I didn't get diagnosed until I was 34. For many years, my perception of autism was of severely autistic people who couldn't communicate properly or who had terrible behaviour problems. That's because I went to a college that welcomed everyone, including those with significant special needs, and those with such severe problems were separated from the rest of us. One of my teachers was also a teacher for special needs kids, and one day he told us about autism. That was the first I really knew about it.

It wasn't until many years later that I started to hear about Aspeger's syndrome and the spectrum.

But having said all this, I always knew I wasn't "normal". Why? Because everyone kept telling me I was a weirdo. I was always being told I stared at people too much and didn't undertsand when people were joking. Plus I would get obsessed with strange things that nobody else was interested in, like the fact that the Second Severn Crossing was incorrectly named because it wasn't the second crossing over the River Severn. It wasn't even the second MOTORWAY crossing over the River Severn, because the M50 goes over the Severn and that was built before either of the "Severn Bridges". See what I mean? What "normal" person would go on about this kind of stuff?