Overlooked informal test for autism

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Probably because most of them aren't part of the diagnostic criteria for ASD? They aren't defining traits of autism, and they are not found among all autistic people, although they indeed are much more common among autistic people than among allistic people. Most autistic people have some but not all of the traits you listed above.

Some of the traits you listed are among the many possible forms of the diagnostic criteria's B.4, "Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input" -- but that's an optional criterion (the DSM requires only "at least two of four" of B.1, B.2, B.3, and B.4).

Anyhow, until someone has actually taken the time to read up on autism, it might not occur to them that whatever miscellaneous neurological oddities they might have are even relevant. That's probably the main reason why people -- even those who actually do have some of the traits you listed -- don't mention them when they first start wondering if they might be autistic.

Until I started reading in-depth about autism a few years ago, it simply did not occur to me that my sleep issues and my assorted sensory quirks (e.g. the left side of my body being more sensitive to heat than the right side of my body) had anything whatsoever to do with my social difficulties -- although I did see a strong connection between my attention issues (e.g. extreme difficulty with multi-tasking) and my social difficulties (e.g. difficulties with eye contact and unfocused chitchat in with multiple people). Until I started reading in-depth about autism, I just thought of myself as a person with a lot of odds and ends of mostly unrelated neurological quirks. It never occurred to me to think of them as a single unified whole, of any kind.

(Indeed, I still don't think of them all as a unified whole. "Autism" is an extremely broad and heterogeneous category.)


What used to be called "Asperger's disorder" didn't necessarily involve developmental delays except in the social realm.


But "life as a misunderstood outsider" is a necessary consequence of items A.1, A.2, and A.3 of the diagnostic criteria, although not every "misunderstood outsider" is autistic.

Last edited by Mona Pereth on 02 Jun 2021, 8:38 am, edited 4 times in total.

Because, in the diagnostic criteria, B.4 ("Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input") is one of four categories of triats (listed as B.1, B.2, B.3, and B.4), of which a person must have only "at least two of four" in order to be diagnosed with ASD. Thus, a person without any sensory issues at all can fit the diagnostic criteria.

I think the underlying neurological causes of our social issues vary from one autistic person to another.

For example, for some of us, our social difficulties are caused, to a large degree, by distractions due to extreme sensory issues.

For others, including myself, our social difficulties are caused primarily by attention issues (though not the kinds of attention difficulties that are typical of ADHD). Like many autistic people, I have much more-than-normal difficulty with multi-tasking.

If one reads my whole posts, that's mostly my point.


The quoted quote above is one of my main complaints.
Of informal tests prioritizing socialization difficulties as opposed to why socialization is hard instead.


Many tests do not say AS's social difficulties reasons came from sheer executive dysfunction via dysregulation or the overall ADHD or more physical oriented states like chronic exhaustion.
As opposed to, uhh, 'geekiness' or 'being awkward'.

Why do some people assume that the results of an on-line test make their ASD "diagnosis" somehow official?

On-line tests seem to have an inherent bias toward a positive diagnosis, yet most of them also seem to have been written by people who are not appropriately-trained and licensed mental-health professionals -- it seems more likely that the people who write those on-line tests only read the Wikipedia entry on autism.

Based on physical things, I would probably be disqualified. Yes, I have hypersensitive hearing, auditory processing problems, and life-long insomnia, but that’s really it. No food allergies or intolerances, no gut issues at any point in my life (it’s rare for me to even get a stomach bug, though that may be in large part because I’m paranoid about food safety), not significantly more clumsy or less dexterous than most people, no hypermobility (unless one double-jointed thumb counts), no light sensitivity, no medication sensitivity, no hypo sensitivities (actually I am hypersensitive to pain, and also vestibularly hypersensitive, I’d get a headache just by using a swing as a kid and could not handle anything involving spinning)...

