I want to know more about Autism
Hello, this is my first time doing this so sorry if I make some mistakes.
I'm 23 years old and I have Spastic Hemiplegia, which it's a kind of Cerebral Palsy. I also have General Anxiety Disorder, Depression, Agoraphobia, OCD, and Panic Disorder. Um, life has been hard because of all that and after 10 years of waiting, I found a psychologist. We meet only once a month, but it's better than nothing. Anyway, that's not what this is about.
So, one day I was talking about how I watch true crime videos to help me cope with anxiety and how I didn't really feel anything watching it. Or about people in general. My grandmother died in November and I didn't cry or felt anything more than a little sad. My uncle died some months later and I felt nothing at all. But, my dog died in 2020 and it was so bad I was diagnosed with Panic Disorder. I care more about animals than people. So, my psychologist wondered if I had autism and after running away from it for two months, I did an online test and well, I think I might have. I'll do a proper exam to know it, but I want to know more about autism and I hope you guys can tell more about it? I don't know anyone who has autism so I don't know anything about it.
And I have some questions:
Does everyone who has autism likes or remembers numbers? I'm terrible with numbers and my memory sucks unless it's about something I have an interest in.
Is everyone unable to do more than one thing at the same time? I do that all the time, like listening to an audiobook while reading something else and listening to music at the same time.
Is everyone very likely to pay attention to mere details? I'm terrible at paying attention to details unless I'm interested in it.
And finally, is everyone unable to understand sarcasm, dirty jokes... things like that? Because I'm very sarcastic and dirty-minded.
That's it. I hope I didn't offend anyone. I really don't know anything about autism and if I really have it, it's scary to think I'll like enter a new world without knowing a thing about it.
@HopefulMei Welcome!
As far as I know I am not autistic but I do know some things about autism.
I'm not sure of your gender, but autism in females does tend to look different than autism in males and unfortunately with sexism it just isn't as studied.
Autism is very much multifaceted and a spectrum on those facets. I think being numbers oriented is more common for those whoa re autistic than neurotypical, but number learning disabilities can still occur in people with autism too.
Hopefully others can chime in about your other questions!
You can also check out the forums in the Support Plus community, as there is a section there.
@AffyAvo
Thanks for answering me. I'm accepting all kinds of help I can get since it's a new thing in my life and I don't know anything about it.
I didn't know there were support forums for autism in 7cups. I'll make sure to check it out right way!
I'm an autistic (high functioning autism/aspergers) teenager, just diagnosed last october!
There's a saying, if youve met one autistic person, then youve met one autistic person."
Not everyone with autism is going to have the exact same experience, as it is a spectrum disorder.
Some may experience some symptoms more than others, and i think in my case some symptoms can be a bit situational *Take that with a grain of salt though!
To answer your questions, from my personal experience (i cannot speak for everyone!)
1) some do, id assume!
Side note, theres something called a special interest (some call a hyperfixation) which many people with autism/autistic people (it depends on the person which term they prefer) have. This may be what youre experiencing with remembering more relating to what youre interested in.
2) some autistic people struggle with shifting gears between tasks, but again this is not an end-all-be-all thing! Some symptoms you may experience, some maybe not as often!
3) well, it depends on the person!
4) many autistic people struggle with taking things like jokes literally, which may cause us to not understand some jokes. However, i don't see how it could determine your humor so much! *take with a grain of salt
You didn't offend me, you just want to learn and thats ok!
I hope things can go well for you and either way, i hope you can find more of who you are!
@neatFan3700
Oh, I see, everyone is different and it'll depend on the life they have I guess. I know how that is, I have Spastic Hemiplegia, but I don't fit in all the symptoms because it's different for everyone.
But thank you so much for answering my questions. I was really afraid that it would be offensive, as I'm ignorant about the whole Autism Spectrum. And I've been on the other side of this with my disability and I've met a lot of people who were offensive because they didn't know anything about it.
Anyway, I'll do my best to face this without much fear. I'm just really scared of my life changing entirely.
Hopefully, I'll find a specialist in my country soon and will know more about myself.