I'm a female in my early thirties. Have two dc, one of which my son, is diagnosed with autism amongst other diagnoses. My younger child also has some traits of asd, but seemingly harder to get her diagnosed. I feel like I could be too.
I have always felt maybe I'm not quite 'normal'. Not that I believe that normal is a word that should be used often but growing up and going to school in the 90's and 00's, autism was not so talked about as a lot of people know. So I tried so hard to act 'normal'. I didn't know know what autism was then, was never talked about, when it was it was mainly in boys. My friends brother had autism and I was nothing like him. I was naive and didn't know anything about it.
I will try not to go into too much detail on the things that make me feel like I'm on the spectrum. It might get too long but I've struggled socially all my life, never been able to sustain a friendship, can't tell if people like me or not so avoid everyone, as a kid I preferred to adults rather than kids, as an adult I prefer talking to people I don't know as less pressure! I can't make eye contact, I can feel empathy for people but I struggle to show sympathy both verbally and physically, I can't deal with crying or sad people, I have suffered with anxiety since I was 8, I often don't get jokes or sayings, I liked sameness, I often did not get routine growing up because my family life was a bit chaotic and my mum was not a routine person, I've never had issues with noise because as above I lived in a chaotic household, there was always noise but I am sensitive to light. Also extreme issues with food which has improved somewhat since being a kid. I had and still have a fab memory. I knew peoples numbers plates, phone numbers, birthdays etc off by heart. I remember some of my classmates birthdays from school, even though I wasn't actually friends with them.
as an adult I struggle majorly socially. don't really have many friends. Convince myself people don't like me so stay away from people. The friends I do have are somewhat similar to me. Not close to my family because they are the opposite to me.
Amongst lots of other things that I won't go into.
I have scored 36 out of 50 on AQ screening online.
I have also done raads r and scored 170 which strongly suggests asd. Over 65 is an indicator of asd.
anyone else been through this? I know my family will likely laugh me off! My brothers and sisters are totally different to me.
tia ☺️
how do I fo about an assessment?