42 and whom I thought I would never, ever see again ended up marrying me when I was 45. And even though I saw it happen I cannot explain it and cannot understand it. (She was disappointed I did not ask for her phone number ^{I'm such an Aspie it would not occur to me to ask a stranger for that!}. Four months later she just contacted me to ask me to do her a minor favor, and that is when things started getting interesting.)

I think it is a personal choice to tell friends and family. I told two of my closest friends and it has been a little bumpy, but I hope eventually it brings us closer. Do what feels good to you for sure.

And yes, I think people do get viewed differently with a label. Humans don't seem to be able to help making categories and good/bad labels for everything. Personally, I think autism is fabulous in many ways, and we are truly a special and wonderful group, but I have met few others who share that belief- but that could be my bubble and world and not represent the truth either.

Hmmm, well, maybe by understanding yourself more deeply as you explore this new side of yourself, you might connect with others in a different way. That might bring relationships of all kinds into your life. Who knows?!