How do you know that you / someone is autistic

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What do you want to go to symptoms what would you say makes someone a autistic ?

Like you know you autistic when..

Like based on my posts what would you diagnose me as?

I don't really know unless someone tells me they are. & I didn't know I had it till my mom told me she thought I did.

I just get a feeling that my autism diagnosis feels right for me, especially considering how I grew up. I used to be obsessed with people I interacted with. I also had poor social skills as a child, and I didn't like change. I had severe meltdowns frequently if things didn't go as I had planned (and still do). I could go on forever.

As for others, I usually can tell if they have a severe disability. If they are nonverbal, making noises and doing odd behaviors, it's obvious they are on the spectrum. However, I can't tell from someone who is more mildly or moderately affected. It just depends on the person's behavior and such. Like the person above said, I wouldn't really know unless they told me. I once had a friend who had Asperger Syndrome, and we were complete opposites as well. She had a more severe form of it and would pace back and forth or act very awkward. There was one time when she spent the night, and both our autistic conditions had a conflict. She couldn't sleep with the TV on, yet I had to because of my own routine. I don't remember what happened... but yeah.

First of all, I really hate use of the word "symptoms" because that makes it sounds like ASD is a disease that must be cured. When I was a little kid a long time ago I was waiting for my mother in the back seat of her car while visiting my grandparents and happened to find a piece of paper under one of the seats that listed the signs of autism, which may include:

-spins objects
-inappropriate laughing or giggling
-seemingly insensitive to physical pain
-repeats other people's phrases
-"standoffish" behavior
-crying spells
-rocking

Of course that was years before Asperger's was even officially recognized and I was to be diagnosed with it. But the paper made it sound like autism was a horrible thing and that a kid with it is trapped in a world where they're confused and frightened and basically is a lost cause. I don't know where or if my mother got that paper or if she thought I might have Autism, but she probably didn't since I showed little or no signs similar to the ones above. I did display some unusual behavior but I was generally happy and social as a kid, it was when I hit adolescence that things started getting really bad.

I think that's a really hard question to answer in any way that would apply to everyone. Which is part of the reason it bothers me so much when people are dismissive of those who announce that they are, or suspect they are, on the spectrum publicly (see the recent flurry of articles with Jerry Seinfeld). Obviously there are there stereotypical signs that most people on this site are probably familiar with. But there's so much subjectivity and room for interpretation there. Stimming is probably the most outwardly visible sign, but neurotypicals stim too. So how do you objectively say what qualifies as NT stimming and what is autistic stimming?

For my diagnosis process, one of the clearest signs, once I realized what they were, were my shutdowns. That was a pretty obvious thing that I couldn't really attribute to something other than autism. Even then though, I didn't really think that alone was enough for me to say, "I know that I'm autistic".

I tend to think of it more like building a case. You collect all the evidence that you can find for and against the diagnosis, then ask yourself what the possible explanations are that account for everything. There's no one piece that completes the picture, but when they're all combined it's hard to ignore the sum total of all the evidence.

After my diagnosis I had a therapist that didn't think I was on the spectrum and just wanted to treat me for social anxiety. For a period of time he even had me questioning my diagnosis myself, until I sat down and reviewed all my evidence. I asked myself which sounded more plausible, that I had social anxiety and I just happened to stim, and shutdown, and have auditory processing problems, and issues with alexithymia, etc... or that I'm just autistic? Once I looked at it that way it made it much more confident in my own conclusions.

Sometimes when I find someone similar to me I tend to think they are on the spectrum

There are some qualities that I see in some people that make me think they may be autistic.
Something about the eye gaze, a certain kind of enthusiasm, and a certain innocence in the way they relate to people.
These are just my perceptions based on autistic people I have known.

I once went into a used book store and inquired about a book and the clerk said "no we don't have that one" without even having to check.
Then he went into a very enthusiastic monologue about how the bookstore was organized, where to find various types of books etc. all the while seeming totally in his own head (no back and forth glancing, seeming so into the placement of the books and which books they carried) it was amazing.
He seemed so autistic.

In the thread 'all cats are autistic', the way the guy is so enthusiastically obsessed with his cat trails, especially when he was talking about how he was constantly thinking about the designs, all day long,
he just seemed so autistic.

And then there are people like Susan Boyle who appear awkward because they are not putting on any kind of a social front and are so purely and unabashedly themselves that people make fun of them and look on in disbelief when they find out the person is talented.

Autism in 2014 means so much more than Autism did in 1974.

Back in 1974, the "autistic" person was nonverbal, constantly spinned objects, was always stimming made funny noises, didn't make eye contact, and was blatantly in his/her own world. The prognosis was invariably poor. There were very few AAU's so people with autism could communicate. There were a few "savants." With few exceptions, they were dependent upon others for the entirety of their lives.

Nowadays, "autism" covers a whole Spectrum of people. It's much more difficult to categorize an "autistic" person.

I would estimate that at least 3/4 of people in this site who are diagnosed with an ASD would not have been diagnosed with Autism in 1974.

I don't think I can tell whether or not someone is autistic.

Everyone on the autism spectrum is different - There is no one single sign. There are people on the autism spectrum who never had a problem with eye contact - for example - But most have had problems with that. There are people on the autism spectrum who are good in sports - But most are not.

I think there are a few things that are close to universal:

Almost everyone on the autism spectrum tends to varying levels to get sensory overloaded

Almost everyone on the autism spectrum tends to varying amounts spend a good deal of time in "their own world."

