late dx- would you have recognised it before earlier?

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HI... I wonder if this is true of any other people.

i was diagnosed with AS a few months ago, but doubt i would have recognised it in myself more than a few years ago, mainly due to AS itsself occluding my rationale SO much.

I score highly on the tests, so its not like im borderline and thinkIng myself into having aspergers or anything like that. and i don’t mean that the nature of my condition has worsened, or that ive developed it lately- just that I would’ve been unable to ‘see’ it in myself.

when I read of aspergers it chimed with my own comments; and if id not read those exact comments, or said those exact things of myself- then I wouldn’t have been diagnosed- aspie logic at its worst.
Stuff about ‘its like theyre speaking a different language’, and problems with eye contact.
Ive always had that, but only realised the eye contact thing a while ago, because I realised how much I TRY to make ‘normal’ eye contact, and the aspie comment I read about language was extra weird, because it was almost verbatim what id said.

I’ve become a little more openly aspie as ive grown older because ive stopped trying to fit and please people so much, so some of my weirder aspieness have come through, but was always there. Additionally all my 'weird' behaviour would just have been dismissed by me, and everyone else as ‘she’s a teenager’. most teens feel they dont fit in.

though I knew I had a lot of different but quite severe problems like bi polar depression ( which I now think is asperger's highs and regular depression), bulimia, OCD, sleep problems, hearing problems, dyslexia and so on it never occurred to me, or anyone I saw that they’d be linked by anything other than me having a ‘poor attitude’ .

i ask because of the issue of trying to tell other people you think may have it- if someone had told *me* before now, i dont think i would have seen it in myself.

I'm not sure. I had numerous hints over the years, although they made me defensive and I thought I had to hide these things so people wouldn't think I was on the spectrum, but I didn't think I was actually on the spectrum. Actual realization was a product of the weight of these hints and explicit writings by autistic people that I could compare myself to. More the latter than the former, however.

I am fairly sure that I would have never gotten the diagnosis as a child (if it had existed). I has more of a leader in elementary school, but I put myself in that position because I was not comfortable as part of a group... so I SEEMED fine.

By time I was an adult, I was depressed and suffering from panic attacks..... so, of course, that was the diagnosis I got.

Then about ten years later, I started seeing a therapist who mistook my enthusiasm over a special interest for hypomania.... so, of course, I got the bipolar II diagnosis.

Few years later I was having trouble with anxiety not being alble to focus and complete tasks... so I got an ADHD diagnosis....

So, eventually, I did my own research and I fit the Asperger's criteria completely... not just the minimum needed, but ALL of them.... I cried for three days... and oddly.... NO ONE wanted to give me THAT diagnosis.... maybe because it doesn't make money for drug companies?

But anyway, I argued long enough and hard enough.

I had people telling me I had ADHD so I figured I was learning disabled but in those special education classes they stuck me in I had no problems learning. When I thought of autism I thought of those kids you will see wearing those hockey helmets who would beat themselves when touched. I hated to be touched but I never hit myself so how could I be autistic?. It was not until I was laid off at age 40 that I watched a doctor's show because nothing else was on tv did I find out about what autism was really about and figured that might be what was wrong with me.

I had no clue until I saw a list of symptoms. Then I was like dang that's me all right. So if I saw the list earlier, I probably would have know earlier. I am kind of glad I wasn't diagnosed in my late teens or early 20s though. It would have been too easy to just give up. I think it is best to be diagnosed as a young child or over 30.