This is the 4th part in an ongoing series about being diagnosed as autistic at the age of 42.

Mourning the Loss

Eventually reality set in. I’m autistic.
Not the happy “Yay! I’m different! I’m unique! I’m special!” autistic.
More like “Holy crap . . . I’m defective . . disabled . . . challenged . . . never going to get any better” autistic.
This was when the mourning began. Once the bright shiny new this-explains-everything stage wore off, I started thinking about the other side of being autistic. I wasn’t going to “outgrow” my social awkwardness. I wasn’t going to wake up one day and suddenly have a balanced emotional life. The challenges I faced weren’t imagined and they weren’t going to magically disappear. They were with me for life.
This is me. This is always going to be me. Forever.
Talk about hard realizations.

February 2, 2013

I Think I Might Be Autistic (Part 4)

I Think I Might Be Autistic (Part 4) « Musings of an Aspie


Here's an excerpt from Part 2

Paths to Realization
As an adult, there are a few common ways that you might realize you're on the spectrum:
your child is diagnosed with ASD and in the process of learning more about autism, you recognize autistic traits in yourself
someone in your life reads or hears about Asperger's or autism and tells you that they see a lot of ASD traits in...


"Life on the Autism Spectrum can be ENJOYable."