Am I autistic?

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I don't know if I am or not, but if anyone cares, here are my symptoms:

I don't have any problems with the way I talk other than I speak too fast and that sometimes I use too many words, or just talk too much about my hobbies. I understand sarcasm, I don't take things literally. When I was little I repeated the same thing over and over, maybe worded differently, according to my parents, but they said that I stopped doing it without help of any kind.

I also don't think I experience sensory overload. I can become irritated by too much sensory stimuli very quickly and have to end up quitting whatever situation I'm in at the moment, but it's nothing like what I saw in those sensory overload simulations.

This being said, I become very annoyed if someone disrupts my routines. And it does happen often, sadly, I manifest it with anger, sadness, and may feel unable to organize my thoughts. If the change is unexpected then it's gets much worse than if it is not.

I have hobbies, interests, or whatever you call it and have had for as long as I can remember. I used to have one or two which were just plain weird, now I like computer programming, mathematics and telling the day of the week for a given date (I haven't found many people interested in the latter one). I'm completely fascinated by dates. When something interests me I usually end up gaining encyclopedic knowledge about the subject.

About stimming, I'm not sure if I do it. I don't flap my hands or rock, for instance. However, I do this, which I don't know if it counts as stimming:
- Sometimes I walk, I always follow a pattern and I don't think much about it when I do it. I don't consciously choose the pattern, I just find myself following it. When I'm irritated by noises or smells I usually end up doing it. I don't necessarily like to do it, sometimes I don't want to but I feel like I have to do it.
- I bring a tennis ball everywhere with me, which is something that some people find humorous. I find it relaxing to play with it.
- Sometimes I close my eyes as hard as possible, open then, then repeat for some time. I don't know why I do this.
- I play with my teeth
- I do all sorts of things with my hands, I can't really describe them. I don't natively speak English but I can't explain it in my native language either
- I also used to make one weird sound with my mouth all the time. I still do it sometimes but not nearly as much. It's exhausting to reproduce it and it leaves me tired.

I don't make eye contact. Some years ago, looking at anyone's eyes made me cry for some reason. Now that doesn't happen so much but I find it tiring to follow another person's eyes all the time and if I do it I don't concentrate on what they're saying anyway.

Until I was eight or nine, I couldn't distinguish between left and right. Now I can using mnemonics but I coordinate poorly. Not as bad as I used to, probably because I practiced a lot of sport, but I still do.

All of that, and plus I'm socially awkward. I'm sixteen years old. I want to talk with a psychologist about it just to know if I'm autistic or not. I told my mother that I wanted to talk about my routines, but never mentioned autism. I kind of want to hint that psychologist but I don't know how. If I say anything s/he'll think that I'm making all of this up and that I "learned to be autistic", which is not true. I was told to come back the August 31st, after talking about routines. Actually they asked a lot of questions related to OCD, so I don't know how it'll go.

Based on this, do you people think I might be on the spectrum? I have other traits that I won't mention because it doesn't really make sense at this point. I'm tired of thinking about it, but it's a question that I have to have the answer already. I'm sure that a lot of you know what this feels like.

Hey.
Many people like myself are going to say, we cannot diagnose you here because Autism Spectrum Disorders are complex and manifest itself in many different ways.

If you are experiencing life difficulties in every day tasks, work, school or family and relationships, perhaps talking to a psychologist about it is a good idea.

here is a link to the Autism Spectrum Disorder Criteria
https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autis ... c-criteria

It kinda makes me think of Aspergers, but to really know whether it is or not you would need an evaluation from someone professional with a DSM book. That's my two cents' worth. Hope it helps you.

The only way to know for sure is to get a diagnosis. But you have to ask, for some people it does seem to be "push", for a specific screening to get it. Ask about both ASD and OCD. You could have both, having a no for one would support a yes on the other. It's just seems like good science to also eliminate possibilities and/or track areas of overlap for possible multi-disorder effective therapies.

Having a "yes" or "no" will be better than living with "maybe".

Yes, I'm aware that nobody here can tell for sure whether I am on the spectrum or not. I am going to talk to a psychologist, but I still have to wait some weeks - and I've waited for the entire summer already. Actually I just wanted to know if this alone already sounds like an ASD.

I hate to not know for sure if I am or not. I don't have that many social problems. I know whether to use "white lies" most of the time, can read facial expressions (or so I think anyway,) understand sarcasm/double meanings/most jokes, and I learned when to stop talking about my special interests. I also don't think social interactions over and over or generally find them overwhelming. None of this sounds very autistic.

Also, do I really have to ask to be screened for an ASD? Doesn't that mean that, if I didn't know what it is, nobody would even consider it? It doesn't make sense.

I just kind of fear that I want to be on the spectrum but that, in the end, I'm just daydreaming. I can't even relate to NTs. I've always been "different" and "weird" according to everyone else. Not that I cared at all, but all through the school year, my only friend was a guy with ADHD who looked autistic too, although I don't know if he was diagnosed. He was the first person I could actually relate to.

Not necessarily. That's one of the routes to getting screened but there are many other reasons that end with people getting screened for an ASD. Want me to make a list of ones I can think of, or is that going off topic?

No I personally find asking directly for a ASD screening to be unreliable, ask for a mental disorder screening first, keep it general, then the psychologist will narrow it down. That's how I was diagnosed.

The problem with asking for a ASD screening right away is that your looking for ASD, and only ASD, when in reality there are many things that can mimic ASD. You could get misdiagnosed.

HHmmm.... Really good counter points to asking directly for the screening. Cause honestly I didn't ask to be screened. My wife made me get screened. I was 100% convinced that I wasn't on the spectrum. I thought I was too good looking, too good of an athlete, and just too cool to be on the spectrum. I was wrong.

So I was probably projecting a little to say that you "have" to ask for it specifically. It doesn't seem like your trying to self-diagnose as ASD. The way I was reading your post you seem to be the most worried about OCD. So i was probably thinking like "Oh you get sarcasm do you? Just wait till they have a friend or family member fill out an SRS-2 on you." Deep down I probably wanted some one else to go through that shock as well, Really f***ing sorry about that.

That said ZombieBrideXD's general screening suggesting would be better if you are are uncomfortable or unsure about asking directly for a specific screening. Especially if you feel lost in the forest of all the things that can be "wrong" with the human mind. A well trained doctor that keeps up with the research will most likely give you the correct answer. However be prepared to have to self advocate to your healthcare providers to get the services you need if your life isn't improving based on their findings and recommended course of actions. Some doctors are just lazy so you might have to ask for a specific test.

No need to, thanks though.


Do you mean that there's a chance that I think that I get sarcasm, but actually I might not? because I doubt that a lot.

It's one of the weird things about being diagnosed later in life. A lot of the things that might come naturally to an NT an Aspie can learn, like sarcasm or even manipulation. For example I'm really good with the meanings of colloquialism and folksee type sayings. I thought since those aren't literally forms of communication that I wasn't autistic.

Part of test will check to see if sarcasm/idioms/excellent manners is something you have learned or just comes natural. I'm not gonna say which part but it's there.

I kinda hope you get to take one cause it will definitely give you a very accurate description of how others see you and for that alone it is worth it IMO, but considering a false positive would be just as damaging to your life as not knowing what the problem could be stick with the general mental health screening.

Just looked at another thread that mentioned a type of long form general screening that seemed to cover everything and gave specific disorder diagnosis's so if you are more interested in just what the answer is rather than for what some people is this coveted Aspie status, which seems like that you do really just want an answer what ever that maybe, you probably would be best off with a general screening.