I joined an autism mom's group and since I get out very little because of the work of my twins as well as my son's autism/health problems. I'm also autistic so I do struggle with social situations and making friends. Next Saturday is a dinner we go to as a large group with the autism moms. I checked Facebook and have been kicked out of the group. I contacted a friend that's in the group because I was confused about what I may have done. I'm so sad I'm no longer welcome to join in on the outings. She said I was kicked out because I broke the group rules for asking for money. The reason I asked for payment was the moderator of the group wanted me to do some complicated sewing for her child's pagents. When I told her I could do it but there would be a cost she wasn't happy. She then told me she could borrow my daughters clothes. I said no. They are hers. I have a big history of letting people take advantage of me and I have been trying very hard to have rules. I can deal with not being in the group. Maybe they were never going to be my friend. I just need some guidance on whether I oversteped asking for payment for my work. I don't think so but I'm not always understanding what the right answers are when people ask me for favors.

When I told her I think I potentially had autism she denied it and told me she Dosent believe it and it’s probably anxiety and sent me so many tests. 😭

I did all of them and kept them in like a note thingy but I’m not sure if they’d mean anything to a therapist if I got evaluated.

This is technically a repost because I deleted the other one because I forget to add the others.

I have ADHD and also traits of the autism spectrum, my case is special, I am not like any other person with these diagnoses, when I was a child I was more backward compared to others, I was dumb, I was lost all the time, I did not understand anything, at school I was labeled as the fool, the stupid and the crazy, I remember what I was like in those times, I was less aware of my hygiene, my way of speaking, I was not aware of my hairstyle or my physical appearance, I had little awareness of myself, I was not aware that I looked asleep or in another world, I was not aware of the way I looked at others or my body posture, I saw a photo of myself when I was 15 years old, I had a posture leaning forward and to one side, my shoulders drooped and the face of tired or dazed I would prefer to call it a stupid face, my passport in the photo of my passport I have sleepy eyes they are not fully open, I always felt half asleep until the day I still feel this way today when I'm supposed to be alert, but when I'm at home I feel fine.

Hello people,

I am working on completing my development history for future diagnosis. May I ask if the following details count as autistic traits?

Stimming:

One thing I just have in mind is that I would walk in circle whenever I am thinking/having intense feelings. This behavior feel very natural for me. And I actively remember that I've been doing this all the time(from I learn how to walk to now). The reason I remember it is because whenever I did this, my dad would say the same joke. And this joke is almost like a family tradition for us.

Besides I bite my nails A LOT, this also start from a early age. But I start to picking scalp after I read a comic where the main character pick his dandruff and make a painting out of it...

Special Interest:

The one I want to talk about is doll. I have a lot of dolls(compared to other kids in my area), but I grow up in a relatively underdeveloped place, and my family is not that rich to support me brought hundreds of dolls. But I still have a cabinet full of them. And I still want to gather a lot of them after going to university(though my parents suggest me not to do so).

But I do have a friend who is willing to play doll with me(my mom introduced her to me at the first day of elementary school). I would came up with the same story settings (imaginary story adapted from TV show/cartoon) the let it go like a combination of plots from different show.

But I only would insist on playing the same game over and over again and soon my friends started to hate playing doll with me(I feel so sorry for her now). She refused to play this with me many times and I would just keep begging her until she agreed. I finally ended the torture for her at fifth grade because my parents brought a PC and later we started to play video games together.

Thank you for reading all my nonsense!

TLDR: Walk in circle when have intense feeling or thinking. Special interest is doll.

'Friendly checkout helper' Abel making a mark for inclusivity https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/557264/friendly-checkout-helper-abel-making-a-mark-for-inclusivity

This is such a heartwarming example of how the action of a single business can do so much to raise the awareness of what autism is for the average person.

Hi!
I would like to ask for help! I am doing a group presentation on the language acquisition of people on the autism spectrum. My task is to support the data my mates collect on the topic with examples from the media (movies, TV shows, etc).

Could you recommend TV shows, characters, scenes, or anything that is considered an accurate representation of the lives of people with autism, and the way they communicate and connect with others? I am also looking for bad, disrespectful portrayals too!

Thank you in advance! Have a nice weekend!

Hello everyone. This may be a bit of a writeup. I just need some perspectives on my situation and my brand/type of autism. Thank you, if you choose to read this whole thing.

