Do I have autism or a similiar mental illness?

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Some people I know think that I'm autistic because I used to talk to people a lot about things they weren't interested in. I don't really do it anymore, but I used to. Another thing was that I tried to be friends with people who didn't like me in the past, but I don't really do that anymore and I'm pretty good at reading between the lines and recognizing when people don't find what I'm talking about interesting and also recognizing when people don't like me personally. Is the fact that I used to talk to people about topics they didn't find interesting and tried to be friends with people who disliked me definitive proof that I have autism, or might there be other issues involved. I was homeschooled so I think that might have damaged my ability to acquire social skills, could that be it?

Uh... No, I don't think you are Autistic just from reading what you have said, though I am not a professional it just sounds like you are one to talk about odd things and i do believe you being home schooled has played a role in certain things but do I think you have Autism? Nope.

It really depends on severity of the issues you have described, which is hard to judge by just reading your post without actually seeing you.

Lack of social understanding and obsession on certain topics are both key symptoms of autism. In your case, your lack of social understanding shows in your attempts to make friends with ppl that don't like you, and your obsession on topics shows in your talking about them despite people not being interested. The fact that you have learned not to do that doesn't mean you are not autistic, since autistics can learn too. It is typical for adult autistics to learn to hide a lot of the symptoms they had as children.

However, as I said it is hard to judge without knowiing severity of things you described. Lets take two extreme cases to illustrate a point. If you done the behavior you described may be once a year, then you are definitely not autistic. If you done it 20 times a day, then you are. Most likely it is something in-between, so I don't know. We reallly need more details to get a picture.

While the two symptoms you mentioned to tend to go along with autism spectrum disorders.. If those are the only symptoms of them that you've had and don't have them anymore, I'd say it's pretty unlikely.

I would say "mental illness" does not enter the picture at all here, and like others have said, there are many things that can mask and/or confuse the recognition of autism.

I grew up in a rural setting where there were not a lot of opportunities for social interaction, and the adults around me believed (and clearly said) children should be seen and not heard. So, being a misfit and keeping my interests to myself in a little world of my own did not even strike me or anyone else around me as odd until many years later.

Stick around, read and share and decide for yourself as to whether or not you inherently waddle and quack like the rest of us!