Ever known anyone with anxiety who actually appears to be AS

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I keep hearing about anxiety and autism overlapping like how it can actually turn out someone just has anxiety than autism but has anyone ever known anyone who had routines, did self stimulation, had a hard time keeping and making friends and maintaining them, difficulty with body language and reading them and reading social cues, taking things literal, not liking surprises or change, had special interests and engaged in it for hours, talked about their special interest all the time, have odd body postures and odd facial expressions, have problems with communication and executive functioning except they were not autistic, they just have anxiety?

If someone was self diagnosed with autism because it explained their whole childhood but it turns out it was all anxiety they have after being assessed for it, would this mean they have had anxiety stemming from their early childhood maybe from age of two when they started to show signs? Same as if kids thought they were weird, rude, mean, and selfish and made comments about their postures and facial expressions and behaviors they do they find strange?

But I guess this would be good news because it would mean they would only need medication and cognitive behavior therapy and seeing a mental health therapist for OCD and anxiety than seeing a developmental therapist and wham their "autism" symptoms would lessen. But yet I am sure they would still be able to relate to ASD people and fit in here because of the exact same symptoms. I would call it autxiety or Asperxiety. What if they were also intentionally diagnosed with an ASD because of their anxiety due to the degree of support they need, do you think they should join autism support groups? Or do you think they are better off joining anxiety support groups despite their ASD like symptoms?

Why do so many people here post so often with something that seems like an attempt to explain away other people's autism? Why are people here so focused on other people's diagnosis not so much out of interest but out of cynicism or trying to reach for something it might "really" be other than autism?

I have a friend with a few disorders and for a while we both suspected that he had some form of autism, but we later determined that that was unlikely. He is agoraphobic so he doesn't get out much, he has an ear injury which make high pitched sounds quite painful to him, he is quite socially awkward, and his father was abusive to him so he developed a few mental illnesses. We decided that he was likely not autistic because he doesn't have any sensory problems (other then his ear injury), he is not unusually obsessive, and he does not meet all of the diagnostic criteria.

My whole family. Anxiety runs in the family deeply. My family members dont like socializing, have panic attacks and tend to keep to themselves. No one else in my family is autistic though.

I personally think the same condition may manifest more as anxiety in women and more as autism in men, but it's really the same thing.

Maybe I am talking about myself so I am trying to do my own homework here? My mom keeps contradicting my diagnoses. It's either AS or anxiety or both, make up her mind.

But do they act like they are on the spectrum though?

But he acts autistic right?

I would think it very unlikely that someone with anxiety would display all of the other traits, too. There could definitely be overlap, but autism goes further than anxiety by quite some way - it includes a lot that anxiety doesn't.

I have one relative that has been diagnosed with, and is treated for, anxiety. Since I first started my own research into autism, I've realised that this relative may well be autistic. She actually has much more noticeable obsessive interests than I do - mine now 'blend in', hers are unusual and she will walk right up to people that she doesn't particularly know and will discuss them in great detail, not factoring in who's interested. She has also discussed issues with sensory overload.

I don't know her well enough to make that evaluation, though. Obviously, only she knows herself and someone qualified would be able to bring out what she knows about herself, but I definitely would suspect it. That said, if she is already seeing a therapist then it's possible that it's been ruled out.

An "overlap" is a partial commonality, what you then went on to describe was far more than that and the suggestion that by "overlap" they meant "replacement". Anxiety and autism do indeed overlap in that a person with ASD can display anxiety problems that someone else without ASD can also display. Autism overlaps with lots of other things, it doesn't mean that all of your symptoms could be attributed to that other thing though.

I can see how having routines, self stimulation, making and keeping friends, not liking change and surprises and have problems with communication and executive functioning could have to do with anxiety as well, but not so much the other traits you mention. Well, with difficulty with reading body language and social cues, it depends, it could be one thinks one is worse at this than others when one really isn't due to anxiety.
Also for me it would depend on how much these autistic traits really differed from the norm, though that's something I still don't quite get myself. Let's take the having routines. Most people have some routines. Anxious people might have more routines in order to feel calm. It's still nothing compared to a boy with autism I was told about who knew exactly how many seconds it takes him to brush his teeth and never brushed them one second less or longer (which to me actually sounds really stressful).

I know anxiety and depression run deep on both sides of my family but I have never known anyone close to me that would even come close to an ASD diagnosis. I do know another close to me with anxiety who hates changes of plans and loud noises but I would never consider them as having an ASD.

Anxiety is a common co morbid of autism because of the autistic traits combined with bieng a small minority and different from most in the areas that people care about most often causes diagnosable levels of anxiety. You do not hear much about autism bieng a co morbid of anxiety because anxiety would have to cause enough core autistic traits to be diagnosabe.

I happen to think that there is something to this idea.

I have observed ASD traits in people I know who do not think that they are autistic. I privately think the people I'm thinking are "probably" autistic. I don't think any of these people in question have gone far enough to exclusively rule out autism through either a psychological assessment or a self-test. I would be pretty suspicious of someone with a lot of ASD traits AND anxiety who said they have ONLY anxiety. Being autistic in a world not set up for autistic people will make you anxious. There's no getting around that happening at least some of the time. For some people it's a constant problem, but I would still say the anxiety comes from being autistic and having your physical and social environment mismatched to you.

I don't blame anyone thoroughly checking out this idea. It would be a lot easier if you simply had anxiety. You could treat the anxiety easier if it was stemming from a lot of other things versus autism.

I think there is more to it than just autism causing anxiety from not being in a world geared towards autistic people, the very cognitive style has some predisposition towards anxiety. The idea really clicked when someone else I know with aspergers said his sister has severe anxiety, and the way he described her anxiety (eg. getting a panic attack because she couldn't stop thinking of a panic attack), and it just struck me as a fairly autistic thought pattern. Then I realized differences in the ways boys and girls are socialized might result in boys having more social problems and abnormal interests, while girls have more anxiety, for the same cognitive style. And just recently I read an article about modeling disorders with Bayesian statistics, and people with autism and anxiety had the same problem with switching from what pattern to another.

My dad does big time, he doesnt like people, got picked on as a kid, likes to stay in the comfort of his home, gets obsessed with things but its not to the extent of an autistic person.