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impostor syndrome due to extremely low support needs

lui

New Member
(apologizing from start for the bible following)
as it was clearly stated on the title, ive been feeling a lot of impostor syndrome due to my asperger’s diagnosis recently, and thats largely because of 3 reasons: 1. despite the fact i NEVER, EVER mask, i function pretty well on society and i havent been considerably rejected and 2. i dont have memory of, any sings really before i was eight years old and 3. most of my autistic traits could be just my personality, so let me elaborate:

i am very low masking. i cant relate to what many autistics say about masking, specially when talking about their experiences doing so since children and how they’re constantly aware of themselves. i was hardly aware of myself when i was a kid and i mean it. i dont have like a very solid sense of who i was before my late childhood, aside from random memories, and this is worse cause the way i remember myself differs significantly from the way others do: for example, according to my mother, i was a very sociable child when young and i talked with a lot of people, to me, i only hung out with 5 people or my neighbours, i was only close to one and the rest of the time i spent it daydreaming. i didnt got the good old classic feeling that socializing was like to go through a wall but constantly clashing into it until i was 8…but that was when i had just moved to a new city and i really struggled to adapt (like some inside out type ****), and then when i returned to class after the pandemic at 11, so whatever issue i might’ve had could be because of that. bit of a gray area on that cause ive met people who were on similar situations at they did manage to adapt and from what ik they’re neurotypical, but still. hell even my official period of intense exclusion was because i was an asshole to my friends cause i was going through a “edgy/not like other girls” phase as a way to cope with my newfound difficulties (not the best but i have become a better person now), though it makes sense why they stopped talking me altogether, and when that happened (early middle school) i barely talked to others, so i simply remained friendless for some years. bit of a gray area there cause whatever happened with my old friends was a more confusing affair than trying to understand how to get all digits of pi as most middle school friendships and even i am confused of what was even going on, and girls who were worse off than me were given more grace, so yeah.

to add to this point, i also lack many other traits, such as sensory issues (i either lack them or lean more towards hyposensitivity), frustration towards changes in routines (im relatively easy going most of the time, and unless is smth awfully important, it never supasses a mild annoyance), meltdowns/shutdowns (they used to happen when i was a young child, but not now for some reason), the symptom that renders some people unable to change tasks quickly, feeling as if certain social norms dont come naturally to oneself and having to make an EXTRMELY concious effort to follow them, among others. on terms of weird theories, ive thinking that my particular flavor of neurodivergence might be more easy to come unnoticed in my socioeconomic/cultural context (which is to say upper-middle class colombian society) and most nd communities im in are centered in countries that belong to the anglosphere, so most info i have is either directly influenced by such cultural context is filtered through it. i kinda have evidence of it, cause 2 and a half years ago i went to an exchange program to learn english, and i was lucky enough to be able to stay one month in canada, specifically in a canadian christian suburb in the literal middle of nowhere. i greatly enjoyed my stay BUT the thing is i stayed for just one month. nothing more, nothing less. yet by like the first week, my foster’s family parents started to suspect i was autistic…for heaven’s sake they figured it out quicker that my own parents, and my second piece of (bad) evidence would be the hardcore “man…things really DO WORK different there huh???” i experienced while reading unmasking autism by devon price. not to be like “UGHHHH IM SO MAD THIS BOOK WRITTEN IN A DIFFERENT CULTURAL CONTEXT DIDNT REFLECT MY EXPERIENCE WHAT AN USELESS BOOK”, cause it would be unfair and stupid but yeah. made me realize a lot stuff.

moving to the third point, many of my traits can be reduced to stuff that i have always done and prolly will die doing cause is my natural way of being, to put in a way. i think the biggest one is being a disinteresed daydreamer; i have always felt and been a little too inside my own world and my interest on the outside world is far more reduced because of that, i dont notice things people usually do on social contexts and dont even get as half as bothered as most people do, ive never had what i like to call a “social instinct”, which is to say that while i can manage myself on social contexts i almost never seek them myself, much less get significantly interested on them, and while i do admit my current “social instinct” state is pretty bad due to having barely talked to people irl for…years, to this point, is not as if it was particuraliry normal when i was younger, and i do struggle to relate to others because of this, on top of my low empathy lol. and is not as if it is something that raised out of nowhere, as one thing my parents and me do agree on on how i was a child is that i would frequently not mind being alone because i simply didnt care, and not to mention i barely talked to my friends during the pandemic cause i was too busy engagements on a obssesion of mine!. this is not to say im some heartless monster that cant stand anybody, i do want connection to others and i can experience loneliness, but what if im not actually autistic and doctors just confused this with autism (alongside my very visible different speech patterns, which are pretty unfixable and noticable and annoying)?? or maybe being raised by a possibly neurodivergent parent on a family that loves routines influenced my repetitive patterns??? or maybe is just that i have improved socially on recent years by trainning myself on cognitive empathy and that rn i sadly dont have a special interest rn thats making me behave more “normally”??

