Some autistic traits described by an autistic adult
Spoiler alert: If you clicked this article, have been wondering if you might be autistic, and have been trying to research autistic traits — you probably are.
Caveat: Please note that I am not qualified to diagnose someone with autism, nor would any clinician worth their salt confirm or rule out a diagnosis based on an article.
A note for readers: I don’t use the term Autism Symptoms because I’m Autistic, I don’t have the flu. I don’t have “symptoms”, I have traits. Autism is an entire neurotype, so it impacts a person’s entire brain. This means it impacts everything about a person. Autism is a divergent neurotype, it is not a disease.
This story is about my personal experiences and is intended for informational purposes only.
Also, having some autistic traits does not necessarily mean a person is autistic. Autistic traits are human traits, they just tend to be amplified or significantly different due to our markedly different neurology.
Here are some signs that you might be autistic:
9) You feel (or have felt in the past) unsure of who you are
This experience can be very common for a lot of people, definitely not just autistics. That said, many autistics have masked, or camouflaged, our traits and personalities for self-preservation.
Being different can make life challenging and can cause significant problems. A lifetime of being ostracized, criticized, corrected, or even punished for “autistic behaviours” can lead us to hide who we are in order to avoid those negative experiences.
A lot of autistics who have masked for a long time may come to find they aren’t sure of who they are. Many of us feel we have lost our sense of identity after suppressing it for so long and having taken on a neurotypical-like persona just to get by.
8) You have physical differences
Again, this could be the case for a lot of people for a lot of different reasons, and all autistics will experience their autism differently.
A lot of autistics feel uncoordinated for a variety of reasons. Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD, or dyspraxia), commonly co-occurs with autism.
A recent study found that over 90% of autistic participants met the criteria for DCD. (It is important to note, however, that this particular study only had 61 participants altogether).
Another recent — and larger — study had very similar results, indicating that 88% of autistic children were at risk for motor impairments such as dyspraxia.
Another physical difference in some Autistics is toe-walking. Obviously walking on one’s toes is not diagnostic of autism, but it is a common gait for many Autistics, especially young children.
Some research points to tight heel chords (better known by achilles tendons) as a cause of toe walking, and that certainly fits with my personal experiences.
Despite the fact that I have hypermobility in my peroneal tendons (the tendons on the outside of the ankles, commonly sprained when one “rolls” an ankle), I actually have extremely tight achilles tendons.
I still toe-walk upon occasion, but am not sure if this was a concern when I was learning to walk, or when I was quite young. I do know I started walking later than usual (14–15 months, rather than the average of one year).
7) You find yourself practicing for social interactions
You feel the need to rehearse conversations in your head before you have them or rely on dialogue you’ve read, overheard, or seen on T.V.
This is called scripting, and I wrote all about it here.
Part of the reason for this is that we often struggle to understand the neurotypical (NT) styles of communication. Everyone is different, but generally speaking, neurodivergent (ND) folks tend to be more direct, while NTs tend to use a lot more subtext.
Autistics often say that NTs speak in “code”, rather than just saying what they mean in plain language. NTs and NDs also have different cultural expectations for non-verbal communication, such as sustained eye contact and keeping one’s body still while listening.
“For neurotypical people to successfully communicate with neurodivergent people, they may need to reconsider their assumptions about what ‘paying attention’ and ‘respect’ look like, and consider the utility of multimodal communication.”
— Alyssa Hillary
6) You have difficulty remembering people by faces alone
Another common trait in autistics is something called prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness. Many of us recognize people by other physical features more easily than their faces.
I tend to recognize people by their gait (how they walk), their mannerisms, how they dress, their hair, and through context. When I see someone out of context, or if they’ve drastically changed their hair or clothing style, I have a much harder time recognizing them and remembering who they are.
I’ll be aware of familiarity, that feeling of “I know them from somewhere… but where?” Of course, everyone has had that experience upon occasion, especially with people they don’t know well and have only met a few times.
I’ve had this experience with people I’ve known for years.
Wait, there’s more!
Read the remaining five points in my original article on Medium.
© Jillian Enright, Neurodiversity M
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References
Bhat, A.N. (2021), Motor Impairment Increases in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder as a Function of Social Communication, Cognitive and Functional Impairment, Repetitive Behavior Severity, and Comorbid Diagnoses: A SPARK Study Report. Autism Research, 14: 202–219. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2453
Hillary, A. (2020). Neurodiversity and cross-cultural communication. In Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, H., Chown, N., & Stenning, A. (Eds). Neurodiversity Studies: A new critical paradigm. Routledge.
Kallitsounaki, A., Williams, D.M. & Lind, S.E. (2021). Links Between Autistic Traits, Feelings of Gender Dysphoria, and Mentalising Ability: Replication and Extension of Previous Findings from the General Population. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 51, 1458–1465. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04626-w
MacLennan, K., O’Brien, S., Tavassoli, T. (2021). In Our Own Words: The Complex Sensory Experiences of Autistic Adults. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-05186-3
Miller, H.L., Sherrod, G.M., Mauk, J.E. Fears, N.E., Hynan, L.S., Tamplain, P.M. (2021). Shared Features or Co-occurrence? Evaluating Symptoms of Developmental Coordination Disorder in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 51, 3443–3455. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04766-z
Stark, E., Stacey, J., Mandy, W., Kringelbach, M.L. Happé, F. (2021).
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