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Getting to the Bottom of the AQ50

Raven_Forester

Hi everyone, 

I recently joined the forum after months and months of research after an off hand comment (which was the most recent in a life time of offhand comments about possibly being autistic) on the topic of autism. I'm a hypochondriac by nature starting around the time I was 14 and about to start high school and I spent an entire summer in sweatpants and sweatshirts even outside and being exhausted and low on energy all the time and just having no motivation to do anything, especially not prep for my new school experience (which is kinda happening again now as I prep for college). I thought I had cancer because I knew something was wrong. Long story short I don't have cancer. I also don't have dyslexia like I most recently tried to convince myself of, my brain is just super-duper slow with processing things which is annoying when in an advance placement program in school. Anyway, I really need to stop getting side tracked with anecdotes and random information. This happens a lot. The point is, I've been researching autism and I think I might be autistic which would help to explain the things in my life that plain old anxiety and introversion don't, but I don't want to jump to conclusions and self diagnose when I have a history of extreme paranoia with things like this. My mother has already written off my suspicions as me being a hypochondriac which usually leads me to forcing myself to drop the subject I'm researching, but with this I cant. 

gave me great advice on me initial introductory post to fill out the AQ50 as a starting point in getting to the bottom of myself. I filled it out and got 36, but as they suspected found a few of the questions vague and left me uncertain what I should answer or what qualifies as a certain thing, etc. Is anyone well versed in psychology or has gone through this before and can help me, and hopefully anyone else that is struggling with this, with deciphering the AQ50 questions to make sure I'm as acurate as possible with my answer whether it makes me seem more likely to be autistic or disproves my theory entirely. Either is fine, I'm not looking to be autistic, I'm just looking for answers and maybe solutions and support in college that I've never had before and can make things easier moving forward. I've always known I'm a little different, but its always been chalked up to being shy and having PTSD and anxiety. My mom says I'll grow out of my shyness and things like she did as she got older, but the older I get the less likely that seems.

Thank you,

Raven

Parents

  • I think this is a common issue people find with the AQ tests. Some of the social questions I think well it depends. I like a party if it’s a close family members “big” birthday party at my uncles house. But a wedding reception where I only know the bride? No way. Same with the museum vs theatre questions, depends what I’ll be seeing. My husband struggled with the definition of easily, how to quantify things he can do but with some effort

Reply

  • I think this is a common issue people find with the AQ tests. Some of the social questions I think well it depends. I like a party if it’s a close family members “big” birthday party at my uncles house. But a wedding reception where I only know the bride? No way. Same with the museum vs theatre questions, depends what I’ll be seeing. My husband struggled with the definition of easily, how to quantify things he can do but with some effort

Children
  • in reply to GuybrushThreepwood

    I agree with both of those things. I enjoy hanging out with my friends and with my softball teammates (even when I'm a bit of an outsider with them) in very small, close knit settings when I know everyone, but throw me into a new social group or a large family event where there are lots of different groups to try to navigate and I can't just cling to one or two people the whole time is really hard and exhausting. The same with movies and museums. If is a movie I'm interested in and actively want to go out and see, I'm all for it, but otherwise Id rather just wait until it comes out onto video. For museums, if it has anything to do with dinosaurs or mythology, count me in, and some art. But if you take me to a modern art museum that is filled with pieces that I have to try to decipher and are so completely abstract that I can't see how what the author wrote about the piece connects to the piece I can't get into it. That's always been my issue with art. The beautiful renaissance portraits and things like that I'm all for, but if I can't actually see what the picture is or what story its trying to tell (or one I can craft) I get bored.

    And yes, easily is so hard to define. I didn't particularly notice any question in the AQ that stumped me specifically because of that wording, but in other contexts I've struggled with that. Because there are easy, medium, and hard things about every situation you're in. Even the most difficult school project has easy parts.