Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello fellow autistic people! I thought I would share this brilliant article for any of you questioning your autistic identity or if you are at the start of your autistic discovery journey. This article compiles some common autistic experiences and is by the awesomely autistic founder of Ausome Training.
https://ausometraining.com/am-i-autistic/
I hope this helps you on your autistic discovery journey! Good luck! We are here for you.
You are very welcome. We are here to help you on your autistic discovery journey.
Thank you, this is all really helpful
You are very welcome
It’s good I make you laugh, I make other people laugh somewhat unintentionally too!
Thank you so much for sharing
Good luck on your autistic self discovery journey! I am glad you found the article useful. Below are some more website links that you may find helpful to learn more about your autistic experience:
https://aucademy.co.uk/starting-your-autistic-discovery-journey/
https://aucademy.co.uk/
https://youtube.com/@aucademy6195
https://www.youtube.com/live/oo34mppLMqE?feature=share
Aucademy is a brilliant and informative Autistic led education platform on autistic experiences.
We are here for you, if you want advice or to share experiences on your autistic discovery journey.
I hope this helps!
You are very welcome! I am glad you could resonate with the autistic experiences in this article. It is so important to have our experiences affirmed and validated.
Oh wow - a lot of this article definitely sums me up to a T!Thanks for sharing Ausomely Autistic!Mweekie xx
What a great article, perfect for someone like me, just setting out on this self discovery journey. Saved it for my therapist as a lot of it sums me up
Haha yay
You are very welcome!
What an interesting article. Thanks for sharing :)
I am glad this article helped you reflect on your life experiences, if only direct and honest communication was appreciated and embraced.
You are very welcome. I am glad you found you could resonate with the points in the article. Congratulations, you are definitely autistic!
Great, I am glad you learnt more about your own autistic experience.
Homebird said:Very interesting, although I know I am autistic I found even more things I do that I hadn't thought about being related to being autistic.
What kind of experiences did you resonate with? The autistic discovery journey is never ending, I am sure you will still have many more ‘lightbulb’ moments and revelations about your autistic experiences.
Homebird said: I am gradually realizing things though like I have recently realized other people are not fascinated by small detail I find interesting or want to know more about.
I am fascinated by small details and patterns too, it is because we are monotropic thinkers. We as autistic people zoom in and specialise in certain subjects, whereas non autistic people are generalists. I particularly notice ‘small’ details like how fonts have changed on food packaging, but for me they are not small details at all, they are HUGE! I love my autistic attention to detail, it means I notice things that other people are oblivious to.
Excellent. However, while reading it I couldn't stop myself from reflecting on a whole rake of experiences at work and really, really wanting to go back and tell it like it is.
Thank you for sharing this. Such an interesting article. I found that I matched the majority of the points in this article.
Very interesting, although I know I am autistic I found even more things I do that I hadn't thought about being related to being autistic. I am gradually realizing things though like I have recently realized other people are not fascinated by small detail I find interesting or want to know more about.
While many of the 'Am I autistic' and 'Trauma' examples applied to me, relatively few of the 'Common situations' section applied to me (only 4 or 5). This is not because I'm not autistic, but because I'm intelligent and worked out long ago what other people expect of me, and I conform. I conform because doing so leads to better outcomes when interacting with other people. Some autistics can function extremely well, because we have had to observe and understand social situations using our intellect. This has the downside of social exhaustion, but having to do things using conscious intellect, rather than instinct, does not stop us being capable of social adroitness.
You are very welcome, I am glad you found the article thought provoking.
Inula said:As I read through it I was thinking that not every single thing applied to me so I can't be autistic! (Those smart online tests suggest otherwise) I've spent 60 years trying to fit in it's so hard to really know who I am as I've spent so long masking.
Just because you don’t relate to every autistic experience mentioned in the article, doesn’t mean you are not autistic. There is no one way to be autistic, our community is so diverse and that is what makes it so beautiful. You know yourself best, so please don’t use this article as a substitute for formal identification. You are the expert on your own experience.
Inula said: I even got to the point of following the link for an appointment for an official diagnosis. And now I'm sat here crying - because? What if I spend all that money on an assessment and they say - nah. You're brain just works in the regular way and your self diagnosis is nonsense and actually - you're just a bit odd but not autistic. I'm super sensitive to criticism and rejection and that makes me feel fearful of moving from self diagnosis to official diagnosis. Ah the joys of imposter syndrome :(
It can take a while to understand who you are after years of masking, it is common to go through a period of self discovery when you realise you are autistic. I am sorry you are struggling with imposter syndrome, this along with rejection sensitivity are common experiences in our community. You are not alone. I hope you feel like your experiences are validated in this autistic community.
You know yourself better than anyone else.
This video below might help you understand your imposter syndrome/why you are questioning your autistic identity: