- Hi everyone.
Welcome back to Aspergers From the Inside,
you're here with Paul.
Today's video topic is part three
in this month's Patron's Choice video series.
So the topic is are you autistic?
25 questions to ask yourself,
if you're trying to figure out
if you're on the spectrum or not.
So in this video I'll be going through
25 different questions across seven categories
of common autistic experiences.
So we've got feeling different, routine, communication,
sensory, attention, social and emotional.
So hopefully by the end of this video
you'll get a sense of whether you resonate
with these kinds of experiences or not.
And that should give you some valuable information
as to whether or not you're on the spectrum yourself.
It can be very helpful and even life-changing
to realize you're on the spectrum,
but it's not usually helpful to tell someone else
that they're on the spectrum
if they're not open to hearing it.
It's all about the inner experiences
that autistic people share that only you can know about.
So please don't use this video in an attempt to try
and diagnose someone else in your life.
Okay, so let's get into it.
So number one, have you always felt different to your peers?
Maybe you feel like a bit of an outsider
and even when you're part of a group,
you still feel like you don't really belong,
you're not really one of them.
Number two, do you worry about not being believed
when you tell others about yourself?
Three, do you find yourself adopting different mannerisms
when you're home alone and think things
that you don't do in public?
It might be some form of stimming or some other kind
of behavior that's just more comfortable
and more natural way for you,
but you do it only when you're by yourself.
Number four, do you have gaps in your skill set?
You might be talented in some areas,
but there are also some simple things
that other people can do,
other people seem to be able to do naturally
that you find really difficult.
Do you like to be prepared and dislike
any last minute changes?
Are your routines sometimes seen as extreme
or odd by others?
I have a practice of eating the same thing
for every meal time and other people can't really believe
that it's that extreme,
but actually it's completely fine by me.
Do you like to focus on one thing at a time,
and find that it takes a significant amount of time
and energy to change gears,
switch between tasks and do something else?
Do you go through cycles of hyper productivity
and then burnout,
working really hard and then crushing or just coping fine
for a while and then falling to bits later?
Do you struggle to hold down jobs,
friends or relationships perhaps due to misunderstandings
or maybe just for no apparent reason at all?
Do you have trouble expressing what you really mean
especially under stress?
Are there some common types of communication that you find
extremely difficult or uncomfortable?
So phone calls or emails or SMS, for example.
Many of us have a very strong preference for one of these
and severely dislike and actively avoid the others.
Are you sometimes very gullible struggling
to tell whether people are being serious or not?
Do you often wish people would just say what they mean
and get really angry when people don't say what they mean,
because it makes you confused
and you don't know what's going on?
So in terms of sensory issues,
are you particularly sensitive to some things,
maybe lights, noise, tastes, smell,
and does this lead to significant discomfort
in some typical public places and situations?
Which means that participation in some social activities
becomes very difficult or restricted.
Do you feel like dealing with the outside world
can be difficult and stressful
and you often have significant anxiety
about having to go out and face it?
Do you often notice things that others don't?
And sometimes things seem obvious to others
that are not obvious to you and you're kind of
left there thinking,
where is everyone getting this information from?
How do they all know this thing?
And it just seemed to not,
I just missed the memo that everyone else seemed to get?
Do you have uncommon interests or passions
that you wish you could share with others
but they just don't get,
instead they might be interested in other things
that you're just not interested in at all,
which makes small talk and talking with other people
really challenging at times?
Do you find that dealing with other people
can be really difficult or confusing,
especially confusing and you often find yourself
over analyzing situations before and after trying
to sort of figure out what the best thing to do
would be rather than relying on your instincts?
Do you feel like it's your job to fit in,
in order to find friends and that if you did
a better job in fitting in,
maybe you'd find more friends and have better relationships?
Do you find that when socializing you constantly make sure,
constantly thinking about,
I need to make sure I'm not gonna do the wrong thing?
Either censoring yourself, filtering, masking,
even with friends because you're not sure
if the real you is appropriate.
And if you show them what you're really thinking
or what you'd really like to be doing,
then you'd be seen as somehow odd
or perhaps a risk rejection.
Do you often feel overwhelmed by other people's emotions
or do you hardly feel emotions at all and people
are surprised that you're not reacting in the way
that they expected you to react?
Are you often surprised when people tell you
what they're thinking and feeling
because you just had absolutely no idea
until I actually told you?
Have you been periodically labeled with either depression
or anxiety or a number of other diagnosis
that either keep changing or just don't quite seem to fit
and people are always looking for a better explanation
because there's something there,
something different and we just can't put our finger
on what it is?
These things that I've mentioned
are very common autistic experiences.
They are just some of the common autistic experiences.
It was actually really hard to pick a finite list
because I could have picked a hundred different questions,
but I've tried to pick the 25 that I thought
were most useful.
So I hope you've found them relatable
and if you're thinking that this is you,
I would strongly encourage you to take the possibility
that you might be on the spectrum seriously.
And back to my number one piece of advice
that I always give is that meeting other people
on the spectrum is probably the best way
to learn about autism, right?
It's not always immediately obvious what we have in common,
but once you get to know us,
you'll get a sense of what we all share
and then you'll be able to answer the question
of if you have that too.
So anyway, I hope you found this video helpful.
As I said in last week's video,
the most reliable way to know for sure
if you're on the spectrum or not,
especially at the beginning,
is if you can relate very strongly to the inner experience
of another autistic person
who you know to be on the spectrum
and they have shared with you their experience
and you think, yes, that's me.
I completely identify with that as well.
Now, this won't be your experience
with every autistic person,
and that's why I recommend reading resources, reading books,
written by autistic people, blogs, videos,
and I put some resources in last week's video for that,
so I won't go through them again.
So thanks again for watching.
Whether or not you're on the spectrum I wish you
all the best for your journey of self-discovery.
And finally, please consider supporting this channel
on Patreon so I can keep answering more
of your questions in the future.
Thanks, bye.