I was 37 when I was diagnosed as autistic after self identifying the previous year. I also suspect I am ADHD as well but I’ve never sought a professional diagnosis for it. I always felt different, like an alien observing another culture even as a little kid. All my closest friends growing up were either autistic or ADHD.

I think I was 40 when it finally clicked, so two years ago? Maybe a year or two earlier. I was diagnosed with ADHD years before it clicked in my head what it entailed.

42. I also had emotionally immature parents. Repairing that damage takes half a lifetime.

ADHD was first diagnosed when i was around 8, pretty quickly as well based on old records. Mostly because it was rather stereotypical representation of it at that time. But it was completely ignored by my mother at the time as it can’t be and the therapist is wrong. So nothing came from it.

I was rediagnosed around 28-29 and ASD added in as well, due to ADHD symptoms becoming less noticable or better managed/masked and ASD symptoms becoming more obvious.

I really didn’t consider myself that out of place, from my perspective everyone else were the odd ones.

I was about 41 or 42. I always knew I was different and weird but no one ever said hey it might be this or that. No, just got he’s a weird guy most of my life. Realized it after reading through an autism forum.

50ish

I was 45 when I realized that the way my mind works differently than most people I know is not just me being a hard person to be around, it is a function of the wiring in my brain.

I was always a super high performer in school so a lot of adults just put up with the many many signs that something was different.

When I was young doctors didn’t really diagnose adhd or autism, forget that lovely blend of AuDHD that seems to be my personal flavour. And now that I am older my family doctor says ridiculous shit like ‘Adults don’t get adhd or autism so you are fine.’

I’ve started using coping mechanisms from meeting other AuDHD folks and they are helping to a very small extent. I hope to continue learning about the ways people deal with their own wiring without access to meds.

Third grade when my parents told me I was diagnosed with autism in preschool.

60 when I was diagnosed with ASD. It explained so much!

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know. I was diagnosed in preschool, I have almost no memories from before that point.

I think I was 22 when a therapist suggested it, I looked into it, and before long I was quite certain he was right. Really was a game-changer to finally know why most people and I couldn’t relate well to one another and gave me a starting to point to work on that.

Mid 30s, I was diagnosed with ADHD. Later realised I’ve probably also got some autistic traits too (all discovered after both kids were diagnosed with ADHD and autism).

I realized during my teenager years when everyone around me started drifting apart, they no longer found me interesting as an entertainment monkey. I got a diagnosis once I started struggling keeping jobs and wasn’t successful in college. It really makes me sad how normies talk about family who struggle with employment. Like I somehow chose this nightmare.

Around 38ish? I never realized that there was something to explain why I am the way I am, I just internalized everything. But after my son was diagnosed with ADHD, I looked more into it and felt like in the matrix where Neo gets wooshed into the white room.

I’ve worked out I’m dyslexic twenty five years ago or so. Sadly too late for school.

the rest, I was in my 40s, working in mental health and realising why I’d been drawn to this work and supposing ND people