Three disorders

That's a very interesting post, because for a long time I debated the same thing about myself.

I have very distinct high periods (which I would say match descriptions of hypomania), where I'm very extroverted, unnaturally verbose, I have grand ideas and plans and am incredibly impulsive. I have so much physical energy I just get bouncy. I stim a lot. I deliberately get into arguments and debates for the fun of it. I have unwittingly gotten myself into danger through overconfidence.
I also have low times where I have no energy, am prone to be tearful and very depressed. Times I just want to curl up and stop existing and feel very hopeless. 
Sometimes the excited mood of the high phases gets too high and then I become incredibly anxious and highly strung, very prone to sensory overstimulation but unable to calm down or focus on anything to distract myself because it feels like my brain is running too quickly for my body to keep up. That's the worst kind.

This can all happen over a much shorter timeframe than bipolar would usually occur- it could be hours or days at a time (the low moods tend to last longer than the high, and I will often crash after a high mood- especially a prolonged one- straight into a low), with varying periods of regular mood patterns in between. If it was bipolar, it would be described as ultra ultra rapid cycling, which I think is quite a rarity.

I didn't pursue that diagnosis- I don't react the usual way to medication that affects the brain (my doctor tried it when I was a teenager, pre-autism-diagnosis, when he thought I was just depressed), I have a good support network now that can keep me safe when I'm hyper and get me through my low patches, so it would probably just be harder to manage things medically than to get along as I am. And it doesn't all match up anyway- the feelings seem to, but the timeframes to me seem TOO off from what I've read about bipolar.

I am now of the opinion that it might just be an autistic thing in some way. Something to do with emotional processing? I don't know, I'm only guessing.

Now you've brought it up again I do wonder whether bipolar traits are a common thing in autism- I guess this is the place to find out! I'll be following the thread.

Just to complicate matters I understand there is somebody at my local autism group who has been diagnosed as bipolar who is convinced that he is not bipolar but is autistic so who knows?

The thing is with the human brain there are a lot of things we don't yet know the full extent of or about the variants that exist, a lot of the research is still being done and the DSM changes reasonably often.
Look at autism- as recently as in the last few years they've gone "Oh wait girls ARE affected in decent numbers and aspergers isn't a distinct thing, its all autism". It's still a big complicated work in progress.

I can see where the person at your group is coming from, anyway. If you have more than one diagnosable condition it must be very hard to know what exactly is responsible for which behaviours or if/how they influence eachother.

I do find it very interesting, sometimes I do wish I'd studied psychology.

The thing is with the human brain there are a lot of things we don't yet know the full extent of or about the variants that exist, a lot of the research is still being done and the DSM changes reasonably often.
Look at autism- as recently as in the last few years they've gone "Oh wait girls ARE affected in decent numbers and aspergers isn't a distinct thing, its all autism". It's still a big complicated work in progress.

I can see where the person at your group is coming from, anyway. If you have more than one diagnosable condition it must be very hard to know what exactly is responsible for which behaviours or if/how they influence eachother.

I do find it very interesting, sometimes I do wish I'd studied psychology.

I am beginning to notice that the way I present as autistic is different depending on whether I am in depressive phase or in a manic phase e.g. I don't have ADHD (or not that you would notice) when I am in a depressive phase but I do when I am in a manic phase

....not literally sing... lol

Ditto.. I also work in education... get yourself a pseudonym... and sing! 

Haha, that post threw me. I've long stopped thinking of myself as young!
Most of my friends are in their mid-30s to 40s, I find it easier to be around them than my own age bracket for some reason. ^^' I think I forget I'm not even 30 sometimes. 

Maybe I should do the whole blogging thing myself, I've thought about writing about it once or twice. I would have to do it under a pseudonym probably though (I work in education and the powers that be are kind of paranoid about staff and social media, which would include blogs).

now..I’m an old elephant compared to you and I imagine reading about a forty something miswired type (Laura James, Cynthania Kim) might not suit..(my age group) .are there writers, journalists etc out there in your age group starting out in life’s journey...be interesting to find out...unless you write and blog yourself 

Dip your fingers in the sparkle jar if you can! :) .... 

Both, I studied human biology at university so I do find myself drawn to the research side of things. It's nice to read about other people with autism too (not necessarily women in particular), though, especially when it resonates well with me. It's nice to see things you've felt but maybe not really thought about written down and to feel like you've expanded your self-knowledge in that way. "Oh, so that is probably an autism thing".  

I'm sure I've encountered musings of an aspie before, but it must have been a little while ago now. I've not seen the books. We did buy a book on asperger's in girls (cannot remember the exact one, it's probably still on the bookcase in the family home) but I didn't really like it- I felt it was quite inaccurate, and I admit I did let it put me off the whole genre of female-specific-autism a bit at the time.

And good reminder- I will read Chris Packham's book! I have a friend who is a big fan and recommended it to me, but I've had a bit of a nightmarish year (my dad died in November- cancer- and was in hospital for most of 2017) so I didn't get around to it when she told me and it went completely out of my mind in the meantime! 

So, are you interested in the medical research behind ASD or reading about other ASD women...or both?   I can suggest further reads...

i foubd Cynthia Kim www.musingsofanaspie.com good, as well as the books Dancing Naked in the Street and no one noticed (I can post the link to the .pdf of that)... and Laura James’s Odd Girl Out...also Chris Packham book is good.

i dip into psychology research papers also ... 

I have read that :) we got the book when I was first diagnosed, though annoyingly my mum lent it to a friend (who was working in education with autistic kids) a few years later and it never re-emerged! 
I remember it being one of the better books we got (AKA one I related to more and didn't feel made false generalisations about me), in my opinion at the time.
Thanks for the PDF, I can revisit it now! ^^

I'm not sure I am brave enough to PM people out of the blue without invitation to be perfectly honest, though I might try reading a few of the threads they've responded to, haha!

Hi Emma

you still can.. Deepthought has a good library of reads if you feel brave to message him.   Have you read Tony Attwood book? The link below is to a pdf of his book.

http://www.autismforthvalley.co.uk/files/5314/4595/7798/Attwood-Tony-The-Complete-Guide-to-Aspergers-Syndrome.pdf