Am I Autistic?
Am I Autistic? Late diagnosed Autistic
The following is a checklist of traits which can be common for people with a diagnosis of Autism and may be relevant for a late Autism diagnosis. It was written to give real life examples of what Autism can look like for those with a diagnosis and highlights some areas which may not be picked up on with usual Autistic screening tools. Full disclosure, I am a late diagnosed Autistic person, I have written this list from a mixture of a first-person experience as well as clinical learnings and experience. Some of the traits below are described in a light or humorous way, which can make them feel more relatable. At the same time, this is not meant to minimise the very real challenges Autistic people face in a world that is not always designed with them in mind.
Please note, it does not necessarily mean you have Autism if you identify with several of the traits below. Likewise, traits of Autism vary greatly between individuals and if you only identify with a few of the traits listed you still may have a diagnosis of Autism. If you suspect you may have Autism and or want to explore this further, please contact a health professional, a general practitioner or a psychologist is a good place to start.
A 76 point Autism checklist for Adults
1. Socialising makes you tired and you require your own space and down time to recuperate. I call this a social hangover.
2. If you enjoy dancing, or karaoke you much prefer doing this on a night out than small talk with people at parties.
3. You may use drugs and or alcohol to cope with the anxiety you feel in social situations.
4. If you are a parent, school pick up and drop off time may be a nightmare (most likely because it is mostly just small talk), you may find a hiding spot away from other parents to deal with this.
5. You do not like gossip.
6. You get very anxious and stressed going somewhere new, for example going to a health appointment at a new clinic can be extremely anxiety provoking, you may spend time looking where the place is before and planning your route. You may google the clinic and health practitioner you are seeing, to help ease your anxiety.
7. You may study a menu prior going to a new restaurant and google layout of the restaurant and its location.
8. You love gaming and can play for hours on end and enjoy it!
9. You are creative. This can mean in an artistic way, but you may be good at coming up with novel solutions to problems.
10. You do not like phone calls, they are anxiety provoking and unpredictable, you prefer communicating via text, email, message etc, you may have a few very close people who are an exception to this and whom you can talk on the phone to. Another exception to this is if you are doing something at the same time as the call, like gaming with a friend and talking at the same time, then a call is fine.
11. You consider a phone call from a private number an act of violence.
12. You have a very bad sense of direction; you may have to go somewhere several times before you learn the route off by heart.
13. You may struggle with knowing your left and right, you may have developed tricks to help you, maybe a piece of jewellery worn on one side, maybe a tattoo, but even with these tricks you may still need a good moment to work it out. You do not understand how people can just know their left and right.
14. You may have been described as painfully shy as a child, and/ or you may have found it easy to talk to adults and adults may have been impressed with your speech and vocabulary.
15. You may have been an extremely ‘good’ student /child.
16. You may have experienced separation anxiety as a child.
17. You do not like attention on you, you do not like to be centre of attention, you prefer to be in the background, there may exceptions, for instance if you enjoy dancing you may be ok with people looking at you when you are dancing.
18. Being in workshop, class, work event and everyone is asked to take turns and introduce themselves, this brings you immense anxiety.
19. Meandering, pointless conversation, for example in a work meeting irritates you to no end, you prefer if people got straight to the point, and you do not see the need for waffle.
20. You love books and escape into them, if you find an author you really like you read absolutely everything by that author. You realise not many people do this.
21. Similarly, you love music and if you find a song/artist you like you will deep dive into this. It is not unusual for you to listen to a song/artist you like on repeat. You are probably the sole reason for the success of that song/artist.
22. You may feel a strong connection to characters in books, tv shows and movies.
23. If you are watching a show/movie and you like it, you might spend a good portion of time googling the show and learning about the creators and actors.
24. You cannot stand if a picture hanging on a wall is askew, and you will fix that picture if you can.
25. You like everything ordered and in its place.
26. You may have some OCD traits, this can be in placement of objects, checking behaviours, over thinking etc.
27. You may have spent a lot of your life feeling anxious, you may even have a diagnosis of anxiety, generalised anxiety, OCD, etc.
28. You have always felt something is wrong with you and you got the impression that other people seem to find much of life easier than you do (this is not your fault it is because many systems in the world are not designed for us, so of course we will struggle.)
29. You may blush easily.
30. You have always felt a bit different, on the edge, not feeling like you quite fit in at school, feeling awkward. But when you find your people that you click with, it is like magic.
31. You people please, this can get in the way of you looking after you.
32. You may find your hands want to fidget and they may engage in behaviours such as picking, scratching or repetitive movements this may feel uncontrollable, but you may only engage in these behaviours in private.
33. You love a swivel chair, and you will not be able to sit still in it.
34. If you have a child/children you may experience the following. You take your child to a health appointment, the health practitioner offers your child a fidget toy, it takes all your strength and will to not take the fidget toy for yourself.
