Am I autistic

133 on the RAADS-R so still strong evidence of autism. On the diet how were you in childhood? My diet was very bland and weird up until my mid twenties but then changed, is this normal within autism? Thanks for your reply, still looking like there might be something to this.

I had little interest in food up to about eight years old, I was very picky about what I would eat. By ten or eleven my diet had expanded enormously and I was actively interested in food and ate much more.

All autistics are individuals and their autism is expressed individually. I have a sensory problem with nylon textiles, if I touch them I curl up into a ball and want to die, the texture is so horrible to me. I am socially quite able, but being sociable drains and exhausts me, I need alone time to recover. I am married and have two children, worked in scientific research for 34 years and did 3 university degrees, but only 20 minutes into my autism assessment the psychiatrist said he would be diagnosing me with ASC (autism spectrum condition). Being able to function in society is not any sort of bar to being autistic, it is the exhaustion and other difficulties we have in society, that non-autistic people do not experience, that reflects our autism.

Thanks again for the reply and some insight into what autism is like for you. I don't tend to have anything that really freaks me out now but have had in the past. My reaction is to run away and hide for a while, shutdown rather than meltdown. Well done with the degrees. I started one but only lasted one term before coming home. I don't want to pry but if you can say, what prompted you to get a diagnosis and/or how has it helped. I am still debating whether to get an official diagnosis and even if I am autistic.

The clinical diagnosis confirmed what I had already worked out myself. However, it was very good to have it formally validated. I was a little euphoric after the diagnosis, because being autistic explained so much about me. Rather than being somewhat weird on a purely personal level I was part of a group and community of similarly weird people. It always puzzled me that I was, in my younger days, so ineffective in gaining any sort of romantic partner. Dispassionately, I could see that I was physically on the attractive side of average, I was intelligent, honest and kind, and always treated other people in the way I would like to be treated myself. Still I had no luck. Getting the diagnosis gave me a reason for this, I was just not equipped to flirt, I could not read the signals that women were attracted to me, or reliably signal back that I was interested. It also explained why I had odd sensory issues, why I become agitated in crowds and why socialising exhausts me and I need a lot of time alone. It also allowed me to forgive myself for many past failings, which is a big advantage of getting a diagnosis. To sum up, it allowed me to realise that I was not rather poor at being human, I was daily overcoming problems that don't exist for the majority of people, and that I was an autistic person doing remarkably well in a society that was in many ways hostile to me.

I would add that the diagnosis has not led to any particular support being made available, I guess that being relatively successful means that I do not need it, but it would have been good to have had access to meeting other autistic people. So far the practical benefits have been limited. I no longer feel guilty about using disabled toilets and getting an 'invisible disability lanyard' allowed me to be fast-tracked through airport security checks a few weeks ago. Given the chaos at airports recently, it was a useful bonus.

The clinical diagnosis confirmed what I had already worked out myself. However, it was very good to have it formally validated. I was a little euphoric after the diagnosis, because being autistic explained so much about me. Rather than being somewhat weird on a purely personal level I was part of a group and community of similarly weird people. It always puzzled me that I was, in my younger days, so ineffective in gaining any sort of romantic partner. Dispassionately, I could see that I was physically on the attractive side of average, I was intelligent, honest and kind, and always treated other people in the way I would like to be treated myself. Still I had no luck. Getting the diagnosis gave me a reason for this, I was just not equipped to flirt, I could not read the signals that women were attracted to me, or reliably signal back that I was interested. It also explained why I had odd sensory issues, why I become agitated in crowds and why socialising exhausts me and I need a lot of time alone. It also allowed me to forgive myself for many past failings, which is a big advantage of getting a diagnosis. To sum up, it allowed me to realise that I was not rather poor at being human, I was daily overcoming problems that don't exist for the majority of people, and that I was an autistic person doing remarkably well in a society that was in many ways hostile to me.

I would add that the diagnosis has not led to any particular support being made available, I guess that being relatively successful means that I do not need it, but it would have been good to have had access to meeting other autistic people. So far the practical benefits have been limited. I no longer feel guilty about using disabled toilets and getting an 'invisible disability lanyard' allowed me to be fast-tracked through airport security checks a few weeks ago. Given the chaos at airports recently, it was a useful bonus.