seeing if others think my friend has Autism

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kid020
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10 Jun 2018, 12:33 pm

My friend says she has Autism however shes also been diagnosed with other things. Things about her that make me think she doesnt have it:
shes quite empathic to other people She provides support groups
she is quite warm gives hugs emotional support
she likes children says she use to babysit

while she isnt very social shes very good at talking to people and listening as well

things about her that do seem autistic:
she has a hard time socializing a bit of a loner just finds large crowds hard and stuff

dresses very uniformed way

Just curious what others think while it doesnt matter ultimately and labels are labels. I will say labels get thrown around these days. I have a close friend he also has Autism seems like it more than my female friend i mentioned however, he does have it mildly,



ASPartOfMe
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10 Jun 2018, 3:44 pm

There is way too little information to even hazard a guess. Being very good at talking to people and listening and having a hard time socializing seems contradictory. You mean she is skilled at those things but finds them difficult?

I guess you care about the Autism label because you wrote a post about it.


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10 Jun 2018, 3:56 pm

Insufficient Data.
Insufficient Training.
No conclusion can be drawn.

Seek the counsel of an appropriately-trained and licensed mental-health professional.


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SplendidSnail
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10 Jun 2018, 6:53 pm

Assuming your friend is an adult, she could have learned behaviors to mask the autistic behaviours. I've been diagnosed with ASD, and many of the things you mentioned could apply to me.


Quite empathic to other people, provides support groups
Not sure what you mean by "provides support groups", but under the right circumstances, people have told me that I have good emotional intelligence. I've scored very low on EQ tests (in particular this one), and when it comes to comforting people who are sad, I usually feel like I have no clue what to do.

But one thing I've learned to do is just tell people what emotion I think they're feeling (eg. "You look stressed"), and it seems to work wonders.


Quite warm gives hugs emotional support
Again, situational. If we're talking family, I think the warm hugs applies to me. I certainly wouldn't discount ASD from someone simply because the person can give a hug. I think I do have difficulty knowing when a hug is appropriate, so if it's not someone I know really well, I'll probably error on the side of caution and avoid it.

But if this is someone with whom you've already established that hugging is OK, I don't think Aspies are any worse at hugging than others. The only difficulty might be figuring out when it's appropriate and when it's not.


Likes children says she use to babysit
I get along way better with kids than with grown ups, and for some reason, they often seem drawn to me. I'm still "passing" and faking it with them just as much as I am with grown ups, but it's way easier for me to fake it with kids than with grown ups. With grown ups, you have to chit chat and make casual conversion.

Like your friend, I babysat a few times when I was a teenager, and I also even had a summer job once that involved working with kids.

Kids don't generally want to do small talk; they just want to play games. And playing games is way easier than small talk. I actually would say that it is partly because of my ASD that I get along better with kids than grown ups, although I do realise this isn't the case for everyone with ASD.


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