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Diagnosis of autism despite being able to...

NAS81003

Hi there

Has anyone been diagnosed with autism/adhd despite being able to:

-read facial expressions 

-understand intonation 

-make and understand jokes

-appear to be ‘normal’ / neurotypical.

Thanks for your time : )

  • in reply to Catlover

    Same, with the possible exceotion of ‘appear to be NT’ as some people have said ‘i could have told you…’ after i was diagnosed 

  • Like Dawn pointed out, there are many things we can learn. After all, we're all human. The difference is consciously thinking-through what is happening and making the effort to apply learned Responses rather than these social cues being 'innate'. 

    No one would've thought I was autistic, but little was understood about how it's just a different Neuro-Wiring. I took theatre classes and elocution, I learned the art of dialogue (allowing others their moment for sharing) and was rather quiet anyway. 

    Jokes, if we classify them under Rhetoric, can be popped into different categories. Sometimes Dad Jokes are funny simply because we are friends with another. I personally find Irony funny and Sarcasm rather pointless. One is a clever twist with language, where pragmatics is key, the other is just glorified complaining. There are many other types. 

    I'd have a look at some YouTubers maybe.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcqBgXCxddE 

    See if you relate. At this point, that's one of the best ways to self-diagnose. Also, this one points out the user errors we tend to run into https://thinkingautismguide.com/2022/01/autism-checklist-of-doom.html

    This is a good site autisticscienceperson.com

  • I think "appear" is your operative word there.

    Many of us have learned some of these things over the years but we do them by different means to NTs, it's part of the mask and exhausting.

    For instance, I was a trainer of some delicate topics for many years. Watching the body language of the group for signs of discomfort is important. So, I got a book and studied the potential meanings of body language, then made a mental effort to scan the group for thoes signs. Iwas explicitly studying it to do my job right. Other trainers just knew.

  • I don’t think an NT person would guess I’m on the spectrum, so that should answer your question.

    I can do all of the above and more. However, since my diagnosis I don’t pretend to be NT. I’m ND and that’s my normal.