What age did you realize that you were "different"

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For adults like myself who grew up undiagnosed, at what age did you realize that you were "different" from the other kids? As a small child, when I was placed in emotionally disturbed classes in first grade, I didn't realize I was any different than the other kids. I just thought I was going to a special school where I got a lot more attention and did a lot of fun stuff. I also was oblivious to the other kids around me until about age 8 and had no idea others perceived me differently than I perceived myself until I was in my early teens.

Most NT kids start playing actively with other kids around 3ish and are aware of the difference between how they should behave with their peers on the school playground as opposed to when they are with just their parents at home by first or second grade.

I would say it really hit me that I was different around fourth grade when my parents tried to mainstream me after spending 2.5 years in special ed for emotionally disturbed kids. By that time, I WANTED to fit in with other girls my age but had no idea how and was constantly ridiculed both by classmates and teachers for stuff I was doing that I had no idea was wrong.

I would also say the realization came sudden like a "ton of bricks" rather than slowly over time.

What was your childhood experience in this area?

Allie Kat

http://www.myaspergerslifestory.com/

Hm. I guess 20, when someone (my close friend, my ONLY friend...) told me that I was different. Don't ask me how I made it that long. Guess I just never thought about it.

Hmm, probably age 6 maybe? I just looked at the other kids as being "as they should be" and "normal" and I knew I wasn't like that. Thought of myself as "weird" from this age on. People affectionately called me weird too, this reinforced it.

I didn't really have an age of when I thought I was differant, but I thought other people were so differant that they didn't even feel the same emotions that I did. I only began to get an idea that other people had the same feelings at about 12.

I was self-aware pretty early on, but I realized I was different different probably at the start of middle school. Social stuff started spiraling out of control after that. I went from having a few friends to none at all.

I began to notice around 7th or 8th grade, when I was around 12. Every morning before the school would let the students in all the kids would gather in groups and talk and what not. I was always standing around on my own. At that time there weren't very many students in my school so I just figured things would be different in high school, where there would be many many more students. When I got to high school and it wasn't any different, it hit me. So I guess by the time I was about 15 was when I really noticed.

Would've sort of realized when I was 5, but the deep realization didn't really happen until I was actually diagnosed at 14 years of age.

I had various realizations of difference over the years, but I guess primarily three years ago and then again last May-June.

It's hard to say. As a child I liked playing with boys better than with girls, and I think I felt that I was different from the other girls, but I didn't necessarily see it as "I'm different from everyone else"; I think I may have seen it more in gender terms than "there's something weird about me."

In my teens I was definitely aware of being different, but I think I thought it was more about my unusual upbringing and my interests than about anything that could actually be different about my brain. Though, I remember reading through a book my parents had which discussed child development and some mental differences that could happen in child development, and trying to see if I fit one, and almost wanting to have one of them fit me - it didn't even matter if it was a "good" one like gifted or a "bad" one like learning disabled. I'm not sure how much of that was that I sensed that I was different and wanted to find a name for it, and how much it was that I wanted to be different/special. I never did decide that any of them actually fit me.

When I was in my teens and felt that I was different, I knew that being different made things difficult sometimes - it was hard to find other people who were interested in the things I was interested in, and it was hard to find friends - but I didn't wish I were more normal; I just wished there more people around who were like me.

...I'm different?.....


Okay seriously: the kids pointed it out around age 8. I first started realizing it in my 20s. A year or two ago, maybe. Even when I discovered ASD, I did not know at the time that what I did was abnormal. I was just reading up on it, and thought, "hey, I do that! I do that...and that....and that...."

I remember this one moment when I was probably around 7 or 8, where I was playing alone in the school yard, wading in this gigantic puddle and watching the water, fascinated. A small group of girls approached me, assumed I was someone else, and called me by another name and asked what I was doing in there. When I looked up at them and they realized I wasn't who they thought I was, they backed away.

Looking back on that memory makes me remember feeling different, but I don't know if I actually felt different at that age, or am just remembering it that way.

I was four years old.

I was 4. I have this clear memory of being in my pre-school classroom sitting on the floor during story time and looking at all of the other kids paying total attention, and just feeling very different somehow.

I think I was about 5 in pre-kinder-garden. I probably wouldn't have realized it but other kids kept telling me that I was weird and picking on me. It really struck home when boys started chasing me home and one day they caught me outside of my house and broke my leg. I had the epiphany while standing there holding onto the monkey bars watching the other boys play 'guns' with my crutches that there was something very different about me. At the time I chose 'wrong' though. After that it really bothered me that no matter where we went the teasing/etc just started all over again. I get it now but I took it really hard back then.
I didn't find out about Aspergers until about 3 years ago and was officially diagnosed with Aspergers & ADHD last week (I'm almost 43). I'm ok with me now

My mom first told me she thought I was different when I was 6. When I was 8, it was extremely obvious to her, although I had no idea why or how I was different; all I knew was that it was a good thing. By the age of 10, I started to realize for myself that I had problems socially (yes, I was that oblivious). Up until age 13, I had still thought that I was mostly normal. Once I got into secondary school at age 13, my world was almost completely turned upside down. Since then, I really haven't fit in anywhere, and I've been well aware of that. Although I was always different, it took me 13 years to realize just how different I was.

I was 22. People were always dropping hints but I never realised it.
"You dress funny"
"You speak funny"
"You're weird"
"Why are you singing?

Okay...

I know I'm different now and I don't really mind.