When I was a child ...

I have written before about my conviction that I was an undiagnosed sufferer from Asperger Syndrome. Undiagnosed because it is a condition that had not been identified when I was a kid.
Although there is no single feature that all people with Asperger syndrome share, difficulties with social behavior are nearly universal and are perhaps the most important criteria that define the condition. People with Asperger syndrome lack the natural ability to see the subtexts of social interaction (sometimes resulting in well-meaning remarks that may offend and so on, finding it hard to know what is "acceptable") and also tend to lack the ability to broadcast their own emotional state.
Non-autistics, often called neurotypicals, are able to gather a host of information about other people's cognitive and emotional states based on clues gleaned from the environment and the other person's facial expression and body language, but people with Asperger syndrome have an impairment in this ability, sometimes called mind-blindness. To be mind-blind is to find it difficult or even impossible to figure out things a person implies but does not say directly (more colloquially, to "read between the lines"). This is not because they cannot imagine the answer but because they cannot choose between the possibilities; the mind-blind person cannot reliably gather enough information to do so or does not know how to interpret the information that they do gather.
Children in the late 1930 and 40s had a very clearly defined position in society. Mainly summed up as ‘seen but not heard’. Oversight came not just from parents and teachers but from any adult who felt that a child was exceeding the very narrow bounds of proper behaviour. Corporeal punishment by parents and teachers was quite common. Being isolated from other children and their activities and sent to one’s room was common.  I was regarded as a naughty child; mainly for conduct such as one would expect from someone with the problems I have described above. It was made very clear to me that certain actions were quite intolerable. The ‘proper’ way to behave was drummed into me. This ‘treatment’ was carried on when I joined the Army. I was conditioned to be like the other guys. Any unusual trait was jumped upon and brought punishment. The Army was good at discipline by this method and I learned what was and what was not appropriate.
I now know that my condition was not cured but was suppressed.
What seems to be happening in my old age is that the syndrome is again rearing its head. Where I would have stopped and thought about a remark or action, I now react quite impulsively. Within the last ten days or so, I have had a serious falling-out with the host of a forum over something that 99.99% of people would consider insignificant. I responded in a manner more assassination than explanation to someone who wrote me what I thought was a overly-critical email. I was in a Comet store killing time by looking at the latest household wonders when an assistant asked me if I was being ‘looked after’. I knew very well what she meant but chose to reply as if she were suggesting I had lost my carer and would start licking windows at any moment. It is not just that I am getting to be a crusty and curmudgeonly old man; it is regression.
I must do something about this. The traits of AS are even less acceptable in these days of political correctness where even the truth must be suborned.