“Hey Curt, when did you realize your “aspieness”? And when did your family?”—

—“Hey Curt, when did you realize your “aspieness”? And when did your family?”— a friend

I was always conscious of some significant difference, but I don’t remember when I understood it was the autism spectrum. I understood over a long period of time rather than in a moment.

It’s more …. that because I was constantly suffering, I kept track of research in cognitive science, and then when the autism research became meaningful I realized that was the cause. ( I still subscribe to the dopaminergenic theory of cognitive evolution by the way – which is why I understand western ‘innovation’ or ‘restlessness’ as Hegel would say ).

What I remember is the ‘peace’ it gave me, and that I lost all my frustration or guilt with other people and myself – and I learned to ‘love’ my gift of aspieness.

This ‘trait’ is very common in my family and almost everyone has some aspect of it to some degree or other. My grandfather, My grandmother, me, my sister, my children all have some aspect of it.

I have found that it makes my entire family happier to understand the cause of the difference.

Another example of how psychology rather than biology was harmful: it made us think something was wrong, rather than ‘god intended us to be this way for a purpose’. Well it turns out that in fact, the spectrum of feminine psychosis/solipsism masculine analytic/autism is in fact how nature ‘intended’ so to speak.