{"id":358,"date":"2026-01-05T11:43:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/resources.aspergerworks.org\/?p=358"},"modified":"2026-01-05T11:47:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T16:47:03","slug":"autism-in-older-women-first-hand-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.aspergerworks.org\/?p=358","title":{"rendered":"Autism in Older Women: First-Hand Account"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ theme_builder_area=”post_content” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” type=”4_4″ theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_heading title=”Women my age weren\u2019t called \u2018autistic\u2019 growing up. We were awkward or \u2018rude.\u2019 And we missed out on services.” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_heading][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” type=”4_4″ theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]

Growing up, Joey Murphy, 54, did not know she had what is now called Autism Spectrum Disorder<\/strong>. In this post, she shares the disorienting experience of life before diagnosis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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You know me. If you\u2019re over the age of say, 40, chances are you went to school with a girl like me. I was more or less on even footing with you academically, but I struggled with everything else. My physical movements were often spastic and jerky. I blurted rather than talked. I couldn\u2019t hold a pencil properly. I got upset when rules weren\u2019t followed. I was eager to please; yet I sometimes said the dumbest, rudest thing possible.<\/em><\/p>\n

I spoke like a tiny adult but acted like a baby. I was easy to tease, easy to fool, and I had such an exaggerated startle response that it was hard to resist sneaking up behind me to make loud noises. You couldn\u2019t have named it.<\/em><\/p>\n

The teachers couldn\u2019t even name it, but even in childhood, your lizard brain knew something about me was just\u2026off.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(to read more of Joey’s story, click here<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up, Joey Murphy, 54, did not know she had what is now called Autism Spectrum Disorder. In this post, she shares the disorienting experience of life before diagnosis.\u00a0 You know me. If you\u2019re over the age of say, 40, chances are you went to school with a girl like me. I was more or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asd-autism","category-autism","category-women","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/resources.aspergerworks.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Joey-Murphy.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.aspergerworks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.aspergerworks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.aspergerworks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.aspergerworks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.aspergerworks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/resources.aspergerworks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":374,"href":"https:\/\/resources.aspergerworks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.aspergerworks.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.aspergerworks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.aspergerworks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.aspergerworks.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}