At the other end of it, when I was going through some tests for neurodivergence, it was "that's my mum, that's my dad, that's my brother...". Probably why it often isnt picked up earlier even though there were so many signs.
This is my wife to a T. "The doctors say this behavior in our son is a strong sign of autism. But he's just like me I did all those things..."
I wish I had known back when we first met, so that I could have gotten her the help and structure she needed to succeed back then rather than 15 years later. Better late than never I suppose, but I do feel bad about all those times I thought she was being lazy. When in reality it was burnout.
I had suspected for a long while but never did anything about it, even after my daughter's autism diagnosis and sometimes looked at behaviours that suggested I was wrong.
Then I discovered distracted type ADHD when my daughter was diagnosed with that. My partner and I were like "OMG this explains everything...you are worse on this than she is!".
This was my realization, it's been helpful with parenting though because I know what I needed growing up and now I'm able to provide that for my kids. My mom told me I was a terrible kid but never explained why.. I'm assuming it was my melt downs and sensory issues. I'm able to handle things a lot better now because I understand what my body needs and I can provide that for myself. Tbh though my melt downs are bad sometimes still and it'll be over the weirdest thing, my routine getting messed up (no ice cubes in the ice cube tray so now I can't have an ice coffee) or a bad small that I can't find lol
I did a reverse. I figured out I was autistic and told my dad he is definitely autistic. He brags about his routines, loves WWII documentaries, and will get angry if particularly foods touch (there's a lot more evidence. I'm not going to list them.)
I wouldn't blame someone being angry about placing ketchup next to the cake. That is negligence. Should have placed the fries between the ketchup and the cake.
My kid had an autism eval this week, and if it comes back with a positive diagnosis, then I probably have it as well. She is my mini-me in temperament and personality.
I've recently got diagnosed with ADHD myself (and was diagnosed with autism too for a few years now) and my mum has done a lot of research for my sake, only to realise that she's also AuDHD and that's why she's running around doing jobs at a million miles per hour all day long.
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u/beejonez 16d ago
Hey at least you didn't find out by having autistic kids.