This community is for people who have a special neuronal configuration and I’d like to hear how you discovered it. Were you told? By who? How did you take it? How is life today?

Here’s my story:

I was only told by my mother that I’m smart but never anything else. She took me to a school psychologist for evaluation to decide what school form I should go to after elementary.

My teachers in elementary school thought I should go to a more basic school form but my mom was convinced I was too smart for that. So I went to sort of an advanced school. It was no problem intellectually but I became an outcast pretty much immediately. Had to switch schools later because of my social difficulties.

It took another 20 years for me to go out on my own and search for the reason why stuff wasnt working. Neither normal “desk” work nor “supervisor” positions worked really. When I went self employed, I found a spot for the first time.

When covid hit and I had to give up my company, I went digging for answers. “Gifted” was the first thing, but it wasnt the whole picture. When “Autistic” was added it all started making sense. Too much going on in the head to “be normal” but no social talent to actually make something out of myself in the corporate world.

Its an ongoing process of resolving trauma as much as possible and learning to live with what isnt resolvable. Explaining the process and situation to people, sometimes against opposition is not easy but all in all my life has become a lot healthier.

Thanks for reading. Have a good one!

  • WalrusDragonOnABike [they/them]@reddthat.com
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    8 months ago

    I was a toddler when a doctor first try to get me on ADHD meds. Never officially been diagnosed with autism, but realized I might be on the spectrum in high school. I’ve known I’m a bit weird since I was a child to some extent, but generally didn’t have labels to put on it and didn’t care much.

    Might also be a bit dyslexic or some similar issue? Had a school counselor ask me about that after I managed to mess up my test ID number in multiple different ways one year (but thankfully, she caught before sending the tests out somehow). And I did have relative difficulty with reading and spelling. I still regularly write letters in words out of order, but I just adjust by putting them between the letters I already wrote.