Hi, I'm Sol.

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Hello all! I'm Sol.
So, I found this forum because I have a strong suspicion that I have autism. This is from researching autism and ADHD, and from talking to two of my friends who have both been officially diagnosed.
On one end, my friend and my behaviors are very similar to each other, and we tend to get along pretty well because we have a few shared interests.
On the other, I told this friend that I suspect I could have autism, and he replied "Well I could have told you that."
I have a lot of behaviors that I deal with and trouble with emotional regulation, picking up social cues, trouble finding new interests, and they're affecting my life and I want to find out why. I hope to get tested sometime this year, and be out of the dark.
To sound like a cliche, I know something about me is different, I just don't know what or why. Hopefully, I can find out.

Welcome! I hope you find the forum useful! Enjoy!

Sol, welcome to wrong planet. I wish you success in finding your goal. It took me several decades to figure out why I am different and how it affected me. My asperger's syndrome was due to an accident when I was around 3 years old. I almost died. I was around 20 pounds and the bull that struck me weight about 1,000. It was almost like being attacked by a dinosaur. I recovered, but my brain was a different brain. It took me almost 70 years to figure this out but I am glad that I did.

Welcome to WP! I hope you find this a pleasant place.

If you have not already found these two online quizzes you might want to give them a try:
<=>- Autism-Spectrum Quotient Test
<=>- Aspie-Quiz ^{Registering is optional!}
They do not give a formal diagnosis, of course, but might be informative.

And it might be worth noting that there are other diagnoses that share some traits with the Autism Spectrum, especially if the Autistic traits are mild.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

I could have ADHD or OCD, but the Avoidant traits I have seem more like a learned behavior, because I was never like that until I was in school for a few years. At the very least, they seem more like a manifestation of my anxiety.
I've actually taken the two quizzes already, but I retook them for accuracy sake.
On the first I got a 28, so that puts me in the range for suspected Asperger's. I also took the Aspie quiz and got a 155 out of 200 on the Aspie traits, and 61 out of 200 in neurotypical traits, mostly for perception (that sounds like a DnD thing).
I do like taking the quizzes though, but I hate the layout on the Aspie one.

Well...the online quizzes do not provide a diagnosis...but they seem to suggest your suspicions that you might be Autistic are quite reasonable.

The good news is you have some of the traits but they are not so strong that they remove all doubt. That's good! If your traits were strong enough to remove all doubt they'd probably be causing you a lot of difficulty in life...instead of just some difficulty. The bad news is the traits, though present, leave room for doubt about whether or not you are on the Autism Spectrum.

The Autism-Spectrum Quotient Test confirmed my suspicion that I had some traits of Autism but left me wondering whether I was almost Autistic or barely Autistic. That is when I sought a formal assessment, because I wanted to know.

Your situation is more complicated than mine, though. I first suspected I might be Autistic when I was 64. I was not seeking special accommodations. A diagnosis offered me no practical benefits. And I had very little to lose due to a diagnosis—it would not complicate things for me at work or school because I was already retired, and it would not complicate any search for a job because I was comfortably retired. I got assessed solely for my own peace of mind—I wanted to know.

You're young. I have some shoes older than you. If you are muddling your way through life okay then I don't know the ramifications of getting an official diagnosis at your age. If you had an official diagnosis but did not want to get official accommodations for it, would you even have to tell anyone about the diagnosis? Or, would you be better off living with "maybe" for a few decades and then get an assessment? I honestly do not know.

I don't think I am qualified to suggest what might come next. Maybe some other folk on WP can offer some useful information at this point.

Good luck!

glad you are with us. Eventually we do get it sorted out. Sometimes the discoveries we make about ourselves, others or our past experiences are a surprise. Diagnosis for me was a huge relief and it explained almost all the "whys" of my life. Take your time and explore, you are worth it!

The quizzes mostly just helped clue me in on what might be going on, and I was bored and thought they seemed interesting.
Accomodations aren't even something I considered when I wanted to pursue a formal diagnosis, and I don't think I want to pursue them. I've actually wanted a diagnosis or at least a test to see what might be going on when I was even younger, because I knew something was different.
I was told to wait until I was an adult, and I feel like that crippled me further.
I mostly just want to find out why. Why am I different? How much is that actually affecting? I haven't had too many difficulties in my quality of life, but there's enough of a shift that it's noticeable.
I guess the best way to word it is that I'm seeking closure. I know I'm not neurotypical, and I have a hard time living with the maybes, especially in circumstances I can control to a degree.
I hope I can get a diagnosis, to at least be able to know the answer for once.

If you get a formal diagnosis it should provide the closure you seek. A number of us older folk on WP were delighted when we got our diagnoses.

But, like I said, I don't know the ramifications of getting a diagnosis at your age. I'm not saying there would be bad ramifications. I'm saying I do not know if there would be any ramifications, and if there were whether they were more likely to be good or bad. I don't know.

If you do decide to get an assessment check your health insurance. My health insurance covered "mental health" and an Autism Assessment fell within that. If you insurance covers it then be sure to be very careful to follow their procedures and keep good records. They might not cover the entire thing but it's nice if they cover some.

Note, however, my insurance provider—though immediately willing to help when I asked—was clueless! If you want an assessment but not necessarily any treatment then all you need is a licensed psychologist who works with Autism and is willing to do an assessment ^{they'll know if they can do the assessment} and takes patients your age and, ideally, accepts your insurance. When I asked my insurance company they did not know that, and their confusion added months of delay to getting my assessment.

Whatever you decide, good luck.

And I'm still hoping some WP folk who got diagnosed at your age will join the conversation and share their stories.

Hi Sol, I didn't even know what autism/Asperger's was until I looked up David Byrne's bio, saw he thought he had Asperger's Syndrome and looked it. I thought I was reading about myself. I took a couple of online tests as a matter of curiosity and scored 44/50 on one, 155/200 on another. My lifelong mysteries explained in one fell swoop. Social(izing) difficulties, verbosity on pet subjects, unable to get on with others (unless they wanted something fixed which made me a temporary best friend) etc. etc. My school life and attempts at flatting with others were miserable. I like being alone. I hope things get better for you.