This is an ABC podcast.

Hey, just letting you know, this week's episode is one from our archives.

And actually, we're going to be going on a hiatus for the next couple of weeks,

and that's partly because our incredible producer, James Bullen, is leaving us.

We're very sad about it, so to give him a bit of a send-off,

we're going to be playing one of his previous episodes this week. So this is the first in a run

of three archive episodes. Here it is.

Over the past few decades, our cultural understanding of autism and what it means to be autistic

has grown.

But there are entire generations of people who grew up when the popular conception of autism

was a far cry from how it's now understood.

When I was a kid in the 70s and a teen in the 80s, autism was what males had and you were either,

you know, a non-speaking autistic young boy who may have intellectual difficulties as well,

and then loads and loads of support.

And then Rain Man came and so Rain Man with the savant type of characteristics is what

I thought autism was. It's meant many, many people grew up feeling like they didn't fit in but

never quite understanding why. They were autistic but undiagnosed. So I had no idea I was autistic at all, and certainly around my family and friends, that was

never, never a possibility of what my life experience could be framed by.

And when a diagnosis did come as an adult, it was life-changing.

Oh my God, this is me.

It's the only thing I had ever, ever found that explained me to me perfectly.

You're listening to All in the Mind.

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