• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Am I autistic?

Flux

New Member
Am I Autistic?

If you read all of this, thank you. Forgive me if this is not coherent and feel free to ask any questions if you are interested in helping me understand myself.

Sigh. For many years I always felt that something was wrong with me but chalked it up to a troubled childhood. Over the last few years I've learned that I possess many traits/behaviours that someone with high functioning autism has. I'm a 27 year old male from a middle class household. I've only recently been told that my parents 'took me in' to get diagnosed when I was a child, mainly because of my repetitive behavior and inability to stand still (this was beaten out of me...). I believe that I was diagnosed and my parents made the decision to hide this from me and tried to 'fix' me.

As a child, I was horribly behaved, despised schoolwork but was gifted in terms of being able to quickly calculate in my head. I took pride in not showing my work and receiving worse grades, because to me it was silly to show work that wasn't actually done... When I was in the first grade, in a class or 35, the teacher had two students stand up at a time and posed an addition/subtraction/multiplication/division question and the first to get it right advanced while the other sat down. I was in the initial pairing and went on to defeat the entire class. However, I struggled in just about everything else, had illegible writing that my teachers eventually gave up on trying to correct it... I was also the last student to learn how to tie their shoelaces aside from the mentally challenged child.

Anyways, I'm happy to answer more questions about my childhood, but here are some traits that I have that I believe are common to people with high functioning autism:

Terrible social skills
Unable to focus on more than one conversation
Don't make eye contact
Unable to read facial expressions
Tend to isolate myself
Few friends (despite being very popular in school)
.....
Excellent pattern recognition (horrible elsewhere)
Horrible sense of direction (used to get lost a mere 15 minutes from my home even as a teenager...)
Limited interests that I obsess over. I spend almost all of my free time analyzing sports/tracking stats/predicting outcomes of games. Other then this I literally have no interests and there is no job that I want to do... I work as a security guard and am often isolated aside from the fee pleasantries that I try my best not to make awkward.
Extremely organized. Everything in my room is set down/up perfectly straight, is clean and placed appropriately. For example, every book on my bookshelf is meticulously placed.
.....
Sensory overload:

a loud tv or certain pitches (not necessarily loud) are straight up debilitating. I'll plug my ears, close my eyes and hunch over and mentally shut down

Cannot eat certain foods indoors if an outdoor window is open... I'm always embarrassed by this around friends, but I cannot eat many foods (eggs in particular) if a window is open and air is interacting with it, the smell/taste is revolting to my otherwise lack of pickiness.

When I see green leafy vegetables, I cannot help but snarl like a vampire lol... It's the weirdest thing but it's a facial expression I don't ever make except for when crunchy green vegetables are I'm sight.

Thank you. I've done many online autism tests and without fail I'm extremely likely to have autism, apparently. However, it is possible that I have some other issues and outside of going to see a professional you all are the best answer I will get.
 
The extremely poor handwriting is something you get in NVLD which is like a cousin of autism, maybe have a look into that as well and see what you think. The rest of it seem autistic enough, so welcome to the site.
 
2a3b27b0f842370f554c697e0029e50c.png
 
Welcome to the forums.:)

From your description, it appears likely that you are on the autism spectrum. Having said that, we all have to be cautious with so-called stereotypical behavior of autistics,...that is why it is called a spectrum,...everyone will present a bit different.

All I can suggest is find an autism testing center that does adult testing. If you find more than one center, then it can be helpful to ask them what is involved,...the more comprehensive the testing, the better the information you will have. I received a good, comprehensive testing session with a long written report. However, others on this forum,...not so much,...which suggests that although there are standardized tests, not all psychologists will use them, implying some lack of standardization when it comes to testing. Furthermore, dealing with adults who have learned to mask their symptoms and found other coping mechanisms,...it can take a specialist experienced in teasing out those details from their adult patients. It's a different thing dealing with children who are far less likely to have learned how to hide their signs and symptoms.

Autism can be associated with other conditions, such as OCD, ADHD, and a long list of other "Ds". So, don't be taken back by a multiple diagnosis.

People here know my position on the topic of "self-diagnosis",...as I have worked in the medical field for over 30 years,...many times people do not have what "Dr. Google" says they have, but may be something different.
 
Flux - you are welcome here. I've been part of this forum for two days, and I can already tell that.

I always hated being put into a box due to my characteristics (you're tall, you must play basketball! you like math and science, so you must be a terrible writer! etc.), but getting formally diagnosed with ASD was something of a relief. There was a reason for why I was the way I was, and it wasn't this nebulous sense of "everybody's different". We are wired differently - not better or worse, just different - from someone who is NT. So if you're up for it, and it's available to you, I would highly recommend an official diagnosis - you certainly sound like you might be on the spectrum.

Good luck in your self-discovery - I and others on this board support you in your journey!
 
Welcome! I'm not a doc, so I can't answer your question, but hope you like it here.
 
Welcome to the forum, @Flux. Whether you are or aren't autistic, I hope you find this forum as welcoming and useful as I have.
 
Hi and welcome, I hope you enjoy it here and find it useful and supportive. Sounds like you may be autistic. As you find out more about it, you may well get a better idea of whether you are. Read around and see what you think. Look at the resources here, and read some threads. Hopefully also make comments and join in with your views and ideas.

:grapes::stew::cherries::coffee::shortcake::watermelon::cookie::redapple:
 
Hi and welcome to the forums :). Have you tried asking you parents about your childhood diagnosis? Why wouldn't they be honest with you now? You could tell them you plan to go for a diagnosis and shame them into coming clean.
 
Thank you guys so much... I thought I had notifications on and no one was replying! I'm truly humbled by this support. I do think I am on the spectrum as does seem to be the consensus. It's very reassuring to have you all agree with this, as it's not something I share with anyone else. I look forward to posting more on here and getting to know the many great people that have already posted.
 

New Threads

Top Bottom