Hi!
I am a 21 year old woman and recently I have started questioning myself if I might be autistic. I do not want to make assumptions or self-diagnose. I just wanted to talk to people who might understand my experience, as I feel professionals have not been able to help or diagnose me properly.
I always have felt different and I know I am unlikely to be a neurotypical person. I struggle with depression and anxiety, but I feel like there is something underneath that actually triggers these disorders. However, psychologists and psychiatrists I have seen never gave me a proper diagnosis for what I have. They suggested that I might have ADHD, social anxiety, OCD, avoidant personality disorder. Autism was never mentioned and I actually never considered that I might be autistic until recently, when I started reading more about ASD. If I am autistic, I would be what is called “high-masking”, I do not think anyone I personally know would think of me as autistic. However, when looking underneath, I think I might have some traits that could be considered autistic. And especially when I think about how I was as a child, I think I had some characteristics that are common among autistic girls, such as self-isolating and difficulty making friends; tics; sensory sensitivity (I would not wear jeans or any clothes that I found ‘itchy’; I could not look at shiny things because they overwhelmed me); I had fixated, intense interests; among other characteristics. As of now, I still feel I have all of those traits, but less visibly, I think I learned to ‘control’ and hide them better, as I feel they are not socially acceptable.
Anyone would like to share their experiences? What are some traits you all think people with “high-masking” autism have, particularly women?
