Published on 12, July, 2020
I think I am on the autism spectrum but I keep hearing/reading that people with autism struggle with understanding nuances in meaning of words or don't understand sarcasm.
As far as I can remember I didn't feel confused with sarcasm and I've learnt the art pretty well that I am known for my caustic humour. I also love poetry and verbal imagery having been an avid reader when I had more time, as a child relied on a very active imagined alternative reality to get through some school situations.
Does that exclude me from being autistic? I'm afraid of going any further if it's all just in my mind.
OP it doesn't exclude you from being autistic, it's unlikely that you're making all the rest of it up. Not sure of your gender but I've read somewhere that females with ASD are less likely to have language issues. As an extreme example, people have speculated that Jane Austen was autistic.
I might not understand a turn of phrase first time (e.g when my mum said something might've "fallen off the back of a lorry" I said that seemed unlikely because it would've been damaged by falling off) but no-one is born knowing all these phrases, the way I see it everyone learning a language has has to build up a sort of look-up table in their head for non-obvious phrases.
Although I understand it, I don't use many figurative phrases myself in conversation and sometimes I find it kind of annoying when people use too much figurative language because it seems inaccurate and over-the-top.