Autism is not based on...

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Autism is not based on whether you stim or not or how you stim. Or whether you do things repetitively or not. Or if you have a fixed interest or not...etc.

It's based on you having autism.

Just something plopped into my head.

There is a strong tendency for autistic people to stim, to do things repetitively, and to have fixed interests.

Right....just because people do the above doesn't mean they have autism. One can do all these things without having autism.

But it does evoke a desire to look into the possibility, especially for parents who see their kid doing these things.

Also, when you look at things in isolation- such as stimming (only) and think- AH AUTISM!! Well, not only is that very reductionist, but again I also believe this is the problem with behavior based clinical observations- the same behaviors can have multiple etiologies-not all of which are autism...
Like the stimming of autism can (and for me at least) be confused for the tics of Tourettes and the reverse too. Also, I could see how very uninformed parents or people could take one thing which may be very normal in a kid like some rigidity or stereotyped movements or whatever- and then "pathologize" it.

My diagnostician(s) said that they observed no routine or repetitive behaviors during my assessment, but believed my written description of a few examples (swiping my hands frequently on desk- or table-tops, or even my pants; and aligning and realigning objects to parallel or perpendicular positions -- both to calm myself). I actually did these stims during the assessment, but, they were probably so incidental or ignored because they weren't as stereotypically autistic as rocking or other hand movements. Regardless, I was diagnosed. So, yeah, there is probably more than one way to get a diagnosis without obvious stimming.

I thought it was based on a bunch of symptoms you have and how they impair you and impact your life. It's very possible to have autistic features and not be autistic even if you have enough because they don't cause you any impairment in social and occupational functioning. But then again those autistic features might not be considered symptoms because they don't impact you or they are not severe enough for them to be considered a symptom even if they do have impact. It took me a while to realize this. It's not about symptoms and what you do, it's about if they cause you an impairment and how much they affect you. I also realized lot of people do things from the criteria but they are not symptoms. I just assumed no one did them except autistic people and if they did, they had traits.

I also think there are conditions out there that are basically autistic symptoms but they are for people who don't have enough to be autistic but their symptoms impact their life. I thought that is what OCD was for people who have routines and repetitive behaviors and obsessional interests. That is what I was told in high school so either I was misinformed or I misunderstood. There is also body movement disorder whatever it's called. There is also dyspraxia, anxiety, sensory processing disorder, language disorder, executive functioning disorder, social disorder, all these little things that make autism and my mom told me these are all called components and you need to have enough to have AS or autism. if someone doesn't have enough, they will have these other separate labels.

The teachers who observed my son in class said he had signs of autism and he scored 32 on the CARS-2. For one he is always chewing on his sleeve or zipper or coat and he always chews his finger nails and he does this all the time in school, not only sometimes or for a few minutes like most kids. They noted other things. But the thing is he doesn't do these things at home. He does some finger chewing but not often and it's not all the time. The pediatrician thinks it's all anxiety, my mom thinks it's social anxiety and they just confused it. The person who was also part of the evaluation team who was open minded enough to listen said to my mother and me that she only knows our son three hours a day and she doesn't see him all the time in school so she is only basing it on what she had seen and she took notes what my mom told her and said she would share it with the district.

I see this a lot, I think this is a big issue with self diagnoses, people neglect to
A) acknowledge other possible diagnoses than just autism
B) take 1 small irrelevant symptom and rely on it for a diagnoses.

For classic autism, does a person tend to be highly resistent to change and have obvious, frequent stimming? (noted in DSM-IV subtext)