I knew I was different long before I was diagnosed with Aspergers

When Fiona Pettit O’Leary was diagnosed with Asperger’s at 42, it suddenly made sense of her troubled childhood and teenage years

AS a little girl, I was engaged with the world in a deep and magical way. I frequently got lost, I was an eternal daydreamer. I needed time to process my environment, being so easily and gleefully distracted.

I had a make-shift hotel in my bedroom for caterpillars and ladybirds and moths, which I ‘rescued’ from what I named ‘Moth Lane’, near my house. I empathised with the more colourful and eccentric characters in my neighbourhood. The homeless seemed to me like the wounded moth or lame spider in need of help, and I would have no qualms about bringing them home with me.