Yet I seem more affected by the things that are a part of the diagnostic criteria than the majority of people I encounter with official diagnoses (if re-assessed under DSM V criteria, I would almost certainly be diagnosed with ASD level 2, not level 1) and was professionally diagnosed as a kid before I’d ever even heard the word “autism” before. Somehow I manage to be a “textbook” case while simultaneously displaying almost none of the stereotypes or physical things that are common.

Some of those things I have difficulty with or have. Not all, but some... And a few come and go at certain stress periods of my life and during and after burnout.

At least one I am looking at I did not know was associated with autism and I have in the last few years been back and fore to the doctors about and once in hospital (A&E) about. It is something I only started to have about two or three burnouts ago over about a period of five years, but it has on occasions made me struggle for my life and one stand in doctor who is not from our surgery did not see it as a problem (She assumed I was naturally like that which I am not).
Not one has suggested a link to autism and to be honest, I don't think it is known with local doctors there is a link between the two?

I feel a bit on my own in regards to this. It is nothing sexual or bad.

As someone with NLD (not AS), I'm not entirely sure how qualified I am to speak on this, but I'll try.

I think most of the issues that the OP has identified are related to sensory processing differences.* I really don't have any of my own, aside from not liking very loud sounds (such as train horns, gunshots, fireworks, flares, etc) when I was younger.

I am not 100% sure whether the social issues in those with ASD's are intrinsic or related to sensory processing differences. I'm inclined to think the latter, but could be wrong.

*Aside from those associated with NLD, which is a spatial-perceptual disorder at its core.

Like other people have said, most of those things fall under sensory issues which are a part of the diagnostic criteria now (but aren't really required). Sensory issues are also not "medical" issues. Autism is a neurological/developmental disorder that may or may not be associated with a select few medical issues.

What should or should not be diagnostic criteria also gets complicated when you have a disorder that is a "spectrum", and currently has an upwards of 100+ genes that are being looked at as possible causes of it. There's going to be a lot of people who wont have the sensory issues or medical issues you mentioned.

Also, the being an "outsider" thing is true for a lot of people, and like others have mentioned a lot of people figuring out their autism later in life don't even notice that their sensory/medical issues are a part of their disorder. Some people don't even recognize they have issues like that afterwards, because that sensory experience is just "normal" to them.

I don't know how it could be proved or disproved without a laborious search through the tons of informal descriptions and tests that are out there, but for a long time I've felt that I'd prefer to see more focus on the physical manifestations of ASD. Not necessarily less material on the social impacts, just more about the physical stuff.

From my pov the OP is total ass-backward crap.

I dont have any sensory issues that i can think of. The issues that the OP is "sick of" are the very, and the only issues, that apply to me (social, not fitting in, executive issues).

It was poorly worded. I meant that I don't want the physical issues to be a requirement for diagnosis or for being accepted as autistic by the autistic community.

I'm surprised that the things that Starkid brought up aren't included in the list of indicators.

This was great stuff for me. I recognized lots that I othewise I would not ever have Thanks.

Has anyone done anything similar for just the thinking styles of it all??

Im not sure at all what exactly it is Im trying to ask here, but my maybe not aspie cuz I cant seem to get "diagnosed". But mine is super spockish??

To me it's quite an intriguing thing because, having retired, I no longer have any urgent need to interact socially, apart from occasionally with service providers, much of which can be done via the written word where there's less chance of trouble arising from my autism. I'm not saying I don't "need" friends, just that my life and livelihood is a lot less dependent on my social skills now. So since retiring I've had this idea rattling around my head - "ok, now you don't need to keep NTs sweet any more and you've got control over practically your whole existence, what is still wrong?" And I've not found much help on the Web for that. It's mostly about the problems of fitting into society, keeping a job, flirting, winning friends, etc.

I also note that it's a common argument that the only thing wrong with Aspies is that society sees them as having something the matter with them, that we just do some things differently, neither better nor worse. So, eliminate society and we have a better chance of studying the absolute side of the disability, the side we can't blame on NT prejudice.