Coming Out

Post Reply New Topic

Hi Everybody,

Thank you for creating such an amazing space like this. I just heard about WP listening to “Unmasking Autism” today on a walk and I’m blown away by the incredible people and resources here.

My son was diagnosed 3 years ago, which led us to realize that several people on both sides of the family are/were autistic, and after much research and self-reflection, I am ready to name it and claim it myself today, too.

The irony? I am a therapist who’s been working with the autistic community on and off since 1985. How did I ever miss what was right in front of me?! I believe the universe smacked me upside the head recently and is pointing me in the direction of trying to teach the rest of the world how to recognize it, too, now that I know how it can fly under the radar and be so obvious.

Cheers!

Welcome to Wrong Planet!
I've heard of a number of people who were therapists and worked with autistic people for years before realizing they were autistic as well. It is a bit odd. I suppose thinking about other people is very different from thinking about yourself.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it here!

Welcome to Wrong Planet! I've only been diagnosed this year and I knew very little about autism before that so, very steep learning curve! All the best!

Welcome to WP and welcome to the Spectrum!

You wrote, "The irony? I am a therapist who’s been working with the autistic community on and off since 1985. How did I ever miss what was right in front of me?! I believe the universe smacked me upside the head recently and is pointing me in the direction of trying to teach the rest of the world how to recognize it, too, now that I know how it can fly under the radar and be so obvious."

Autism affects males and females very differently. In my humble opinion, females generally develop better social skills very early in life whereas males do not.

If you ever watched the 2016 movie called "The Accountant" from beginning to the very, very end, you will see two different people with autism. One is male and one female. It is a very interesting movie.

Ahoy-hoy.

^The Accountant is a movie I like very much. I think the way autism manifests in the main character and how he deals with (apart from his "music sessions" at home) it is very relateable even if he's more of an action hero and better at math than me. I am looking forward to the follow up movie.

I'm no therapist but worked with autistic people for 12 years without thinking that I might be autistic. The reason for this was how autism was described in the diagnosis critera and how the reasons for autistic behaviour was explained - how they said autistic people were thinking. To me it seems like at that point nobody had actually asked autistic people about their experience of being autistic, or "why are you doing these things?" but instead had tried to interpret and guess the cause of the symtoms from an outside perspective.
Oh, and welcome to the wrong planet!

Hello and welcome to Wrong Planet!
It is pretty interesting how we as humans totally overlook things in ourselves, things that we notice in others

Isn't it amazing how we don't see it even when we live it every day? What a relief to find the answer to so many painful "whys" of the past. Diagnosed at age 68 and things have got continually better from there. Glad you found us!

Welcome to Wrong Planet!