pastelanxiety
Member
Hi hello, I'm a 29 y/o woman from New Zealand and I was finally diagnosed with ASD at the beginning of this week. Ever since I was a young child, both myself and those around me had a feeling I wasn't NT, despite how hard I tried to be. Now that my suspicions have been confirmed by a doctor, I feel very validated and relieved that I'm not just "difficult", "highly strung" or "weird". I feel relief, however I also feel very overwhelmed because for the majority of my life I have masked to the point I sometimes forget I'm masking and convince even myself (if this makes sense?). People around me tell me I couldn't possibly have ASD simply because of how "put together" and "personable" I am, which I personally find quite invalidating and am a bit unsure of how to respond to that.
I have no fellow ASD friends in my life and would like to make some connections and learn things from others here![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
I have no fellow ASD friends in my life and would like to make some connections and learn things from others here