sorry for the rant, but overall, to have a more clear conclusion, im not asking you to provide an official veredict regarding my neurodivergence, but does this seem like if i had possibly been misdiagnosed? should i talk about this with my therapist next time i see her? and most importantly, do any of you have similar experiences? thank u :33
 
Hi Lui, almost none of us follow any standard pattern with our autism and because of this almost every stereotype you read about will be completely wrong. Any advice from people who are not autistic themselves will also be completely wrong.

i experienced while reading unmasking autism by devon price. not to be like “UGHHHH IM SO MAD THIS BOOK WRITTEN IN A DIFFERENT CULTURAL CONTEXT DIDNT REFLECT MY EXPERIENCE WHAT AN USELESS BOOK”, cause it would be unfair and stupid but yeah. made me realize a lot stuff.
Books like that one would make me angry too. It would be like reading a book telling you what it's like to be a woman, written by a man. It doesn't matter how much they investigate and study, unless they actually live it they will never be capable of true understanding.

I also agree with your comment about a lot of books and information being culturally inappropriate, much of what you can find on the net will be US centric and of very little help to anyone outside the US. A lot of what I've read is also inappropriate to people inside the US. Books with click bait titles designed to make money with no concern for people with actual problems.

As a child I was quite obviously different from other kids but we didn't know words like Autism back then. As a young adult I became far more socially active than most people and my social skills became very highly developed. I don't suffer the social anxiety that seems to affect so many younger people these days, I also didn't "mask" in the way that so many people seem to describe. I certainly changed the way in which I presented myself depending on social context but all people do that, and I was very aware of what I was doing, it was quite deliberate, so I also don't understand how people need to learn to "unmask".

Have conversations with people in this forum. You'll find that some people's experiences will match your own and some won't and in this way you'll be able to form a better understanding of yourself.
 
Many of us with low support needs go through imposter syndrome. If Columbia has support for autistic adults, your diagnosis can be a valuable resource for you. If not, you don't have to tell everyone you are autistic, or that you have doubts. You can apply whatever strategies work for you.

I was very uninformed about autism until just a few years ago. I knew I wasn't like other people. I knew what i needed to do to make life tolerable for me, and I ordered my life that way. I doubted my diagnosis precisely because I had been successful staying employed and I had a few friends. What finally got me past the imposter syndrome was when I deliberately tried to function without my self-created strategies, and saw that I couldn't.
 
I have virtually no support needs, don’t mask, highly extroverted and animated, successful with careers/marriage/home ownership, have friends and a vibrant social life, I’m an athlete, I have very mainstream interests, and every autism test I’ve taken, I’ve been right on the cusp between autistic and NT.
Of course I have imposter syndrome.
 
(apologizing from start for the bible following)
as it was clearly stated on the title, ive been feeling a lot of impostor syndrome due to my asperger’s diagnosis recently, and thats largely because of 3 reasons: 1. despite the fact i NEVER, EVER mask, i function pretty well on society and i havent been considerably rejected and 2. i dont have memory of, any sings really before i was eight years old and 3. most of my autistic traits could be just my personality, so let me elaborate:

i am very low masking. i cant relate to what many autistics say about masking, specially when talking about their experiences doing so since children and how they’re constantly aware of themselves. i was hardly aware of myself when i was a kid and i mean it. i dont have like a very solid sense of who i was before my late childhood, aside from random memories, and this is worse cause the way i remember myself differs significantly from the way others do: for example, according to my mother, i was a very sociable child when young and i talked with a lot of people, to me, i only hung out with 5 people or my neighbours, i was only close to one and the rest of the time i spent it daydreaming. i didnt got the good old classic feeling that socializing was like to go through a wall but constantly clashing into it until i was 8…but that was when i had just moved to a new city and i really struggled to adapt (like some inside out type ****), and then when i returned to class after the pandemic at 11, so whatever issue i might’ve had could be because of that. bit of a gray area on that cause ive met people who were on similar situations at they did manage to adapt and from what ik they’re neurotypical, but still. hell even my official period of intense exclusion was because i was an asshole to my friends cause i was going through a “edgy/not like other girls” phase as a way to cope with my newfound difficulties (not the best but i have become a better person now), though it makes sense why they stopped talking me altogether, and when that happened (early middle school) i barely talked to others, so i simply remained friendless for some years. bit of a gray area there cause whatever happened with my old friends was a more confusing affair than trying to understand how to get all digits of pi as most middle school friendships and even i am confused of what was even going on, and girls who were worse off than me were given more grace, so yeah.

