How old were you when you learned?

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When 14 I entertained the possibility, not quite sure what prompted this, but took some online tests and came out positive, but pushed that aside.

When 22 was formally diagnosed.

How people can get diagnosed when over 30 is baffling. It would make sense if they were doctor-phobic or living in a third world country but they're not.

It's not that difficult to understand if you're first of all dxed with severe mental illness, and the Asperger's dx only came about in 1992/1994(when I was 35/37). There's a tendency for a lot of mental health professionals to see everything through a "Everything must be related to his/her mental illness" lens , and not take the possibility of you being on the spectrum seriously .

It took me moving to a new area and seeing a more competent , intelligent and less myopic pdoc to get the possibility I might be on the autism spectrum taken seriously.

Well. I didn't know I had traits. I have been an expert at masking though.
I can't say for sure if I am on the spectrum or not.

Years and years of partial shutdowns... Previous doctors explained away by saying they weew somw sort of allergic reaction, and the nhs never seemed to have the budget to send me for allergy tests. I asked for over 20 years. early this year was the first time (Which took a change of drs surgeries) for me to finally get a basic 6 point allergy test ad it all came up clear. It was only really just before I joined this site that I asked for an assessment and it was about two or three years before where I was dating a lovely lady who had asperges syndrome... I was asking her what it is. Er descriptions of symptoms.... Apart from two things, all the rest were normal. I said "Everyone gets that". Little did I realize I shared the same traits.

Am I on the spectrum though? I just don't know. I feel far closer to being on the spectrum then feeling I am an NT, as being an NT does not exactly explain me that well. So I will be really puzzled if I am an NT. But who knows! Haha.

I was 64 when the penny dropped. It brought wonderful clarity to the challenges I'd faced in life, but I love who I am and wouldn't have it any differently, with the possible exception of an improvement in executive function.

I think I would have been seriously crippled by the interventions being given to autistic children these days.

Something I must mention. If I was a child now I would be in absolute torture, as the schools here are now surrounded by high fences like prisons. That would freak me out so much I would be the one truenting. I never truented from school. But I would panic if I knew I was closed in like that.
Any child today who has whatever I have I feel sooo soo sorry for.

It was in my mid twenties when i first learn about the aspergers condition and while i didnt seek diagnosis until a decade later i loosely subscribed to that category in the intervening years.

48, and never really seriously considered it before that.

31.

Early to mid-thirties I had received a formal diagnosis - just as awareness of the Autism Spectrum was finally growing.

In my early teen-years, a more or less informal diagnosis of 'Autism like' was noted - yet, very little awareness at the time of anything beyond classic Autism.

Even earlier than that, the most common thing noted was the characteristic of being a 'slower learner' - anything beyond classic Autism was not understood at the time.

It was either 12 or 13. I think very late 12.

Last year at 38 for me. I suspected it for years prior though.

I self-diagnosed late 40s when I was looking into the topic for my daughter (she is stereotypical inexpressive and hand flapping). I took the AQ test for kicks and was borderline. I didn't realize that expressive folks like me could be on the Spectrum. I started to consider the questions more carefully, peeling back my self-perception (e.g. I go places all the time) with reality (e.g. I go to the same two places -work and library- when scheduled). Now my score is consistently higher. DX is typically late, if at all, for women born before 1990. In my youth I was simply known as overly sensitive, overly dramatic, wicked smart, lazy and my mom yelled at me frequently "why don't you have friends?". As a young adult I was DX'd "mild mood disorder". As an adult I am facing difficulties with the recent change in workplace culture, which is aggravating my "symptoms".

My daughter will likely be DX'd at age 8. It appears my husband and son (age 5) are NT, although have traits (husband inexpressive, son hypersensitive).

I'm in Colorado also.

I was diagnosed at the age of 5 and a half. I learned that I'm autistic at the age of 15.

I was referred by a psychologist who was treating me for depression to a psychologist who specialised in autism. I didn't know what autism was. After that psychologist diagnosed me with HFA, I was sent to a psychiatrist to have it confirmed. I was 27.

Is interesting. Depression. What does one call the difference between natural depression and depression?
I mean... Everyone gets depressed sometimes.

I was always taught never to mention things like depression to doctors. Here years ago it would be padded cell treatment... So no one mentions depression! But I can go from happiness to depression in a few minutes. I can also go through weeks or even months of depression, but then I can go for a long time without it and be joyful. Such is life.
When I am "Fragile" so I am vunerable to many partial shutdowns in a day, I find making decisions really difficult, and I find I can then hit depression in minutes when I put off making decisions... Which can cloud the whole day. But I do try to find ways to lift myself out of it... Sometimes I can't if I see nothing to hope for. Is why on this site I have found it so valueable just to talk. I say many, many words and keep typing and typing so I can divert my mind from being depressed...Though I usually get anxiety first before depression hits. I find depression hits fast when I'm fragile. Is not gradual. It comes down like someone throwing a blanket over me. I feel like I want to get out! I think when I get this deeply it can lead to a claustrophobic like situation that brings out a panic (I know this is conflicting but I can get this total mix of emotions.. Though it is rare) which can bring on what I can only describe as a rush of anger which is a likely to be a type of meltdown? Not often this happens so is rare, but is a panic rizing due to knowing one is depressed which sets my mind into loads and loads of thoughts and terminates in a sort of mild meltdown (?) and then I get release from it and I am at peace lifted from all the previous feelings of depression, and anxiety before that... It is like lying in a small rowing boat on a dead calm sea or lake... Such peace...

But it is rare to have this when depressed, but it has happened and ended depression entirely... I only mention this as it is strange.