Morning,
I'm in my late fifties.
My life has been dominated by what I had always assumed to be, Social Anxiety Disorder with a good bit of OCD.
In my younger years, I could not get a job for love nor money because due to my SAD I was disgracefully bad at interviews, and had very few (if any) friends. However, I was clever, so I compensated for that weakness by becoming an academic and getting a reputation. I had a successful career, I'm now retired.
OK, I say I was clever, but I might not be, I might actually have learned to become meticulous at a young age rather than being actually clever.
Over the years my SAD has diminished, due mainly to the tolerance and patience of my wife.
However I have never been able to make friends, even though I now have little shyness. I try to be good at conversing with people, and indeed I often think I am now good at conversing with people, however there must be some secret I am missing because I NEVER end up making friends. People soon get bored with me it seems, but I can't see why.
So, I did an online self-diagnosis for autism, and got 42 out of 50. Qualitatively, I think I am spot on for being highly autistic, but never suspected it ! I always assumed my weakness was severe shyness !
Can anyone out their empathise ?