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Silently diagnosing people

Luna

I can't help but silently start diagnosing people when they say things that make me think autism or if I see them acting in similar ways to me. 

Is this something anybody here does?
My cousin Paige appears very shy, she rarely speaks, she never makes eye contact - I didn't realise this until yesterday -, she doesn't like overly bright things, she said this yesterday and then only just I said I was going to sort my books and she asked if she could come and help because she loves organising things.
And now my brain is trying to work out whether she has autism or whether I'm just seeing things that aren't really there. Or, maybe I'm just desperate for another autistic person in the family. Lol.
A part of me wants to ask her but I don't want to offend her in case she would find that offensive as I've sadly read a lot of people do.
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  • Luna said:
    And now my brain is trying to work out whether she has autism or whether I'm just seeing things that aren't really there

    This is something I also do to an extent but I applied some logic to it and came to realise that because it is a spectrum condition, then there are probably loads of people with traits that are part of the spectrum but nowhere near all the ones you need to match a diagnosis.

    A lot of my family have traits but if you try to raise the subject they just don't want to know. I suspect it has a lot of stigma and they don't want to consider themselves to be "deficient" or whatever their inaccurate perception of autism is.

    I think the best thing to do it to leave them well alone - drop into conversation that you are autistic and there is a high probability of it being inherited but don't go further than that unless they are actually interested.

  • in reply to Iain
    Iain said:
    A lot of my family have traits but if you try to raise the subject they just don't want to know.

    This has been my own experience as well. Every time I broach the possibility no one wants to hear it, not even like I force it on anyone.

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