No worries! I will take your suggestion into account.

Do you remember what site? I’m asking because I had read about autism and Aspergers in the DSM multiple times and it never clicked for me at all. I was completely oblivious. Truly, the only sign about me that I ever even remotely considered was that I really liked autistic people.

I am pretty sure this was one of the main one: https://psychcentral.com/autism/autism-spectrum-disorder-symptoms?c=1504654228509#diagnosis But it doesn’t cover all the symptoms I have identified in myself. The DSM V descriptions were way too vague for me.

Woah! I had a girlfriend that was a psychologist learning to give an IQ test, so she practiced on me. When she looked at my results, she said that my scores were indicative of ADHD, which we both knew I had, but I never realized how much ADHD was impacting my life until I got medicated for it. The struggle is real!

I’ve wondered if I have ADHD - Inattentive Type. But every time I have read the symptoms and done tests online, it seems I don’t. The only reason why I wondered is because I know ASD and ADHD can co-occur. I suspect the learning disabilities test I did was an indicator of ASD, before I knew I had it. I’m not convinced either way with ADHD, it’s a possibility. But there’s not enough backing the possibility that I do have it.

Yes, that can be an overwhelming task, especially since the topic itself could be mentally draining. The way I found a quick autism assessment was to ask local autism organizations for a list of reputable evaluators. Then, I called around to like 10 of them. I found one that was actually pretty economic and saw me within a month. She charge $900 to conduct the ADOS-2 (autism), the ASRS (ADHD), a lengthy clinical interview, and had me collect a bunch of information from my past. Other places didn’t even have space on their waiting lists and were charging anywhere from $1.5k up to $3k if I remember correctly. Maybe you could try that if you haven’t already.

I may have found one that is good. It’s a lot cheaper than the other’s I’ve seen around. I’m currently in the process of asking them lots of questions, because if I’m paying for it, and it costs a lot less, I want to make sure it is going yo give me a definitive medical diagnosis.

Well it started with one of my friends noticing specific patterns of behaviour I had. I don’t remember all of the things he noticed, but it caused me to look into it. When I was reading the symptoms off of medical sites, I felt like I was reading about myself. I was honestly shocked, and didn’t know how to take it. As I reflected on many of my experiences growing up, it made sense of things which I hadn’t found reasonable explanations for.

It explained struggles I had socially, it explained my sensory sensitivities, it explained why I often felt depleted, and it brought light to things which I wasn’t fully aware of.

I asked my mother if she ever thought I was autistic, and she said she is pretty sure I am. One reason, was that when I was a kid, she couldn’t ask me what I wanted to eat for breakfast. Rather, she had to ask, do you want toast? Then if I said no, she would present another option. Also, I got tested for learning disabilities when I was in school. I scored extremely low in some areas, and extremely high in other areas. They couldn’t diagnose anything because I it gave me an average score.

I’m now looking at getting diagnosed, but it is a demanding process. Dealing with waitlists, and checking prices between different professionals, is exhausting. I may decide not to get diagnosed, if it becomes too complicated. However, I was confident of being autistic, after my mother thought I was as well.

That’s insane. I still can’t fathom how hard it is to get diagnosed. It feels like resources are severely lacking for those of us who are autistic.

I will have to try that, if I am comfortable enough trying to eat it again. I basically left it half eaten, because I couldn’t bring myself to continue eating it.

Thanks for the idea, I’ll have to give this a go

Yeah, I force myself to go to a lot of big social events, that I don’t want to go to. I can’t add to the conversation, because either I don’t know anything about typical topics of conversation, or there are too many people talking that I can’t keep up, so I just sit there and wonder why I bothered going. Additionally there’s the sensory and social overwhelm, that kicks in. I’m still figuring out my limits, and how to set healthy boundaries.

Struggles with identity building sounds like my life

Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll check it out

Well I’ve been eating the same breakfast and lunch meals for years. It’s just that this instance was the one that made me start looking into Autism.

Beef Casserole. Easier than most things because you just chop everything and then put it in the slow cooker. Little effort required. I kept doing it because new recipes stressed me out too much.

When someone pointed out that I had made the same meal for dinner for most of my meals every week, for 4 months.

It may be Windows, but it looks epic

Very relatable

I also hate plans changing. It throws out everything for me. So I can relate to that quite strongly.

This is really insightful, it looks like meltdowns and shutdowns affect different people on the spectrum in different ways.

I’m still trying to figure out how exactly I experience them, but I’m very certain I’m autistic. I definitely get sensory overload, and overwhelmed in social situations.

I think I get foggy, when I get overwhelmed socially, or trying to take in information in a way that is not productive for me personally. I can become really uncoordinated and lose awareness of my physical space when I’m pushed too much. I get clumsy, and know I need to rest to recover. I can’t have a conversion without getting confused. I need people to slow down and use simple words for me to understand what is being said.

I think now, I’m very guarded due to dealing with a lot of manipulative people in my life. I have one good friend who has helped me a lot in terms of seeing manipulation and pretense in people, which has trained me to see bs. Before that, I was pulled in all sorts of directions, by all sorts of people in my life. From family members, to people in the social circles I had involvement in. Now I think they are all nuts, and self serving. More people seem to be manipulative than not, at least from my experience.

I can relate to the struggle to process speech, and use it when also experiencing a shut down. However, I haven’t passed out from it. I imagine that would be stressful in certain situations.

Actually, I think I experience both to a similar degree, depending on the situation.

Oh, maybe I get more of an anxious response, rather than an anger response. Not that I can’t or don’t get an anger response at times. But that would make more sense for me overall.

I think I can relate to those experiences. I think I experience shutdowns a lot. Meltdowns are probably less frequent, but I still relate to that explanation.