I was diagnosed as autistic in my late twenties. This was before the pandemic, in a European country where autism awareness was basically nonexistent. When I told my parents they weren’t very surprised, though, because I’ve always struggled with… well, basically everything. It actually helped my relationship with my NT mom, because now she has the tools to understand my behaviour and choices in life.
After I told them, we never talked about it again, but recently I was having lunch with my dad and he said something like “The way my autism manifests…”. Of course I suspected he was autistic, but I had no idea he had been researching it.
I suspect my grandfather was autistic too (my dad does too). He studied to become a priest, then changed his mind and joined the military. My father went to military high school and then followed in his father’s shoes. They both grew up in environments where they had to follow strict routines and where they were taught exactly how to behave, what was appropriate to say, and so on.
I don’t know why I wrote this, I guess it’s interesting to know how people easily went under the radar in the past. Did your families had similar experiences?