I hate that feeling that I was the last to find out I wasn't normal functioning and a bit on the odd side but rather....way way way off socially and such. Not sure if I prefer knowing why I got treated the way I did at school, or when I couldn't see what everyones problem was. It was mentioned to my parents that something could be wrong or whatever but they didn't pay much mind and didn't want to put me on meds for understandable reasons, and I certainly didn't think I had any sort of mental condition either. Maybe some sort of awareness of it would have helped, though I've heard of some 'therapies' that don't sound very theraputic to me that I may have been exposed to if more attention had been paid to my weirdness.

Stigma and ignorance are probably more of an issue than 'the mentally ill'. though I realize autism isn't nessisarily a mental illness I'd catagorize it more as a condition.