Please help with this list of autistic traits?

Hello. 

I have not been diagnosed, but I have been reading the threads on here and the following apply to me: 

obsessive exercise regime and feeling guilt for eating certain ‘bad’ foods that have a high calorie content.

routines that are detrimental and have resulted in lack of experimentation and exposure to more of what life might have to offer.

eating the same foods all the time.

a breakdown in communication with most of my family.

a lack of general care for the welfare of other humans.

an inability to express feelings or emotions about my fiancé.

obsessing over topics such as animal care, car construction and, for example, reading these threads.

reading over what I have written in an email over and over again. 

repeatedly feeling like I say the wrong things in conversation and others feel awkward. 
 
looking away from others when I have to talk during a conversation. 

obsessively picking at my fingertips and making them bleed. This is to ensure that there are no loose bits of skin. 

being very sensitive or angry when I hear someone whistling, cutlery scraping on plates and people clearing their throats. 

repeatedly being called “blunt” by colleagues.

in childhood:

taking toy cars and pretending to park them in designated spaces on a mat repeatedly.

I don’t remember much else about my childhood because I may have blocked it out due to sexual abuse by my father.

I am a 38 year old female teacher. How can I have got this far into life and only just realised that I might be autistic? 

Parents
  • Greetings to '38 Year Old female teacher who got this far into life and not realised that they might be Autistic'... Worry not, very very many of us upon this Forum are in fact older than that... with Us it is called a "late diagnosis" (of Autism).

    I post two links, the first is from the great maze of NAS-Online,  which has other links and 'stuff'. The second link is an 'official NHS link':

    https://www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/asd.aspx

    https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/autism/signs/adults/

    ...If there is a Thread upon this forum about "positive traits of Autism" then I have not seen it so far and have been waiting quite a while for it Myself. And I mean the *official + positive* traits, all in one Thread. (Usually (new/temporary) people only post to share troubles and queries, which is of course good and fine, but, well...)

    That is all for now from Me (other replies are coming up as I type this, so I forget what to say & get flustered). Good Luck.

Reply
  • Greetings to '38 Year Old female teacher who got this far into life and not realised that they might be Autistic'... Worry not, very very many of us upon this Forum are in fact older than that... with Us it is called a "late diagnosis" (of Autism).

    I post two links, the first is from the great maze of NAS-Online,  which has other links and 'stuff'. The second link is an 'official NHS link':

    https://www.autism.org.uk/about/what-is/asd.aspx

    https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/autism/signs/adults/

    ...If there is a Thread upon this forum about "positive traits of Autism" then I have not seen it so far and have been waiting quite a while for it Myself. And I mean the *official + positive* traits, all in one Thread. (Usually (new/temporary) people only post to share troubles and queries, which is of course good and fine, but, well...)

    That is all for now from Me (other replies are coming up as I type this, so I forget what to say & get flustered). Good Luck.

Children
  • Thank you for responding. I think I am struggling right now with not only my own stupid self diagnosis but my family issues as mentioned above. I feel pretty low that my own family keep lying to me and all of it began when my dad decided to abuse me in childhood. Maybe I have just given up on people and I thought I would vent my spleen online because it helps with the pain.