I am currently waiting to be assessed by the Adult Diagnostic team which my psychologist and psychiatrist referred me to. I'm 25 and although I have dated an aspie and have a few aspie friends, I had not really considered it in myself until my carer's now ex (another aspie) pointed it out to me. All mentioned are diagnosed but I only ever found one "odd". I put that down to simple personality showing differently from mine as I knew I was pretty peculiar as me. Later when I was told his diagnosis it didn't register with me because although I knew the general points, I never found it to be an issue with any of the diagnosed I am acquainted with.

I just didn't see anything past my one "odd" friend's smile which didn't bother me because I look ridiculous when people tell me to do so. I understood what was being expressed and with this friend I'm talking about most, we had rigid arguments but simply agreed to leave it alone as obviously neither was going to bend.

So, for the most part I found them a little less confusing than everybody else. For the longest time I couldn't work out if I was some sort of faerie put in the human world or if everybody else was bonkers in a different way than myself.

I took lots of the Cambridge Uni tests and scored in the range for probable in all of them. I took the rdos which isn't really based on a sound theory but got probable again. I looked at the main symptoms and found I fit them all, then went to the secondaries and fit almost all, then to the biological sex difference and got all but maybe one for my birth sex, then I read lots of experiences and connected with many, asked all my friends and found they corroborated with what I was finding, started joining bigger forums and found that so much of what I thought were troublesome quirks were either stated symptoms or common themes with the diagnosed.

So, I feel quite confident I will be found on the spectrum, especially since my father, his brother, their father, and his brother all show/showed traits either to BAP level or actually aspie level. I've recently reconnected with my dad and he just... gets everything I'm saying, even when other people look at me like I'm nuts. He even doesn't mind that I don't form family ties and to me he's a very close friend.

Still, having to wait so long for this assessment makes me doubt what I feel is true. I have never been sure of a diagnosis before being given it before as I've always been careful of that but far too many pieces have fallen into place. Learning about autistic burnout also helped me understand the fluctuations of functioning I have had in my life. Watching "Ask an Autistic" on Youtube has also been informative, teaching me how others may feel and also allowing me to understand what it is that I appear to be experiencing. I don't really know what set of diagnoses could really cover all the areas.

I would say I function to a reasonable degree in a social situation when I have my carer with me. Before that, I relied on alcohol.

I would also say that while social situations in my own life are completely bizarre, when I read another's scenario I can generally work out what is going on because I read so much into human reactions and behaviour. I've more or less worked out a way to be balanced and polite at the same time, even to a point which gets close to the bluntness which comes when I'm worn out. So I seem to be able to advise as I have been thanked and told it makes sense.

Still, I get confused about a lot of issues. Recently I found out either friendships don't work like I thought or that my social circle are even less mainstream than I thought.

I will try to help when I can, feel free to ask me anything about me or a problem you have. I like helping. Well, online anyway.

Oh and my rdos (138/200 aspie - 96/200 NT)