A couple of weeks ago I went out to meet my best friend of almost 20 years for drinks and a catch up. Let me tell you that this woman is the greatest friend anyone would be lucky to have. She is one of the few people that I felt I could be myself, unmasked Autistic self and all.
When I moved back to Ireland as a kid, she was the first person that didn’t judge my stimming or think I was weird for liking Pokémon (back when people thought it was just for boys). She listened, understood my communication style and treated me like a real friend. Not as an idiot that can’t do complicated things; Not as a child that needed minding all the time; Not as a strange exotic creature that people approach with caution or their hand might get bitten off. She treated me with kindness and respect, like I’m an actual human instead of a freak. Statistically, research shows that if a friendship lasts for more than 7 years, it will last a lifetime. If my best friend is reading this, then you’re stuck with me forever! Mwahahaha!
Anyway, as we talked about how it’s been 10 years since we graduated from secondary school (God I’m so old now!). We were laughing at funny memories and cringing at embarrassing ones as old friends do. During our trip down memory lane, she told me a story about when we were in primary school.
For context, my best friend recently found out she has ADHD via assessment. She had a feeling she had ADHD since she was a kid, as she had the signs. Back then diagnosis of neurodivergent girls wasn’t known, like my autism was practically a medical anomaly. A year after we became friends, our teacher called my friend’s parents in because she had a suspicion about her being neurodivergent. Want to guess how our teacher figured that out?
Was it from daydreaming in class a lot? No.
Was it because she struggled to get school work done? Nope.
Was it because she had poor time-management back then? Wrong.
Figured it out yet? Our teacher thought my best friend was neurodivergent… because she was friends with me, the only diagnosed Autistic girl in the school year!
I thought it was hilarious until I remembered I have a close female friend that was diagnosed Autistic 3 years ago. Then another female friend got her ADHD diagnosis last year. Was my old teacher right? Do I have some sort of radar that finds undiagnosed neurodivergent women without knowing? Do I have superpowers?!
If I find another neurodivergent woman before she gets a diagnosis, do I need to think of a superhero name? Let me know what you think!
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