I am not able to get an official diagnosis as an adult at this time.

I understand no one here is really qualified to say whether or not I have autism, but I just want to hear perspectives on what I've laid out here.

I've always been a little "weird". I'm the youngest of my family and I'd react the "worst" out of various situations compared to when my siblings were kids. (Worst as in more anger and outbursts) My mom understood that I was definitely different compared to most kids, she suspected autism and took me to a place where I guess they specialized in that stuff. However, this was most certainly pre-2013 and they didn't even bother to even try to test me, they just blew her and her concerns off. She still thought I had it, some form of it, even if everyone didn't believe her. She has always done her best to accommodate me where she could.

As an adult, it seems very likely to me, but I have some doubts. I will start with confirmations first.

Now that I live on my own and don't have to face ridicule from one of my siblings, I finally started to "relax", but had to really force myself to. I believe in the autism community, this is referred to as "masking" and "unmasking", but to me I just see it as "social mode" and "non-social mode". I was always near my sibling and wouldn't always know where he was home, so I'd be almost permanently in "social mode" for several years. I believe this may have caused "autistic burnout" where I was extremely depressed for a very long time. Once I started relaxing, I started getting some desires to make some movements, realized I didn't need to worry anymore, in which I've started doing a few. One of which I didn't realize, but the interlocked-finger-hand-rubbing thing, is apparently very stereotypically autistic.

I don't feel like I feel things in the same way as other people. I'm going to describe the following way in the way that I feel I can describe it best, but it may not make sense. My emotions used to be very close to my mind when I was a child. During teenage years though... Something eventually happened, and some of my emotions seem... further, harder, difficult to read. I don't understand what I feel anymore, I don't understand HOW I feel anymore. I can easily identify when I am emotionally miserable to a certain point, but I have a harder time understanding sometimes if I'm happy, confused, or have a concern about something or someone. Sometimes I need to dedicate hours thinking about something to just try to get an idea of a way to attempt to put something into words. And once I start speaking, I need to be VERY careful who I say it to, because most people don't seem to understand the idea that I'm saying something, that I THINK I feel, but I don't know if I actually feel this way. It can take several attempts before something "hits correctly" to how I feel. I've spent years attempting to find the right words to explain this, with tons of practice conversations when I'm alone.

I have a hard time working for extended periods of time. I work 16 hour weeks and I feel like that is my limit for an energy equilibrium. This may be the type of work rather than work itself, as my job is rather social (a medical nonprofit, but I usually don't interact with patients, but I do a lot of coordination with staff and volunteers and there's a lot of chatting between my coworkers; I kind of like the chatting since I like to hear others' perspectives, but I think it drains me a lot more than I feel it does. I am also very often in proximity to staff speaking with patients. Even during lunchtime, I hear people chatting.)

As a child, I was EXTREMELY sensitive to pain. I was always quick to complain if I hurt. As an adult, I feel like it's... very easy to ignore pain, so long as it's not too extreme or chronic. For example, needles don't hurt in any worthwhile way to me, it's just the FEELING of the needle inside me that I hate. According to my doctor, I have plantar fasciitis, and yet one of my favorite jobs is tons of walking/running. It hurts a lot, but it feels very... ignorable. I always feel like I'm super-sensitive, but it's still somehow easy to ignore?

I can never, ever, anticipate people. It feels like 80% of things people do are a complete and utter shocking surprise to me. I'm easy to "stun", socially, especially in an argument. So while I love to hear peoples' perspectives on stuff like politics, I almost never talk about them with others because people can't help but get conversationally aggressive, as if they wanted me to shut up for providing a viewpoint that's different than their own (before you think I'm talking about some specific group of people, I'm talking about people on *all* sides of the spectrum; no one is immune from getting emotional). That's actually part of the reason why I might not even respond to anyone or look at this post until I work up the courage after a week since I've been dogpiled on Reddit before, and I still don't know what I uniquely did that made me so disliked. I have no way to know or tell if people will do the same here, or anywhere, so I just lurk Reddit (and most places) rather than interact, since I'm afraid of the hurt. I'm a very sensitive soul, deep down, and it takes me a long time to process my way out of social hurt.

