Making You Aware I'm Autistic Now

Well, I mean, I've been autistic my whole life, but I just found out I am recently. And I wanted to tell you earlier, but writing is hard work, and I've been really tired lately. But how are you?

Oh. Hey. Happy Autism Awareness Month!

Did you know that 1 in 36 children are diagnosed with autism? I didn’t, but I also wonder if that statistic is for the whole world or just the U.S.? Also, is that the current rate of diagnoses, and over what time period?

I have a lot of questions, you see. Ones that could probably be answered fairly quickly if I were to go back to the Autism Awareness Month site that I went to, to find that statistic, and dug a little deeper.

Alas, I am hyper-fixating on writing this message right now and don’t want to break my concentration by switching over to my web browser. So, my questions are just going to have to wait until after.

Also, if you hadn’t already noticed, your boy, K-Hags has a touch of ASD, himself. Trust him, he’s got the paperwork to prove it.

It was actually a year ago, during last year’s Autism Awareness Month, that I first started asking the professional, trained counselors in my life (both of them!) if they thought it at all possible that I was a person with autism. And I was told that, yeah, maybe, I could see that, you should get an assessment. Which I did, seven months later in November, because waiting lists. And, as it turns out, yeah. Level 1, Autism Spectrum Disorder.

I have so much to tell you. What with having only recently found out that I’m not broken, not just socially awkward and/or terrible at maintaining eye contact with a person or willing to make small talk with any living creature about rainfall totals in last night’s storm, just because. I’m that way because I have too many synapses left open in my brain and I can’t make my mind stop overthinking every damn thing I think!

So, yeah. I’m 46, and I just found out I have ASD, in addition to the ADHD I was diagnosed with five years ago, plus some generalized anxiety disorder and a long, lingering depression I can’t seem to kick out of. Also, I’m a lot of fun at parties. People are saying. They couldn’t say it if it wasn’t true.

All this to say that I didn’t want the opportunity to make all y’all aware of my current autism situation I’m involved in, on the first day of Autism Awareness Month, pass me by. And so I wrote out this short by my standards (SBMY, as the kids refer to it) missive on my FB page, along with a promise to write more missives like this one, both here and on my Substack —

— if i get a good reaction to my poor man’s rendition of how Heather Cox Richardson effectively uses her FB page and Substack (aw, what the hell? —

) so effectively.

Long story, less long: I’ll write some more later! Maybe! Meantime, thank you for your troubles in having to read all this.

— Kelly