You know you're autistic when...

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You have done a lot, educationally speaking and have managed to grow and change to the point where you have a decent social life and a lot of varied outlets, but you believe your chances of ever finding that one special person are still next to zero because you have so much ground to make up. You believe you are just too much work for anyone to deal with.

you're shopping in Poundland and the incessant Xmas music is annoying you, and when a song comes on that contains the repeating line "it's Xmas", you walk around muttering "no it's not, it's mid November"

You regret not giving a chance to a weird popular University guy who always used to stare at you and get obsessed with the idea.

You go to a small restaurant you enjoy with your family. There are five of you. You look forward to it. The restaurant isn't busy and in fact is rather quiet. There are only two large round tables in the back they the round tables are right next to each other. You're asked to sit at one of the round tables. The other round table is already occupied by six older women. They are talking loudly and they are sitting to your left. You sit down at your table and try to figure out if you're going to be able to deal with the other people's loud conversations. You can't. You say to your wife out loud, not caring if the people at the other table hear you or not: "There's no way I'll be able to do this with their voices unless I have at least an ear plug for my left ear."

Thankfully, your wife has some silicone ear plugs in her purse and you ask her for one for your left ear. Reducing the cacophony to the left helps enough for you to be able to eat there. You notice a few of the women at that table are looking at you as you mold the ear plug into your left ear. You don't care at all. You still need to both listen to and read your wife's lips from across the table since you can't hear her well due to the loud conversations to your left.

When you carry headphones and a fidget cube everywhere because you gotta block out the noise and stim.

You love to watch cat videos and especially love cats that look like cats you have had. That's why I love looking at Lynx point Siamese kitties.

As a tennis fan, I notice certain names occurring in bunches. John, Juan, Ivan and Denis are common first names among players. I have two favorite players named Denis, both of Russian descent, but neither plays for Russia. Istomin plays for Uzbekistan, while Shapovalov plays for Canada.

Things I learned watching tennis:

The S's Rule:

Novak Djokovic-Serbia
Rafael Nadal-Spain
Roger Federer-Switzerland
Andy Murray-Scotland (although Murray hasn't been playing for over a year now)

Some names occur quite frequently:

John (McEnroe, Isner)
Juan (Juan Carlos Ferrero, Juan Martin del Potro, Juan Ignacio Chela, Juan Monaco)
Ivan (Lendl, Ljubicic)
Nicolas (Almagro, Mahut, Devilder)
Andy (Roddick, Murray)
Denis (Istomin, Kudla, Shapovalov)
David (Ferrer, Nalbandian)
Sam (Querrey, Groth)

Roger and Rafael seem to be unique! Novak is unique in having that name as a first name, rather than a surname.

You watch You Tube videos about various medical and disability issues, because that is one of your special interests. (Or maybe my own differences make me more understanding of people with those issues).

Constantly worrying how what you say will be interpreted.

Having people answer your question when you've only posed half of it. Then trying to summon the energy to very polity redirect them to what you were trying to ask.

You have (invisible) panic attacks when someone brings a toddler into a restaurant or on to a bus, and you feel even more agitated if they sit their kid near you, and you feel really angry if there are plenty of empty spaces and they still put their kid near you and you feel like sarcastically asking them why not they just get you to watch their stupid kid while they're at it, but you think of the unpleasant consequences if you did that, so you don't say anything, but then you feel exhausted later for having to hide the feelings of distress.

You have a strong love for your teddy bear and you feel he looks after you more than you look after him. And he has a space reserved for him in the middle of the bed between you and your boyfriend, and your boyfriend sometimes moves your bear somewhere else but you immediately put him back and tell your boyfriend that the bear has just as much right to be in the bed as we do.