How old were you when you realised you were neurodiverse?

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.

Like most on here, I knew (and others wouldn’t let me forget as a kid) that I was different and didn’t understand most other people since the start. I didn’t realize it was autism (or even what that meant in internal experience) until I was in my mid-40s.

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 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.

My 50s. It explains way too much.

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.

Realized? Very young. Had the language to articulate my experience? Still working on it. From the outside looking in a lot of this must seem like an intentional choice to differ. It’s how my mom approached it, like I was just intentionally being difficult. It’s how people around me approached it, like I was just intentionally refusing to fit in. My only exposure to autism was in the form of a middle school classmate, and we were not similar, so I never expected that my condition was closer to his than to the allistic folks around me. Some weeks ago I filled out a questionnaire, the RAADS-R. Got a score above the autistic threshold, and things sort of just…became apparent. After ten minutes of reading about the actual autistic experience I was relieved and heartbroken to discover that what I was living through all along really did have a name, and was not in fact just me choosing to intentionally lead a more difficult life. So I was 33 when I learned that I am autistic.

50ish

My first memories are of being misunderstood and being bullied, even by my parents. I knew I was different from my first formed memory.

32ish when people around me started getting diagnoses and I began looking into it. Got diagnosed at 34 with ADHD. I identify strongly with autistic experience as well. The doctor who did the initial evaluation agreed there probably are autistic traits there too and it might be worth looking into, but they couldn’t help with it in that clinic. It’s really difficult to get evaluated in a public clinic so I’ve decided to let it be for now.

As fun or sad the next may sound, I am currently - and very covertdly - being acessed for neurodivergency because I walked into a psychologist office saying I feel tired and can not relate with my coworkers.

So… That is 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).

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

[the term should be “neurodivergent” - neurodiverse is everyone as far as I know]

I knew I was different™ since being 10 years old. Invited the whole class to my birthday and it was a fucking no show. No one person!

Had issues to get the social behavior performances before but that’s when I realized.

But the term “neurodivergence” didn’t cross me ‘til Covid hitted. In my family only my brother got an ASD diagnostic since back then it’s been only diagnosed for “boys with hyperfixations”. My sister got hers last year being close to 40 y.o. Same for me.

But I’ve known forever. It’s just relieving now to know “it’s just me processing life different” as a neurodivergent person instead of me being weird or akward or not fit for life

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

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

12, but I didn’t pin down what I specifically have until I was 17. Today, you’re looking at autism (awaiting formal diagnosis; possibly AuDD), but I’m quite sure there is more that I haven’t yet identified.

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.

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.

Ill tell you if I ever get diagnosed.

25-26. I’m not joking; several ppl I follow on Mastodon are openly Autistic, which is when I started suspecting… I would have been diagnosed much, much earlier had my home country have a better psych support system though

over 30

60

Early 40’ies. I’m mid 50’ies now, and still not formally diagnosed, and I don’t particularly care either.

Young enough that I was tested and told. But I was diagnosed with ADHD first and autism as an adult. I didn’t realize I was also autistic until my 30’s. Both ADHD and Autism run in my family.

47 when I met a woman with autism, then researched the shit out of it (naturally) got tested, and Behold! Autism

I think I also have ADHD mixed in with it too

It explains a lot!

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.

40s but I’m honestly not sure if it’s just in my head.

Around 16 with autism and around 24 with ADHD. I got a headstart on other people, though it still is daily work to figure out what that means and slowly get better at humaning.

30

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

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.

22 when I realised I had adhd

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.

1. i kind of always knew but couldn’t do anything to help myself or find a better situation to be in.

I was like a toddler when a doctor first tried to prescribe medicine for my ADHD. Not sure when I was first aware of that though.

I got diagnosed with adhd in 2009, and tried meds for a while (vyvanse ftl), but I couldn’t sleep, so I stopped. Then I got distracted and forgot I had it. Got re-diagnosed, along with autism, in like 2022 or something. I’m on adderall now and it’s fine I guess.

I was 40 years old when the puzzle pieces of my life finally started to come together.

(I know a lot of autistic people don’t love the old puzzle piece logo, but for me, it’s the most apt metaphor I’ve ever seen.)

Thirty when my youngest son was diagnosed at age 5. Was reading about inattentive ADHD and it was a eureka moment.

Early 20s I think. I confided in my mom about it. She laughed derisively at me.

I was officially diagnosed just a few years after that.

Diagnosis at 40.

I always know I was not fitting in, but didn’t really grasp why until late 30s. Lack of understanding what autism is kept me looking elsewhere for answers.