"Am I Autistic?" Guide

Basic Concepts

Watch this video of [Why Everything you Know About Autism is Wrong] by Dr. Jac den Houting, an Autistic Autism Researcher.

This talks about the Autistic experience and intoduces Damian Milton's Double Empathy Problem.

This video will give you the basic information you need to start to grok Autism

Lived Experiences

[Click here] for a list of over 100 lesser known Autistic traits that Autistic people experience every day of their lives expressed as lived experiences rather than clinical experiences or diagostics.

Reviewing this list can help you identify that your personal *quirks* might actually be manifestations of Autism.

Multigenerational Normalization

The dominant factor of being Autistic is genetic.

One reason you may have reached your age without being diagnosed is that one or both of your parents may have "normalized" Autism because Autistic traits are normal for their family.

We polled Autistic people and the results indicated a 72% chance that at least one of their parents is definitely Autistic but only a 13% chance that their parents are aware of it.

Diagnosis Criteria

The DSM-5 is a diagnosis methodology used to assess if a person is Autistic.

You can read a [non-deragatory and accessible version of it here] or watch [@Samantha_Stein / Yo Samdy Sam video.]

Atypical Memory

If you are Autistic you /probably/ have an atypical episodic autobigraphical memory and other nuances to your memory that stand out from the norm.

Being drawn to ND and the Marginalized

Autistic people naturally gravitate to other ND and marginalized people as well as media with such characters.

When they become aware they are Autistic, they often become consiously aware of this effect. Quote Tweet