Am I Autistic?

Hi all! I am a 24 year old woman and I’ve recently been thinking that I might have a higher functioning form of autism. I’d like to get some outside opinions, just to make sure I’m not exaggerating in my head before I consider seeing a doctor. Here are some of the things that have made me think I could have autism:
1. I have always had significant difficulty relating to other people and keeping friends, mostly because I often feel I don’t know what to say to make conversation. I have tried different approaches to socializing and people often find me too aloof or too overbearing, and I haven’t been able to find a good middle ground between the two. There have been many times in my life that I had no friends at all.
2. I have always had a need to stick to specific routines. I only eat off of certain plates/bowls and with certain silverware, I must have my food prepared in very specific/detailed ways or eating it makes me feel sick, I can only wear clothes that fit in very specific ways or I feel like I’m suffocating, I cannot stand to step on any cracks in the road/sidewalk or I just feel wrong for the rest of the day, I can only hold/use my phone with my right hand, if I carry any money in my wallet all the bills must be facing the same way, I can’t stand if the furniture has been rearranged because the whole room feels foreign. These are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head, but there are plenty more.
3. I do repetitive movements that might be described as stimming, for example I compulsively crack my knuckles especially when I am uncomfortable, and if I’m especially uncomfortable I will clench up all the muscles in my body, which somehow makes me feel safer.
4. My maternal grandfather and cousin were both diagnosed with Aspergers, back when that was a diagnosis, so I have a family history.
5. I am very uncomfortable with any new things; for instance I hate traveling to new places where I don’t know what to expect, I am very uncomfortable meeting new people, even small deviations to my normal daily routine make me feel off and uncomfortable for the whole day, if I go to a new restaurant for example I have to research the place, read their menu, and know exactly what it looks like and exactly what I’m going to order before I feel comfortable going, and I like to watch other people ordering ahead of me so I can know I’m doing it right.
6. I don’t have one specific special interest that I’ve been interested in for my whole life, but I do tend to get very invested in varying interests. For example, after I watched the ted bundy documentary, I spent weeks researching ted bundy, finding out everything I could about him, and rewatching the documentary several times. And as you can imagine, once I started to think I might have autism, I spent hours at a time doing detailed research on traits of autism.
7. I got through high school and some of college with actually quite good grades, however school was always quite a struggle for me because I often felt I was different from everyone around me, and the reason I did well is because I often felt outcast from the people around me and those feelings made me force perfectionism onto myself in order to compensate. I eventually dropped out of college because the pressure to keep up in academia, support myself financially, and attempt to maintain a social life became too much for me to handle. Honestly, I felt that if I continued to pressure myself to finish college I was going to kill myself, so that’s why I dropped out.
8. I often feign interest in things other people talk about in order to more easily carry on a conversation. I’ve had to teach myself to not monopolize the conversation and to listen to things other people are interested in even though I usually find it very boring.
9. I have issues with sensory overload, for example I’m very sensitive to temperature and tend to get overheated easily; I cannot concentrate on a conversation if there are multiple inputs; for example if someone is trying to talk to me while there is TV playing in the background or if someone tries to talk to me in a loud setting I can’t concentrate on what is being said and I usually get overwhelmed and shut down; I am very sensitive to bad smells and find even the slightest unpleasant scent to be intolerable to be around; I am a very picky eater and if something tastes even slightly strange to me I cannot stand to eat it.
10. I get overwhelmed very easily when having to learn things that I don’t immediately understand. For example, the last time I got a new computer, I had to learn how to use it and had a huge meltdown halfway through the setup because it was so different from my old computer and I felt like I was never going to understand.

So based on these traits, I’m interested to see if other people think autism is a likely diagnosis for me or if I’m just overblowing things in my mind. I do tend to doubt myself just because I’m in my mid-twenties and have gone through life without a diagnosis thus far; however I know women and girls are less likely to be diagnosed in childhood, so I’m not sure what to think. I also doubt myself because I’ve been able to hold down a job and support myself as an adult, which makes me wonder if I’m neurotypical and I’m just overreacting to a few unusual traits of mine. I’d really appreciate any input, and if anyone does think I sound like I may have autism, I’d also appreciate feedback on whether diagnosis is a useful thing in adulthood or if it would be easier to just continue living my life the way I have been. Thank you!!

Parents
  • It certainly sounds like you have a lot of traits that are common to autism.  I definitely recognise a lot of what to say.  Your summary of your issues would be ideal when it comes to discussing it with your GP.

    You could also try some of the online tests available,  I would recommend the AQ10 to being with then the AQ50 as a follow up.  

Reply
  • It certainly sounds like you have a lot of traits that are common to autism.  I definitely recognise a lot of what to say.  Your summary of your issues would be ideal when it comes to discussing it with your GP.

    You could also try some of the online tests available,  I would recommend the AQ10 to being with then the AQ50 as a follow up.  

Children