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Growing up, I felt stupid. Oh, so stupid. Like I didn't fit in. It was as if I'd been dropped in to suburbia from another planet, an alien. Perhaps if I had had a major meltdown I would have flagged the help I desperately needed. But, no, I suffered. I felt so alone, lost. There was no-one else like me. I hid behind a mask and adhered to society norms of being a "male-worker-robot-person" in middle-class society.Fortunately (or not) I was able to mask really well, and hide myself away. I built a life, a job, a house, had a child, all the usual things people aspire to. On the surface, all was normal, I just thought I was different, not less, just different, but didn't know why. I could never understand the way people reacted to me. I was being nice, but still they didn't like me, as if I had hurt someone close to them. (I still don't get this?)My child was diagnosed; "high functioning autism". As many parents will attest, the autism education journey is full of questions and no-answers. I struggled to understand, and got to the point where I had to draw on my abilities as a researcher and self-learner to better understand; Autism, Asperger's, "high-functioning" and the psychology underpinning these various terms.My journey of self-discovery was not at all what I was expecting. Using my research skills I started reading academic papers, books, blogs, and other information sources. This led to many "Ahhh, ooh, aww" moments for me to discount what I was slowly realising. This was not going to be a journey to discover my child, this was a journey to discover myself; inVisible, unSeen, and others like me; inVisible People. The inVisible Generation.Why inVisible? Spectrumites think and process ideas differently, but on the surface society doesn't see this. The things that I and others do differently are hidden from view. We are the Quiet Achievers; running a different operating system in a world built for the 98%. We physically look the same and have the same capabilities, but the way we work under the cover is different. Different, not less. Just Different.With estimates between 1%-2% of the population being on the Autism Spectrum; 1 in 100 Australians, more than 1 in 100 in the UK, and 1 in 59 Americans, an understanding of what this means for tens of millions of people is becoming more and more important. Sadly, I also learnt that adults on the Spectrum are eight to nine times more likely to commit suicide than a neurotypical person, and 28 times more likely to exhibit suicidal thoughts, and this really hit home, because I too had been there. But I survived, and I have my story to tell. Society as a whole should be looking for a way to support and respect each and every individual Spectrumite in their own way.
