I have a friend I have known since childhood that's been diagnosed with autism. However up until three years ago you would have never noticed. He was always very social and just an all around normal teenage boy. A few summers ago he smoked lots of pot. Multiple times a day, every day(not sure if that's a factor or not as this match's the timeframe when he changed). After this summer he changed. Throughout our junior year he went through a phase where he was obsessed with school shootings such as Columbine and idolized the shooters. He's since moved past that. However the way he talks still is not normal. He says alot of edgy stuff that no one finds funny but he says it anyway. Excessive use of the n word even though I know he's not racist. He will throw the n word into a sentence even if it makes no sense. It's hard to have a real conversation with him anymore because he will just respond with something like "that's gay" or "oof" or the n word. He even told me and a friend that he feels the need to say edgy stuff and if he doesn't then he doesn't feel good. On top of all this he has really bad anger issues and is pretty agressive with some of the things he says. He also slacks off when it comes to school but I don't know if that is relevant. Another thing I have noticed with him is that he has unusual verbal "tics" I guess you would call them. He often rubs his hands together when talking as well as running his hand through his hair like he's fixing it. He also borderline sexually assaulted a female friend of ours while she was high. There's lots more I could go on about but I just wanted to give the highlights and see what's going on. Is this just really bad autism or is there something more that's wrong with my friend and what should I do? To anyone who read this whole thing and responds, thank you so much!
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