Just found out… at 69

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Hi. I’m 69 years old, and just discovered I’m on the spectrum. At least, I think so. I was talking with an autistic person last night, and mentioned I’ve been curious about myself. They gave me a link to the Embrace Autism site. I took four of the tests, and they all indicated autism, or some form of neurodivergence. So here I am, looking to learn more. I posted about it on facebook, and my ex-wife sent me a message saying she and the kids have been pretty sure about this for years. Are we always the last to know, lol?

Colleen

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome to WP! I hope you feel like it is the right place for you.

I would've denied being Autistic until circumstances encouraged me to read about it...when I was 64. Before my 65th birthday I had read up about Autism, concluded I probably was Autistic, and gotten a formal diagnosis which said I was Autistic. Sigh. I was nervous about telling my family...but should not've been...they accepted it immediately.

Welcome!

It wasn't very recently that I concluded that I'm intersex and that is factor in why I socialize much more easily as the female gender.
Not many guys have an hourglass figure with a 23 inch waist. My walking, talking, and mannerisms are spot on for passing as female. I now wear form fitting XS women's clothes as it isn't hard to find brands that fit perfectly without alteration.

But sizing can be hard. I've bought some size 0 clothes that were too big. And they didn't sell anything smaller.

Thanks for the welcome. I do think this is where I should be. Maybe I’ll learn some things. I do know that it’s always good to be with folks who have something in common. Looking forward to getting to know the place.

Colleen

Welcome To Wrong Planet Colleen . yes as odd as it seems . Alot of us do not realize until, much experience in the world ,I feel,. but had lots of pointers ,I overlooked . As much as possible .

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome Maestra Colleen,

Have an amazing further discovery of your self and the extremely deep varied topic of knowing ourselves and the world around us. I think for many of us the 2 distinct categories we all see are the: "we've always thought so" and the "oh my god, that's impossible" there seems to be less of a gray zone for ASD, probably linked to our masking adaptations we had to internalize to 'survive'

keep exploring,
Kada

Howdy Howdy Howdy

Welcome to Wrong Planet.

It's never too late. Welcome aboard.

welcome, diagnosed 5 years ago at the age of 68, you are not alone. Diagnosis can be life changing. Today my life is the best it has ever been.

Hello and welcome to wp and thank you for joining

Yes, having additional "interesting features" (e.g. homosexuality, gender dysphoria, or even HIP) on top of AS provides you a so much plausible explanation to understand and justify to yourself why you feel so different, sometimes to the point of feeling a complete alien, that you may spend your life with not realizing that autism is part of you. More obvious things are shadowing the more subtle AS reality in the construction of your self-story. And yes, after some random event, you realize in your 60s or 70s that you crashed in the spectrum.

I would say being gay and/or trans will not make you feel an alien child since you just participate in a different manner to the everlasting-social-dance, but having HIP and AS yes, makes you feel alien, since not interested in anything the same as other kids. This would be an interesting avenue to investigate though. Simply-gay children (not AS nor HIP) would qualify themselves "different" but not "alien", I think. They fully identify to mankind, whereas we did not. At all.

(I qualified myself "alien" as soon as I knew the word , extra-terrestre in french )

Better late than never!! lol Welcome to WP!!