Everyone on the autism spectrum have to varying levels had serious difficulties interacting with others.

Almost everyone on the autism spectrum to varying degrees turns frequently to different sorts of repetitious behavior as a self-soothing mechanism

Other than that one can look up the official diagnostic criteria and one can take a few of the different self-test. And of course one can turn to a professional if they wish to seek a more formal diagnosis.

If you mean the high-functioning types of autism, I don't think it's ever possible to know for sure. Like the disorder itself, the diagnostic criteria are fairly subjective, and diagnosticians get it wrong sometimes. It's a spectrum disorder, it's a mess. They say that if it isn't significantly fouling up your life, then you don't have autism. To me, that's as illogical as saying that somebody with no legs isn't disabled because they've got a wheelchair. I guess it's a political thing - more to do with eligibility for benefits and workplace adjustments than with the actual state of the client's brain wiring.

I've been diagnosed as an Aspie by a clinical psychologist, but I don't know for sure. Much of my diagnosis was self-assessment. The AQ questionnaire demanded fairly black-and-white answers, but the true answers would have been more like shades of grey. I believe Aspergers Syndrome is deemed to no longer exist in the latest DSM manual, so I don't know where that leaves me.

On the other hand, it's fun to have a stab at amateur diagnostics. One thing seems evident from the word "autism" - i.e. "self" - an autistic person lives mainly in their own world, a neurotypical is much more a part of the wider community.

Even as I type this post, I can see my autistic behaviour at work. It's late, I "should" go to bed, but now I've started writing, I can't seem to stop until I've set down practically everything I know about the subject, even if it takes me all night. It's almost unthinkable for me to just abandon it. That's hyperfocus and perfectionism at work, the all-or-nothing approach: to me, if a job's worth doing at all, it's as if it's worth spending the rest of my life to get the absolute best possible result. I've known for years that I do that, and I'm well aware of the "diminishing returns" problem with it, but I keep on doing it.

What else? A rather hermit-like existence, small number of friends, asocial tendencies (even though I fondly wish it were otherwise), strong preference for unusual, nerdy activities that get so complicated that it would take ages to explain them to anybody else (and they really wouldn't want to know), aversion to sport, dislike of social chit-chat and schmoozing, dislike of lying. Wearing the same practical clothes, eating the same kind of food. Always trying to do everything alone instead of getting help and sharing my problems. Sensory issues - frequently feeling hot and cold at the same time, can't screen out tiny aches and pains or minor background noises. Can't cope with the idea of having more than one important task to perform. Poor grasp of the passing of time. Rigid,,black-and-white thinking. Lousy judge of character which has led to 3 failed marriages, though I've learned a lot through long experience. Need for extreme clarity with instructions and teaching. Distrust of leaders and the elite.

Another angle I like to use is to compare myself with a neurotypical and note the profoud differences. For me, the most "archetypical neurotypical" I've ever seen is in some of the roles played by the actor James Bolam, particularly in the Beiderbeck Trilogy (it's all on YouTube). That guy is so different to me, he's so socially adept and comfy with people. I'd love to be more like him, and I've had fleeting moments when I have been, but overall I don't even come close. I couldn't do social lies and deception like he does, even though he seems relatively harmless with it. To me, he's the polar opposite of an Aspie. He seems to have most of the traits that Aspies don't have.

End of rant. Hope this helps.

I cannot tell if someone has autism to tell the truth, as there is no two people who are really the same (from what I've seen in my life). I only know if I am told they are, and that is the only way. Like if someone here says they are diagnosed, I believe them 100%.

To me, there really isn't an image that comes to mind of your average person with autism, but many (at least for me). I don't like to speculate if people have disabilities or anything as well, because that just seems really rude to me.

I think having gone to school with kids on the spectrum my whole life I can tell if they have characteristics that are noticeable enough. Like when me and my dad went to go visit a local lake and it had a camp for special needs kids. I could tell right away that several of them were autistic. They were just like the kids at school. I knew that the friend I made there had autism before his dad told he was PDD.

Well, I can tell you how I figured it out for myself (though to be honest I still doubt it; ironically that seems to be something that is not uncommon among those who really are autistic).

Basically I was asking my mom about my childhood, because I was diagnosed with ADD, but I felt like that wasn't really what I had, and I figured that my childhood would be able to give me a better indication of what it really was. Then she said something like, "Well, you were extremely unemotional as a kid, and you rarely ever talked to anyone, which may point to autism." (those obviously weren't the only things, she was just saying that at one point she and others thought I might be, but I never got diagnosed). When she said "autism" I became pretty intrigued, as I didn't even know much about it. To make sure I wasn't going to skew my results, before doing any research on it, I took a psychology test made for parents to take for their children, and it tells you what their symptoms, behaviors, traits etc. could indicate as far as disorders. I filled it out for my childhood self, and there was autism spectrum disorder, right at the top of my results (maybe they were just in alphabetical order, but either way it was right there ).

What really stuck out to me, especially when I joined WP and started reading others' posts, is that although I obviously didn't have every trait and every difficulty they had, I still felt like I could really relate to other autistic people and their problems, and I've never felt like that with anyone before.

The reason I usually start doubting it, is when I read about random traits that are somewhat common among autistic people, and I don't really have the trait, or I do, but it seems too mild or in some way not the same, for some reason I get really hung up on that one thing not being exactly the same (almost like I'm focusing too much on details, and missing the big picture ).

Anyway, I hope this helps.