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Doubting my autism diagnosis

Why I may be autistic:

I have sensory issues
I didn't know how to behave at my job (don't have one anymore), I felt inadequate, pretending a lot, never understood that 'silly chitchat'
I focus on details
When I comfort someone, I have to think about what I need to do
I need to think about how I should react in social situations, but it feels like I usually choose the right facial expressions, I feel like I need to think about everything I do in social situations
Sometimes I don't know the right timing when to shake hands with someone or how to say goodbye in formal meetings

Why I may not be autistic:

I understand people's expressions
I don't have motor skill issues, I have great motor skills
Pretending is a form of manipulation (especially when trying to make other people feel better or make them like you!)
Nowadays I love chitchat, even though it doesn't always go easily.
I don't often take things literally (I used to do so more often a while back, how weird is that?!)
I'm very sensitive to other people's moods/tone of voice
I don't have obsessive interests (I only had one a few months ago, and maybe in my childhood)
I never had any difficulties socializing with kids when I was little
I don't have problems with making eye contact (I used to a while back)
I don't have patterns/routine
I can handle change quite well, though I don't always like it
I can handle unexpected situations well
I can do things spontaneously

The person who diagnosed me and I had discussed that we should bear in mind that the eye contact might be caused by insecurity. Geez, I'm afraid I have been misdiagnosed.

But maybe the fact that I need to think about what kind of facial expression I need to use and that I don't know how to behave and chitchat well are indicators that I may be just a little bit autistic? Being social definitely doesn't come naturally, but I pull it off really well! But then again, everyone has one or two 'autistic' traits. My mom likes routine, but isn't autistic. My father focuses extremely on details, but isn't autistic. My brother doesn't make a lot of eye contact, but isn't autistic.

I think I could get myself get re-diagnosed some time? I might be just a little bit autistic, but they don't diagnose like that, that's very confusing.
 
I'm sorry, are you looking for an opinion on whether or not you have ASD? Let me try to lend my perspective: I'm severely Aspie, but outwardly I act and appear completely normal. I also can understand people's expressions and tone of voice. I even enjoy conversations, to a degree. The difference is, as you have also noted, is that it doesn't come naturally.

We do it deliberately. We can do it, but we have to think about it, and actually try. It's not like that for NTs. It all comes as automatically to them as breathing. That's the difference.
 
While I wouldn't rule out not being on the spectrum, I don't think any of what you say you don't have trouble with would make that so. As you said, you can do some things, but not naturally, without thought and concentration.

I also have:

excellent motor skills/coordination,
understand people's moods and tone of voice, for the most part. Though how to react to them, not so well.
I can enjoy chit chat, but not with just anyone, and it usually has to have some humor involved.

You don't say how long it has been since you were diagnosed, but there were a lot of things that I didn't think were problems for me (such as patterns/routines, obsessive interests, literal thinking) until I had been re-examining my behavior, now and in the past, for a couple of years. I just didn't know what those things really meant or how I presented them. As I went through this process with the help of my therapist, I gradually came to see how much of a struggle it had been, how much energy I used to do these things. And when I stopped struggling against my nature, stopped using up that energy, I saw how my abilities in those areas suffered.
 
You might just be good at passing and/or have really good coping skills. Keep in mind that we are adults, and we have had more time to learn the ropes than the children who are used as the only or main measuring stick. I don't have any obsessive interests, either, in that I can't stick with just one thing for very long. It feels stagnant. But I have deep interests, fascinations if you will, and that is just as good only without the implied compulsion in the word "obsession".

Of course we can read faces and gestures. Our lives have depended on it, and we knew it.
 
I often think like this, I feel it's the black and white thinking coming up; you're not everything so you mustn't be. I think you need to bear in mind that over your life you will learn to make up for your deficits, it's not unheard of that people who think literally learn to consider if phrases are meant to be literal or not literal.
 
Sometimes I have doubts too. I worry that I'm too independent, too well adapted, I appear to be too 'normal' or sociable, or that my diagnosis assessment wasn't thorough enough. I sometimes think that it would be easier if there were some sort of conclusive blood test you could do to give a definitive yes or no answer. As it is, a diagnosis is, by nature, a subjective opinion of the clinician.

