I wasn’t diagnosed until age 40. Even now, I still get
“You? Are you sure your autistic? I guess it’s just a reeeeeealy mild case then.”

Or
“You’re not autistic!”

Or
“I guess they’re just diagnosing everyone these days…and for no reason!”

Often people act offended, as if I’m culturally appropriating “real” autistic people. What they don’t know is how much I’ve had to mask, how heavily I’ve masked, and how much this has effected my life. What I’ve gone through is heavily trivialized.
One of the best things that happened when being diagnosed, was the psychologist recognizing how hard I’ve had to work, and how much I’ve been through just to be apart of society. He also diagnosed me with PTSD around all the things I had to endure just to fit in. That made so much sense. But whenever I try to explain it to someone, they just sort of roll their eyes and accuse me of being over dramatic. I honestly have had to go through a lot to participate in every day life, and I did such a good job, people don’t believe me. But the scars I carry around, are deep and brutal. To be an autistic woman with a late diagnosis is to endure a life time of gaslighting.