She works as a nursing assistant at Manacor Hospital and grew up unaware that she was autistic. "We're from Sóller, I went to school there. In my day, people didn't speak to the language," recalls Eva García (Sóller, 1974). "I was a child who went unnoticed, and they didn't realize that I was a bit of a perfectionist and restless. Sometimes I was alone in the playground, but since I had friends from Sóller, I didn't miss anything." Her studies weren't easy. "I did repeat grades, and when I went to high school, I skipped classes because I was bored or because I didn't understand the material. Then I did a vocational training course."

Some people reach adulthood without knowing why they've always felt different. Suddenly, a diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental disorder, such as autism or dyslexia, gives a name to decades of confusion, silent coping strategies, and efforts to fit into a world that hasn't understood them. "Those diagnosed as adults, of which there are quite a few now, are often diagnosed because as children they adapted to the life they had, at a time when these disorders weren't discussed as much," explains neuropsychologist Ana Mantecón. Many have learned to "cover up their behavior and have assimilated things they see in others, thinking they should do the same." When the diagnosis arrives, it can also cause a great deal of pain: "The pain of remembering what was said about them, how they were judged as children. They have to accept who they are and that no one has ever truly seen them," she summarizes. The diagnosis for women, she says, is especially complex and often goes unnoticed. "The presentation of symptoms in wrists is different. There are physiological differences: if we only consider how symptoms manifest in children, they don't fit the pattern," Mantecón points out. Next, we learn the story of Aina Blanco, a woman who, as an adult, received a diagnosis that gave meaning to her life.