Have you ever know anyone who thought they had an ASD

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only to turn out they just have anxiety?

Have you ever known anyone who did lot of reading on autism and could identify with it and relate to others with it but then they go in for an assessment only to come out with an anxiety diagnoses? Did this mean they were exaggerating their symptoms unintentionally because of their anxiety or did it mean they were unintentionally faking it due to anxiety?

I don't think it necessarily means they faked anything. They might just have slightly misunderstood some of the symptoms of ASD. A lot of online sources they could have read are quite vague, leave a lot of room for interpretation or contradict each other in a few details.

If their anxiety includes social anxiety their problems with socializing might indeed be similar to the problems some autistic people have when interacting with other people - the ones who don't talk a lot and often avoid social contact (sometimes due to anxiety) not the ones who talk too much or about topics no one else cares about. If they generally don't interact a lot with many other people it might be difficult to tell that their problems with socializing are just because of anxiety and low self-esteem and not because of any additional causes less typical of anxiety.

If they don't only have social anxiety but a lot of other anxieties they might be bad at handling stress and unexpected changes just like a lot of autistic people are.
If their anxiety forces them to spend a lot of time at home or on their own they might also indulge in activities or interests that your typical extroverted NT wouldn't spend a lot of time on.

I don't know about the specific person you are talking about. They could have unintentionally faked something. Them exaggerating their symptoms might be quite likely because social anxiety might make them perceive their social skills as worse than they really are. They also could be hypochondriac and easily see symptoms of disorders/illnesses etc. in themselves even if they don't have them. But they mightn't have faked anything and might have simply slightly misunderstood the criterion for ASD.

It was this time last year my friend once admitted he could possibly have it. It has been awhile since then but he has definitely opened it up as a possibility.

I think it's a situation where some people attribute social anxiety to autism, instead of realizing autism is a neurological disability. I think the first thing they should do is read exactly what autism is, rather than reading a list of symptoms that focus on the social aspect.

Greetings. Surprisingly I do. They also have depression though and anxiety. Their psychiatrist told them that they thought they had autism, but after an assessment, it was found out they didn't.

I don't necessarily think they faked it. But even to me, they seemed to be not impaired but since ASD is a spectrum, I can't be sure. Though some things really surprise me like this person has said to have social anxiety, but yet is able to speak on a stage in front of over 1000 people. I can't do this. I freak out over like 10 people. They can do several things that I can't do, and would have never suspected they had social anxiety. Never.

But they said they were told they have several ASD traits, just not enough for an official diagnosis. I believe it was probably the social communication traits weren't significantly impaired according to them because from what they told me, they seem to have a bunch of restrictive and/or repetitive behaviour like restricted interest and sensory issues, especially since they weren't diagnosed with social communication disorder either.

But anyways, I do believe anxiety, especially social anxiety, can mimic ASD. I know when my social anxiety is higher, my ASD traits are more noticeable. Like, I'm more social awkward, less body and facial expressions, more monotone voice. But stuff from social anxiety could be avoiding eye contact because looking them in the eyes makes them anxious like it does for me. For people I do know though, I tend to look at them too much (I try to study the shape of their face and their eye colour etc.). I also will do less body expressions because I'm worried of being judged the wrong way. I act very anxious.

But you still might have ASD underneath it all. Anxiety would just make it worse. It doesn't preclude ASD.

This is true with me. My neurological manifestations get worse with anxiety and with sensory bombardment.

This is real simple to me. If you have been thoroughly officially diagnosed with autism, then you're autistic. Anything else only qualifies as a maybe.

Now there's several I have known in other forums who are not autistic, but deal with issues I identify with and vice versa. And I would welcome any of them as members of this forum.

Outside of support groups no person has told me they speculated they were autistic or were assessed for autism.