It might help you to read a thread I made a while back entitled "Which ASD Traits don't you have" to see the very wide range of traits and variations there are amongst people on the spectrum.

https://www.aspiescentral.com/threads/which-asd-traits-do-you-not-have.12125/

Being able to cope with a difficulty or manage a symptom doesn't mean that the difficulty or symptom ceases to exist. Autistic people can often find coping mechanisms which allow them to get along in society and fit in, but that doesn't mean that they are no longer autistic.
 
Being able to cope with a difficulty or manage a symptom doesn't mean that the difficulty or symptom ceases to exist. Autistic people can often find coping mechanisms which allow them to get along in society and fit in, but that doesn't mean that they are no longer autistic.
Thanks for bolstering thoughts I have posted for a very long time here on this forum.
 
I'm sorry, are you looking for an opinion on whether or not you have ASD? Let me try to lend my perspective: I'm severely Aspie, but outwardly I act and appear completely normal. I also can understand people's expressions and tone of voice. I even enjoy conversations, to a degree. The difference is, as you have also noted, is that it doesn't come naturally.

We do it deliberately. We can do it, but we have to think about it, and actually try. It's not like that for NTs. It all comes as automatically to them as breathing. That's the difference.

I think I'm looking for an opinion on whether I might have it or not indeed... I am happy with the responses I got. Yeah I think it's true that I also have to think about it, and that it doesn't come naturally. Considering that, I might be autistic. Thanks. (I even have to think about what I'm typing here... how to respond. I don't know, so I just... try.)
 
Autism not does not exist in a tangible sense, they have tried to show "autistic brains" are wired differently through CT and PET scans and autopsies but most of the time, no abnormalities are shown (I say "most" of the time, not all the time). Autism is a term used to explain a collection of behaviors shared within individuals that fall within a spectrum ( mild to severe). In my opinion, having the "core" behaviors not the trivial ones are the most important at determining if you actually fall within this umbrella term of autism and weren't mislabeled as something you're not.

Extremely poor socialization, non verbal or verbal communication problems and uneven skill development are the three CORE features of Autism. Clumsiness, being sensitive to sights and sounds ect. are just the trivial behaviors that aren't all that at important to have or not. If you really lack all the core behaviors then you probably aren't on the spectrum.
 
Sometimes I have doubts too. I worry that I'm too independent, too well adapted, I appear to be too 'normal' or sociable, or that my diagnosis assessment wasn't thorough enough. I sometimes think that it would be easier if there were some sort of conclusive blood test you could do to give a definitive yes or no answer. As it is, a diagnosis is, by nature, a subjective opinion of the clinician.

It might help you to read a thread I made a while back entitled "Which ASD Traits don't you have" to see the very wide range of traits and variations there are amongst people on the spectrum.

https://www.aspiescentral.com/threads/which-asd-traits-do-you-not-have.12125/

Being able to cope with a difficulty or manage a symptom doesn't mean that the difficulty or symptom ceases to exist. Autistic people can often find coping mechanisms which allow them to get along in society and fit in, but that doesn't mean that they are no longer autistic.

Excellent post. Totally agree.

Sometimes, I have my doubts, too. Which is why I've asked the doctors as to why it's taken so long for any health professionals to spot my ASD symptoms. They said I should give myself more credit for developing good coping mechanisms.

I'm accepting the doctors' verdict. And looking out for the little clues in my daily life which made them decide to diagnose me on the spectrum.
 
What about restrictive repetitive behaviour and impaired imagination? And function impairments?

Function impairment I mentioned as skill development already (didn't word it right) Restrictive repetitive interests and impaired imagination aren't necessary to ASD from what I have been told.
 
Function impairment I mentioned as skill development already (didn't word it right) Restrictive repetitive interests and impaired imagination aren't necessary to ASD from what I have been told.
Weird, I got told they are a core part. Especially restrictive repetitive.

Also criteria seems to suggest it is

Both ICD

http://www.iancommunity.org/cs/autism/icd10_criteria_for_autism
http://www.iancommunity.org/cs/about_asds/icd10_criteria_for_diagnosing_aspergers_syndrome

And DSM

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/hcp-dsm.html
 

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