Questioning

If you are here reading this Wiki, you may have already started the questioning process yourself! Many late-diagnosed autistic people can recall a moment of "realization" when they first learned that they might be autistic. This could be from learning about autism online, being informed by a therapist or other professional that they exhibit autistic traits, or speaking with another autistic person and learning from their knowledge and experience of being autistic.

Uncertainty

It is extremely common and normal to doubt during the questioning process whether you might "really" be autistic. You likely internalized the inaccurate stereotypes that society holds about autism (that is okay! It is not your fault that you did not know better.) Therefore, you might have had a certain impression of autism for years that may not fit with your experience of autism. Many people are only able to realize that they are autistic after learning that autism truly is a SPECTRUM, and that there are many factors which influence our presentations, including masking, being AFAB, trauma, and much more. Some people think that it is possible to "look" autistic, but this is absolutely not the case. All autistic people are different: we all have unique interests, hobbies, careers, preferences, comorbidities, fashion tastes, and more. While some autistic people may stim visibly at times, autism does NOT have any certain appearance.