Published on 12, July, 2020
I’m very confused about who I am and want to know if any Autistic people relate to any of my traits/behaviours.
I’m a 35 year old woman, in a happy long term relationship, good job and have a large social circle and enjoy social events. However I’ve always felt like I’m “not being myself” and always obsessed over personality type quizzes to try and find out who I am, always searched for the solution, yet never found it. More recently I’ve thought maybe something bad happened in my past that I don’t know about, and that is why I didn’t feel right and felt different - however nothing proves this point.
I’ve recently become fascinated in researching into late diagnosis of autism in women. I possess many traits of autism and masking, however I don’t (that I know of) have any problems with eye contact or interacting with people - this makes me question whether I am or not. To save going into too much detail I’ve bulleted below some of my current and past traits and behaviours. Some of these I’ve always just thought are weird or was just something I do so I’d love to hear if anybody else has had similar experiences.
The above are just a select through that have a personal impact on me, however there are more traits that are fitting. I’d be grateful to learn of others experiences.
I relate to quite several points from your post. I also repeat what to say, I was fascinated with girls in general. Not only older. I liked to observe them, but sitting with them was overwhelming. I used to say, that they are so expressive and I hated my “wooden expression” when compared to them. I could never catch the point, it felt like they had some secret language hidden behind words that only they understood but I couldn’t. I was always left behind and when they realised I don’t get their topics, they started laughing and bullying me. I also prefer reading, than listening. There are always some noises in the background that disturb me and I have to repeat the audio/video. I don’t like TV either, for the same reason as mentioned before plus light sensitivity, I often get headache. For me completing daily tasks is something normal and natural, if I have it in my habit. Worse, if it’s something new- then I’m likely to forget about it. I’m also a daydreamer and I like to plan things but my experience showed me that planning too much may bring me disappointment when things don’t go as expected. I always prefer having some more time / be somewhere earlier to prepare/ get used to etc. I’m also sensitive to shouting and any sudden explosive noises.