If you've read my first post, this title shouldn't surprise you. If you're a person who was clinically diagnosed or self diagnosed late in life, past childhood, this title shouldn't surprise you. For everyone else, here's why:
I reached middle age before I found out that I might be autistic. Decades of my life passed, with me having no idea. And I am not alone.
You could be autistic too.
There are tons of people with late diagnosis of autism. Typically autism has been seen as occurring specifically in the male population. So females have been passing under the radar for quite some time. The thought is that we are better at masking, at mimicking, at blending in to society, so we go unnoticed in our autism.
But, and this is my own speculation, I don't think that females are the only ones good at masking. I believe there are males that have gone undiagnosed because they also have skill in masking. It's also possible there are males who grew up in families that simply saw them as difficult children and disciplined or ignored the behaviors. Many autistic people display a combination and severity level of traits that is not quite as disruptive to everyday life, to education, and can even provide advantages in those areas. You see, autism isn't screened in everyone. It's only diagnosed when a child's behavior causes enough disturbance that they are brought to someone who will diagnose them. In many cases, they can even be misdiagnosed as something else, like ODD or ADHD when it is actually, or also, autism. So many kids, especially those from poor or abusive homes, will never be diagnosed. If they're lucky, they'll figure it out as adults but there are large barriers to adult clinical diagnosis as well. Psychiatrists may not be as well versed in diagnosing autism in anyone other than a male child who doesn't mask. Everyone else can just wonder what's wrong with them all their lives until they figure it out or.... don't.
So yeah, you might be autistic. If you've always felt different, have sensory sensitivities, have discomfort or difficulty in social situations especially eye contact and small talk, or you find yourself unable to keep still, frequently doing some sort of repetitive motion, it's worth looking further into it for yourself.
Here are links to some quizzes that can start to shed some light on the question.
This first one gives you a graph! (Which I am clearly excited about)
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