Second the advice to look at the National Autistic Society. Their articles on the rules during the lockdowns were so helpful to me. Unlike the government's own advice pages, they actually made things clear as to what could and couldn't be done.
Keep in mind being diagnosed as an adult is often a somewhat pointless idea, there's usually a lack of support available, it's why self diagnosis is a thing that's widely accepted in the Autistic community, if your autistic your autistic without a piece of paper saying so.Thank you for your suggestions everyone. I’ve done two separate online tests and both have come back saying I’m very likely on the spectrum so that clears some things up, maybe I’ll talk to my GP about it. I’m 24 @Jb85 so I’m not sure what that means for me regarding next steps. And reading your posts I’m ticking every single box of Coasters, Beer and gayapart from I don’t seem to take much interest in Eurovision
I understand it doesn’t change much in reality but for me it’s just something to explain parts of my childhood and current issues I still struggle with. As I say above the online tests I’ve done have definitely come back to suggest that I’m on the spectrum but should I trust such tests? Would an online test class as self diagnosis ?
Self diagnosis is just you having done enough research and spoken with autistics to be comfortable saying your autistic.
Yeah, I completely missed that...It was all sounding so positive until she mentioned the puzzle piece.
You know you're autistic when you're looking at flights for Europa next year and have colour-coded them all in a Google Sheets document according to the airline used...
I definitely find small children harder to interact with compared to older children and adults.
Not just you. There's a bit of a running joke around these parts that I hate kids (not completely a joke, mind you
), but I too have very little idea on how to interact with them. I was at a wedding in August and was sat next to 2 perfectly well-behaved 18-month-old twins, and really didn't know what to do, other than talk over them. More recently I've spent Christmas back home with family and I have a nearly 2-year-old nephew who I just feel a bit awkward around. I want to make more of an effort but don't really know how without embarrassing myself, even if how I would end up interacting isn't socially considered "embarrassing" at all, and just "how you interact with young kids".
I've never found it easy to deal with children. My nieces are 9 and 7.5, and they're quite different. The older one is easier to get to focus on something for periods of time, but the younger one? Good luck. The only things that seem to get her to focus on something for more than a few minutes are the TV and food.
It'll hopefully get better as she gets older, but we'll see. I did have a number of jokes with my brother and his wife over Christmas about how my younger niece is very similar to me, which does raise the question of whether she's neurodivergent to an extent.The whole social situation thing is something I've struggled with for years, Burbs. If I'm with a sizeable group of people, I often don't know what to do, and I sometimes feel as though I'm on the outside always looking in. I think it's why I sometimes struggle on meets, but find it easier when things separate off into smaller sub-groups. And this is in spite of having attended meets for over a decade! This past Christmas is quite probably the most stress-inducing one I can ever remember - largely because I didn't know what was happening half the time until not very long in advance. Admittedly, this was partially due to other issues (very long story), but it wasn't easy. Really not easy at all. In terms of info-dumping...guilty as charged. I'll very happily talk about things that interest me to anyone who'll listen, especially if I've had a drink or six. And especially when it comes to Eurovision.Not just you. There's a bit of a running joke around these parts that I hate kids (not completely a joke, mind you
Now you've got me chatting, seems like a reasonable time to say that I'm pretty certain I sit on the autism spectrum myself. This is something I've only come to terms with in the last 6-9 months but the more I think about it and talk to other autistic friends, the more it makes sense. There are things I've been doing for years which are quite evidently "stims".
I suffer quite often with social anxiety, more often than I'd like to the point where I have to just remove myself from a situation, even if that means standing outside while everyone else has a good time. I struggle to cope with situations where I don't know exactly what's going to be happening even when it makes no odds to what I'll be doing - for example "who's coming round on Christmas Day? When are they coming? When are they leaving? Why haven't they decided whether they're coming or not yet?!" I typically hate loud bars/clubs/places where I can't hear the person next to me, unless I've had enough to drink that I just don't care (looking at you EP NYE party!). I feel I often overshare information - nothing personal or inappropriate but I find if I find a certain situation or topic interesting, I'll just info dump on someone.
Additionally, I've taken quite a few of the online autism self-diagnosis tests, and all of the results have pointed to being at least somewhat autistic. I don't feel the need to get officially diagnosed as I'm aware of how long the waiting lists are and even if I got an official diagnosis, it'd be more of an "oh ok, that explains a lot, cheers bye" rather than needing it for help. Someone who suffers far more than I would need that official diagnosis more!
So there we are, hello Autism thread, I guess!