35. You are perfectionist, you may want your appearance to be perfect before you leave the house, you may go over emails, assignments checking and re checking minute details, this perfectionism at times, may prevent you from doing things you want to do.
36. You have a family member or members who are Autistic, this may be a child, niece or nephew, uncle, grandparent etc.
37. You seem to be friends with quite a few ADHD and Autistic people.
38. You are about to go on break at work, you walk by the tearoom at work and see no one is there, you are relieved and excited.
39. You want a coffee and leave house to get a coffee but cannot bring yourself to walk into the café.
40. You sometimes cannot express yourself verbally and overall, you find you can communicate better via written word.
41. Sometimes you can shut down when completely overwhelmed.
42. Covid times were hard, but you enjoyed the reduced socialising, and this was not shared with most people around you.
43. You hate when things are unfair.
44. You have a strong social conscious.
45. You find transitions hard. For example, going from work to holidays or even work to the weekend and vis-a-versa can be difficult and you may you need time to adjust to the transition.
46. You do not lie or cheat and find it hard to understand that people do.
47. You love animals, you even love animals that many people consider pests and strongly believe in the fair treatment of all animals.
48. You have, what I refer to as big E Empathy. So much so that others may find it odd, for example someone breaks into your car, you are upset that there was nothing of value for them to take as you think someone must be in a pretty desperate situation to break into a car. You realise most people do not think like this.
49. You like living in the city but do not want to talk to people a lot.
50. You love being in nature, it brings you immense joy.
51. You may be sensitive to drugs and alcohol or have different reactions to drugs to most other people, for instance you can easily fall asleep after drinking coffee.
52. You love the invention of the self-checkout and cannot understand people complaining about this.
53. Small talk can tire you out whereas a deep conversation on a topic/s you like with a safe person can energise you.
54. News can be depressing, and you really feel, you may hear a sad story on the news and feel so strongly that you cry and have a visceral reaction, and you find you must limit your news intake.
55. Noises can be really irritating, for example you are studying in a library and the person sniffling two desks down really annoys you and you cannot block it out and it disrupts your learning.
56. People sometimes misinterpret what you mean, and this can lead to upsetting consequences and relationship difficulties.
57. You like hugs but only when you want to be hugged, you can find them extremely uncomfortable and icky, you pick up on smells and textures and you are confused with the person hugging’s intent, you worry about how long , how tight the hug is meant to be, where your hands are meant to rest, and these are some of the reasons it makes it all uncomfortable and unpleasant. But there are times when hugs are welcome and needed. If you are an animal person, you most likely welcome animal “hugs” maybe because the animals’ intentions are simpler to read.
58. You are sensitive to temperature you may run hot or get cold easily, which seems very different to most people around you.
59. You are sensitive to textures and sensations on your skin, you may dislike tags, scratchy fabrics, or you may notice a loose hair on your skin, and this will cause you distress until it is removed.
60. You may have strong aversions to certain foods because of smell, look, temperature, and/or texture. This may lead to Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, ARFID.
61. You may be sensitive to light.
62. You may experience getting a headache, earache, stomach issue after spending extending periods in an overstimulating environment, like a busy shopping centre. You will be tired after leaving this environment and need a rest.
63. You sometimes get bored with certain conversations and want to change the subject to talk about what interests you or leave, but you do not act on these impulses.
64. You can get into a flow state and hyperfocus and this can be extremely beneficial.
65. It can take a great deal of energy to start a new task, especially something you do not enjoy.
66. You can get stuck in a flow state doing something and if someone or something interrupts you, it is very frustrating. In a flow state, you even get irritated or ignore thirst, hunger and or toileting needs but you get heaps done!
67. You do not like when plans change at the last minute.
68. You love routine and function best under structure and routine.
69. If you start a workout routine and continue it, you find it easy to stick to, you can get into an almost robotic pattern and interruptions to this are upsetting.
70. You may be a high achiever and on paper, you may look like you are hitting all the markers you are socially meant to.
71. You have strong passions and interests and may want to talk about them, even though many people around you do not want to engage in this talk, this confuses you! Because cats, and or that book you just read, and or that weird movie you just watched, and or that depressing stuff on the news, and or your special interest, are the only things you want to talk about. You also like hearing about others’ special interest/s.
72. Your computer home screen is chaotic, you have many random files and icons with no order or structure, you may have hundreds or even thousands of unread emails (all junk ones), this is not upsetting or distressing to you at all, but most other people find this extremely stressful. You understand this is at odds with your usual organised self.
73. You are good at pattern recognition.
74. You do not like the sensation of the floor on your bare feet, you may wear socks to deal with this or alternatively you may walk on your tiptoes or the side of your feet if you are bare foot.
75. You may hold your pen in an odd way, and you may have bad handwriting.
76. You dislike being photographed.