to add to this point, i also lack many other traits, such as sensory issues (i either lack them or lean more towards hyposensitivity), frustration towards changes in routines (im relatively easy going most of the time, and unless is smth awfully important, it never supasses a mild annoyance), meltdowns/shutdowns (they used to happen when i was a young child, but not now for some reason), the symptom that renders some people unable to change tasks quickly, feeling as if certain social norms dont come naturally to oneself and having to make an EXTRMELY concious effort to follow them, among others. on terms of weird theories, ive thinking that my particular flavor of neurodivergence might be more easy to come unnoticed in my socioeconomic/cultural context (which is to say upper-middle class colombian society) and most nd communities im in are centered in countries that belong to the anglosphere, so most info i have is either directly influenced by such cultural context is filtered through it. i kinda have evidence of it, cause 2 and a half years ago i went to an exchange program to learn english, and i was lucky enough to be able to stay one month in canada, specifically in a canadian christian suburb in the literal middle of nowhere. i greatly enjoyed my stay BUT the thing is i stayed for just one month. nothing more, nothing less. yet by like the first week, my foster’s family parents started to suspect i was autistic…for heaven’s sake they figured it out quicker that my own parents, and my second piece of (bad) evidence would be the hardcore “man…things really DO WORK different there huh???” i experienced while reading unmasking autism by devon price. not to be like “UGHHHH IM SO MAD THIS BOOK WRITTEN IN A DIFFERENT CULTURAL CONTEXT DIDNT REFLECT MY EXPERIENCE WHAT AN USELESS BOOK”, cause it would be unfair and stupid but yeah. made me realize a lot stuff.

moving to the third point, many of my traits can be reduced to stuff that i have always done and prolly will die doing cause is my natural way of being, to put in a way. i think the biggest one is being a disinteresed daydreamer; i have always felt and been a little too inside my own world and my interest on the outside world is far more reduced because of that, i dont notice things people usually do on social contexts and dont even get as half as bothered as most people do, ive never had what i like to call a “social instinct”, which is to say that while i can manage myself on social contexts i almost never seek them myself, much less get significantly interested on them, and while i do admit my current “social instinct” state is pretty bad due to having barely talked to people irl for…years, to this point, is not as if it was particuraliry normal when i was younger, and i do struggle to relate to others because of this, on top of my low empathy lol. and is not as if it is something that raised out of nowhere, as one thing my parents and me do agree on on how i was a child is that i would frequently not mind being alone because i simply didnt care, and not to mention i barely talked to my friends during the pandemic cause i was too busy engagements on a obssesion of mine!. this is not to say im some heartless monster that cant stand anybody, i do want connection to others and i can experience loneliness, but what if im not actually autistic and doctors just confused this with autism (alongside my very visible different speech patterns, which are pretty unfixable and noticable and annoying)?? or maybe being raised by a possibly neurodivergent parent on a family that loves routines influenced my repetitive patterns??? or maybe is just that i have improved socially on recent years by trainning myself on cognitive empathy and that rn i sadly dont have a special interest rn thats making me behave more “normally”??

sorry for the rant, but overall, to have a more clear conclusion, im not asking you to provide an official veredict regarding my neurodivergence, but does this seem like if i had possibly been misdiagnosed? should i talk about this with my therapist next time i see her? and most importantly, do any of you have similar experiences? thank u :33
I think you make some really interesting points.

I think from your story that there are patterns that a lot of us recognise. I think the point that stood out most to me was the cultural stuff. It seems the differences weren't noticed until you were pushed outside of your established environment. Kids assume what they know, is how things are for everyone. Even before (late) diagnosis i would often get into conversations about childhood where I'd reach an "oh so my experience is not typical" conclusion. if you're an introvert, a daydreamer, you may have missed out on some of these conversations.

I was wondering how you ended up being a position to be assessed, you don't have to answer to that. I was wondering because whilst you're understandably questioning the diagnosis and trying to find differences, there are maybe just as many similarities.

outdated is right now two autistic people are the same. it's not black and white. our need to make it black and white and angst when it isn't may infact be part of the autism? ;)
 
I think you make some really interesting points.

I think from your story that there are patterns that a lot of us recognise. I think the point that stood out most to me was the cultural stuff. It seems the differences weren't noticed until you were pushed outside of your established environment. Kids assume what they know, is how things are for everyone. Even before (late) diagnosis i would often get into conversations about childhood where I'd reach an "oh so my experience is not typical" conclusion. if you're an introvert, a daydreamer, you may have missed out on some of these conversations.