I take a long time to learn something, but when I do, it's locked in pretty well. I primarily learn visually and if I need to remember something someone says to me, it works best if it's in text or written down. Before puberty fogged up my brain, I was able to do math pretty well in my head. I'm still decent at it, but it's always been much harder ever since my stupid gametes started firing their chems.

I also don't care for eye contact, but I can do it since it's socially "required" at times.

I absolutely despise decorations in my house. It's more stuff to visually process for no reason; I prefer blank walls.

Speaking of visual processing, I have a TERRIBLE time of looking for stuff. The other day, my roommate asked me to get his bag from the floor. I looked down on the floor, and there were various items. I couldn't see... anything. I could see colors and all the shapes, but I was unable to process what these colors and shapes *were* until after a little while. I believe I have the same issue with driving, which makes it feel very unsafe for me to drive.

And well, I always, ALWAYS feel so... isolated from others. I try to talk to them about stuff, and people keep misunderstanding me, and I don't know what I do that makes it so hard to understand; my words make sense to me, but people seem to keep not understanding them correctly.

As for things that make me doubt it...

I'm not neat by any means. Everything is a pile of random stuff. I hate organizing. I'll need to do it eventually, but... well, "I'll do it tomorrow".

I read that one autism trait is "A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g. by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people).", but yet I don't think I have this trait at all. I love to share things with other people, so long as they care to listen.

It's easier to me to get along with neurotypical folks than neurodivergent folks. Mind you, the people I've gotten the closest connections with seem to diverge mentally in one way or another, but I think it ties back to what I mentioned before in that I like interesting perspectives, even ones I believe are wrong. It's sometimes harder for me to interact with my closer friends than a random stranger since they're... I'll use the term "mentally diverse" to refer to my friend group. NT people in my experience are... boring, but generally inoffensive. And strangers I meet who are very clearly ND, I tend to have a harder time getting along with, since... well, this is something I won't ever make it anyone's problem if I can help it, but I find them more draining compared to the average person. I feel more stressed around them than NT folks, since I don't really know what to do or say. So, as a tendency to avoid stress for myself, I have a desire to avoid them. From my readings, this is a very NT response. I do my best not to avoid anyone since I know how it feels to be in that situation, but it does drain me.

I give off the impression that I have "special interests" to my friends and such, but I don't feel like it to me. Everything, even things I don't like, feel like a top-level interest. And eventually I lose interest and move onto something else. Even my biggest obsession, dragons, I just get tired of, then I have to deal with my friends pointing dragons out to me when I just don't care at the time. There's no interest I have that I regress towards during times of burnout; I'd just want to do nothing, see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing.

If I wanted to spend another hour writing everything out, I probably could. I feel that this is plenty to give for a perspective. Here is my rdos.net graph, if that helps anything. I don't know how accurately I answered the questions, and some of the questions I've just never been in that type of situation, so I just left them unanswered.

I understand no one here is really qualified to say whether or not I have autism, but I just want to hear perspectives on what I've laid out here.

Anyway, if you've read the whole way, thank you very much for reading.

Hello everyone, I’m not sure if this is the best place to post this but I am looking for easy food recommendations. If there is a better sub for this I will try there..

I’ll give some background first and then food types/textures that I am looking for. Not looking for expert opinion but I know a lot of people in this community are as particular as I am and would understand what I’m looking for.

I broke my foot a couple months ago and I have been cooking a bit more but I am fairly broke and I get tired easily so I need some more easy breakfasts.

Sometimes food in the morning tastes like shoving dry sand in my mouth but I have to eat to take my medication.

I like the hotcakes from McDonalds but not homemade pancakes. I like the fluffiness and homemade pancakes have a little crunch/hardness on top I do not like. I have bought microwaveable flapjacks that looked similar but had that sort of crust I don’t like. Has anyone found store bought pancakes that are soft and fluffy like hotcakes?

I’ve been eating a lot of cereal but it doesn’t hold me over for that long. I think I need more protein in my diet and more nutrients/electrolytes. I like protein shakes but haven’t bought them in a while because they’re a bit expensive. I eat a lot of peanut butter. Meats are hard for me, I’m pretty particular about how it’s cooked so I don’t usually like pre cooked meat or microwaved nuggets etc.

Unfortunately my safe foods mostly come from McDonald’s because I worked there for more than 5 years and I know exactly how things are made and what the quality represents (eg if it’s been sitting out too long vs being overcooked).