Published on 12, July, 2020
I know I should consult a professional but even if I do have autism its probably mild and I also have other conditions which might get mixed up with it, which makes me think I wont be able to get an accurate diagnosis, atleast not without spending lots of money.
I wont diagnose myself as anything before visiting a professional but im just looking to see if it's even worth the hassle first. Any opinion would be appreciated.
Im currently 18 years old. I'm pretty broken mentally. Mostly due to bad parenting but I wonder if autism might be a part of it.
I don't seem to have most talked about symptoms but some symptoms I've noticed I have are:
- I've had social anxiety since atleast the age of 12, the social anxiety could have been developed due to isolation but I think it started before I was really isolating myself too much and that the isolation just made it way worse overtime. Could have just been due to bad parenting tho.
- Im pretty sensitive to some smells, light, sounds and textures:I would easily get carsick when in an old car because of the smell, and would most times have my shirt over my nose for the entire ride.The smell of coffee in a car also made me carsick easily, im slightly sensitive to the smell in general but I think that it's mainly because I associate it with car sickness.Im a bit sensitive to light after not being exposed to it for a while, but im pretty sure thats normal.I cant stand the dry texture of my feet or hands and the sound when rubbing my feet against certain things or rubbing my hands together when they are dryI get shivers just from imagining the texture and sound id get from rubbing my feet against a couch for example.As a kid I would sometimes lick my hands to avoid the dry, stripy feeling.- Im slightly hypermobile, my knees are hyperextended and my fingers sometimes cave in too much
- My posture is bad, but that's probably caused by years of being sedentary.
- I've definitely felt different and inferior to the rest of society in the past, and still do, but that's probably just because I have had and still have bad life circumstances. It was social anxiety, body dysmorphia and as a result depression at first, then I've started isolating myself more and more and now my life is a complete wreck. So I'd say I have a reason to feel different and inferior. Also, I've always been super self aware and self conscious, regarding what I do, how I look etc, but apparently autists lack self awareness?
- I struggle with social interactions ( social anxiety ) and eye contact too.
- I was told that as a baby I needed some physiotherapy to strengthen and my teeth took longer to show up and to fall off.
Theres probably more that I just dont know of right now or can't recall.
Hi, I dismissed being autistic 10 years before I was diagnosed because I didn'y have some common things like reactions to lights and smells.ASD symptoms vary wideley and you should get an opinion from your GP. You certianally have many ASD traits. Do some reasearch, there are several Youtube channels that helped me decide if I had ASD.
I've watched one or two videos already and didn't seem to have most of the symptoms, but I'll keep looking into it, thanks.
Hi
I am also undiagnosed atm and age 49. I’m now ready to go to my gp to get a right to choose pathway. I have managed this for my son and we have a 3-6 month wait now which is great. I needed to get this for him before I thought about myself. I don’t know if this might help you at all but I decided to do a profile of myself over a number of months. As I have masked all my life I too was dismissive of traits and doubted myself even though I’ve always known I’m different. So from only having 3 or 4 things in my list I now have over 40. Have spent the last 6 months researching, asking my parents questions and going through my past in great detail and making notes. I think that this profile I have done will help me in my assessment personally as I struggle to retain information and forget things easily even if it is something I’m very knowledgeable about or a special interest. Basically my brain struggles to keep up when in conversation (not always but when I feel pressured) so I write things down and keep diary’s. I’m quite sure I’m ADHD also which was a shock to me as well. If I am diagnosed I intend to be proud and open about who I am and not try to keep everyone else happy which has basically been my life story right from a child. I am prepared to say goodbye to people in my life who choose not to understand or be interested in understanding and I’m okay with that. In some ways I feel like I have wasted a large proportion of my life not being my true self which does make me sad but we must look ahead and not back. I do hope you find what your looking for and also hope that you can accept the outcome and live your life how you truly intend.
Good luck
Good luck to you too.
Im starting to realize that I MIGHT have some of the common symptoms, but to a way lesser extent it seems. I also don't have enough life experience in some areas to know those things about myself and I cant always remember what the past was like.
I might be missing alot tho so ill give it some time.
I thought I only minded change if it were something social, like moving schools, which I contributed to social anxiety, but one thing I've found is that I've been wearing clothes off of the same 2 brands for years now, and just recently I've brought the same exact shoes to replace my old ones. But I feel like that's normal? Anyways I don't really have enough life experience to know if change really bothers me.
Another example is with routines - I barely use any routine now - only a small routine like setting 30m to shower in the evening, an hour to watch a film and then an hour to read - and didnt when I was younger, but thats because I have no life, nothing to do.
There was a period however where I was pretty fixated on routines but that could have been for any other reason. I do like the idea of routines but not any more than other people I think.
Another example is with having obsessive or weird interests - I don't have any obsessive or weird interests but the truth is that I don't have and haven't had any interests at all for the longest time because I was so absorbed in screens. I did at one point tho like the idea of having certain niche interests, like paranormal stuff, heraldry etc but never actually did anything with it.
I've never been obsessed with any interest since like I said I never really got the chance to have an interest at all, or atleast to be absorbed in one, but I do currently feel like I need to have strong interests because I have no life or personality. I would definitely get obsessive with some interests like films, reading etc if I had the chance to. Currently in kind of a bad spot so im not really engaging in any of that.
Another example would be gathering information on certain things - I did in the past try to learn certain subjects and I remember just creating folders in my pc and dumping any information about it in a catagorized way in those folders, e.g a folder for fitness, a folder for self improvement and so on. That went awfully wrong tho.
I like the idea of gathering info, and at some point I've made a list of things I'd like to know about like tree types, bird species, flower types etc but never actually got to it.