I was wondering how you ended up being a position to be assessed, you don't have to answer to that. I was wondering because whilst you're understandably questioning the diagnosis and trying to find differences, there are maybe just as many similarities.

outdated is right now two autistic people are the same. it's not black and white. our need to make it black and white and angst when it isn't may infact be part of the autism? ;)
to ask your question, i was already diagnosed with autism when i went to my exchange program, cause i got reported in my school for reasons i will never understand when i was 12, and apparently whatever i did was bad enough for being sent to the psych, and then i got diagnosed. and anyway i was already struggling.

to answer a bit of your first paragraph, i suppose i must clarify im not an adult yet, i just turned 17 three months ago, but i have realized this mostly by analyzing the way i connect with others, as ive always been a little behind others, to put in a way.

for ur last paragraph…yeah that might be as well. why cant stuff have nice little conclusions 💔…things would be far less stressful 💔/hj
 
Many of us with low support needs go through imposter syndrome. If Columbia has support for autistic adults, your diagnosis can be a valuable resource for you. If not, you don't have to tell everyone you are autistic, or that you have doubts. You can apply whatever strategies work for you.

I was very uninformed about autism until just a few years ago. I knew I wasn't like other people. I knew what i needed to do to make life tolerable for me, and I ordered my life that way. I doubted my diagnosis precisely because I had been successful staying employed and I had a few friends. What finally got me past the imposter syndrome was when I deliberately tried to function without my self-created strategies, and saw that I couldn't.
I very much have to echo J's comments. Personally I have low support needs as well, to the point where I slipped through the cracks all my life. I knew I was different than most folks, and I knew I had some strange "issues", but I had always just attributed it to being smarter than everyone in the room. Figured that was why socializing always felt an almost painful struggle to me at times. I say my support needs are low, but truthfully I ended down the path of alcoholism to cope with life. When I finally went to get the help I needed with that, is when I found out about the AuDHD.

For me it all suddenly made sense in terms of the drinking to cope side. And most of my "issues" as well. But then came the bouts of imposter syndrome where somedays I wonder if because of the AuDHD, am I as smart as I always used to think? The truthful answer to that is no, I'm still highly intelligent, but I am not a genius. But it does make me question aspects of my life at times, like at work, wondering if I really deserve it, or if I just lucked my way into it all. And then there are days where I see some of the struggles my autistic peers have which far outweigh anything I've ever dealt with and I wonder if I even deserve to call myself autistic.

What I remind myself when I have the doubts at work is that I've been there now over a decade, obviously I'm doing something correct even if half the time I feel like I'm faking it. Same with the diagnosis, I have to remind myself everyones autism is different, and while I may not have the same level of support needs, it still provides me the best frame of reference to understand my life, and actually thrive these days.
 
it's interesting that you still don't understand what led to the initial diagnosis at 12. Not being able to fully explain stuff that has happened to me is infuriating and i often wish i could travel back in time to ask questions. i wonder if you still have access to some of the people who made that decision or whatever assessment was done at the time and as part of this current questioning phase you're in you could find out more about what led to that?

hopefully hanging out in this forum will help you figure stuff out.
 
I have virtually no support needs, don’t mask, highly extroverted and animated, successful with careers/marriage/home ownership, have friends and a vibrant social life, I’m an athlete, I have very mainstream interests, and every autism test I’ve taken, I’ve been right on the cusp between autistic and NT.
Of course I have imposter

it appears we have a similar autism flavor lol. also the test thing is so real, like, i passed my aspie test with a 92 out of 70, but in screening tests i barely pass the threshold 😭. though well i dont trust them fully ngl, due to the very stupid questions they have, some highlights ive found are:
- do you enjoy talking about your interests? (if this was meant to be a question about special interests, it sucks. and anyway why is this on an autism test)
- do you like spending time with friends or family? (what does this have to with autism. it depends on how much you like them. and the worst part is that it doesn’t make further questions in case this was meant to screen possible signs of autism due to issues in interpersonal relationships)
- are you asexual? (really…autism=asexual robot on the big 2026…i thought we were over that 😭)
- have you had intimate relationships?
- would you like to go to a museum or the theatre? (no comment)

Hi Lui, almost none of us follow any standard pattern with our autism and because of this almost every stereotype you read about will be completely wrong. Any advice from people who are not autistic themselves will also be completely wrong.


Books like that one would make me angry too. It would be like reading a book telling you what it's like to be a woman, written by a man. It doesn't matter how much they investigate and study, unless they actually live it they will never be capable of true understanding.

I also agree with your comment about a lot of books and information being culturally inappropriate, much of what you can find on the net will be US centric and of very little help to anyone outside the US. A lot of what I've read is also inappropriate to people inside the US. Books with click bait titles designed to make money with no concern for people with actual problems.

As a child I was quite obviously different from other kids but we didn't know words like Autism back then. As a young adult I became far more socially active than most people and my social skills became very highly developed. I don't suffer the social anxiety that seems to affect so many younger people these days, I also didn't "mask" in the way that so many people seem to describe. I certainly changed the way in which I presented myself depending on social context but all people do that, and I was very aware of what I was doing, it was quite deliberate, so I also don't understand how people need to learn to "unmask".

Have conversations with people in this forum. You'll find that some people's experiences will match your own and some won't and in this way you'll be able to form a better understanding of yourself.
for your first point, im not very mad at the book itself, from what i can tell the autor itself is autistic, draws from its own experiences as a high-masker and is quite beloved by people on the spectrum, is simply written by someone on a different cultural context (which shows aggressively throughout the whole book; really is obvious it was written by someone who’s an us citizen), and by consequence, im not the person it was written for, which is ok, representing all autistic experiences in one single book is a nearly if not absolutely impossible task, and worse if you’re tackling international experiences, but is a bit frustrating to me, given how anglosphere centric the general info regarding autism is. i didnt knew though that those type of books were also not useful to people in the us, so ig is a lose-lose situation lol

thank u for sharing ur experiences!! i can certainly relate to your last paragraph, as i certainly feel the same about changing myself on different social contexts, which has certainly increased on recent years. is also weird to be so aware of it ngl, as for me its both natural and unnatural at the same time, though im sure if i was just myself i would definetly come across as someone pretty cold lol :3
 
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every autism test I’ve taken, I’ve been right on the cusp between autistic and NT.
When my late wife kept insisting I must be autistic, I grudgingly admitted it was possible that I might be right on the borderline between autistic and NT. I took several screening tests, and I was nowhere near borderline. Literally all of them put me solidly in autism territory. My avatar is actually from one of those tests. On that graph, everything to right of center are autistic traits, and left are NT traits. It amused me that the shape resembled the Babel Fish from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
 
it appears we have a similar autism flavor lol. also the test thing is so real, like, i passed my aspie test with a 92 out of 70, but in screening tests i barely pass the threshold 😭. though well i dont trust them fully ngl, due to the very stupid questions they have, some highlights ive found are:
- do you enjoy talking about your interests? (if this was meant to be a question about special interests, it sucks. and anyway why is this on an autism test)
- do you like spending time with friends or family? (what does this have to with autism. it depends on how much you like them. and the worst part is that it doesn’t make further questions in case this was meant to screen possible signs of autism due to issues in interpersonal relationships)
- are you asexual? (really…autism=asexual robot on the big 2026…i thought we were over that 😭)
- have you had intimate relationships?
- would you like to go to a museum or the theatre? (no comment)

100% agree with most of those being stupid questions. And the thing that always puts me into autistic territory and makes me stand out as autistic is, in fact, my special interests.
My husband is the same. On the surface he seems like a very outgoing and pretty regular person, but anyone who simply utters the word "hockey" in his presence will be met with a 30+ minute infodump/monologue on the subject, lol.

I don't have difficulty socially in the way that a lot of autistic people do, I have a very active social life and a solid group of friends. The thing that makes it hard for me to maintain (some) friendships is more that I have a really strong moral code and I won't put up with a lot of things from friends that some people will put up with, I guess. Maybe due to trauma from past friendships and being bullied.
I've posted a lot on here about valuing loyalty and integrity in friendships.

"Do you like spending time with friends and family?" is a silly question because, as you said, it really depends. And disliking family members isn't exclusively an autistic trait. I think most people have family members they don't get along with and want to avoid. Especially in the current state of the world.

The asexual thing is silly too. There are asexual autistic people, but I find the whole "autistic people don't have sex" thing very infantilizing, invalidating, and quite outdated. For a while I thought I might have been asexual but I just hadn't found a partner I was comfortable being intimate with, or a partner who was respectful during intimate interactions. Now my sex life is just fine lol.

I remember the "Would you go to a museum or a theatre?" question too, and I find that an absurd question because all kinds of people enjoy those things. I've had NT friends and family members who enjoyed those things. That's a ridiculous question to include on an autism test.
 
currently chuckling at our detail orientated minds that lead us to analyse the questions and expect clarifications rather than just answering them like my allistic friends would 😂 (and loving it that i've found people like me)
 

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