Do I have autism ?

This is one aspect of Autism Spectrum Conditions that I struggle with but it would seem not enough for my psychiatrist to say yay or nay one way or another. I think choosing chess as an example won't work because the game itself is so structured and a beginning chess players learns the basic strategies quite quickly to avoid being beaten easily. I would imagine, because I was way too impatient to learn to play chess deeply, that the board is the focus and not the player...all sorts of scenarios come up as the board changes...it's not like trying to tell if your opponent is bluffing in a card game.

As for getting one's coat or shouting, someone with a ToM difficulty can understand the meaning of the action but not its significance at the time it is taking place. That's why the behaviour of Aspies themselves can seem to follow a predictable pattern to an NT but the significance to the Aspie can be the complete opposite to how the NT views it. If anyone wants to correc this feel free but this has been my experience and much more so the Aspies I know.

Funnily enough, Easy, having read your first post, your experience and wishes seem much closer to mine than many people I've read about...well apart from the anxiety but my lack of fear is not a healthy thing. Strange how anxiety and a lack of fear go together...I suppose the anxiety is a day-to-day thing but the lack of fear seems much more part of me. I don't really care what happens to me but other people make me anxious. My lack of fear makes others anxious and so it goes round and round!

This is one aspect of Autism Spectrum Conditions that I struggle with but it would seem not enough for my psychiatrist to say yay or nay one way or another. I think choosing chess as an example won't work because the game itself is so structured and a beginning chess players learns the basic strategies quite quickly to avoid being beaten easily. I would imagine, because I was way too impatient to learn to play chess deeply, that the board is the focus and not the player...all sorts of scenarios come up as the board changes...it's not like trying to tell if your opponent is bluffing in a card game.

As for getting one's coat or shouting, someone with a ToM difficulty can understand the meaning of the action but not its significance at the time it is taking place. That's why the behaviour of Aspies themselves can seem to follow a predictable pattern to an NT but the significance to the Aspie can be the complete opposite to how the NT views it. If anyone wants to correc this feel free but this has been my experience and much more so the Aspies I know.

Funnily enough, Easy, having read your first post, your experience and wishes seem much closer to mine than many people I've read about...well apart from the anxiety but my lack of fear is not a healthy thing. Strange how anxiety and a lack of fear go together...I suppose the anxiety is a day-to-day thing but the lack of fear seems much more part of me. I don't really care what happens to me but other people make me anxious. My lack of fear makes others anxious and so it goes round and round!