Tips on how to get a diagnosis?

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My question is how would I go about convincing my mother that I might have Asperger's? I've approached the subject before and each time she'd laugh and say I wasn't autistic. However, she is always telling other people about my "weird" behaviors and sometimes even laughs at me when I do them. How do I convince her that there might be something more to me than just "being weird."

Here are some reasons why I think I might be an Aspie:
-I don't like when my routine or my plans get changed. If we get gas for the car every Saturday after grocery shopping, then I expect to do that every Saturday and it upsets me if that gets changed.
-I am "sensitive." I do not like heat or cold. Nor do I like loud sounds or being touched. I rarely let my family even hug me.
-I can't talk on the phone. It brings me a lot of anxiety. Despite not being a big people person, I would rather talk in person than over the phone. I won't go through drive-thrus either.
-I have a hard time telling whether people are joking or not, especially if they're not the type of person that's always doing one thing. For example, if someone tends to joke around more than be serious, I can usually figure it out. When they change that, though, it throws me totally off.
-I have "fixations." My fixation my entire life has always been Astronomy. In fact, I took an astronomy course in college and actually knew more than my professor did - and he was a physicist.
-As a child, I strictly followed rules. I do so now, my family chalks it up to me being a good kid. I don't know my reasoning for it, but I was always the teacher's pet and got made fun of for it mercilessly.
-I rarely ever try new things. If I do, it's on my own accord and not because someone asked me to.
-I was in the Gifted program in school. Now, I am in the Honors club in college. When it comes to academics, I've always been above average.
-I've taken online quizzes and all of them suggested that I might be autistic. On the Autism Quotient test, I scored a 42.
-I do not feel the need to go out and spend time with people. I never have, even when I was a teenager and supposed to be "social."
-While I do have friends, I only have one best friend and she is the only person I talk to. Even then, we do not talk on a daily basis. I've always had one best friend my entire life and they usually changed each school year. I don't really talk to people who aren't my best friend. My current best friend is actually the person who asked me if I had Asperger's and she got me researching about it.
-I'm a walking dictionary, so to speak. Whenever someone in my family has a question, they come to me because I always have the answer. Apparently, I spout out seemingly random information all of the time. This is according to my mother.

You sound very much like you could be on the spectrum.

You say that your mother will sometimes point out or laugh at your weird behaviors, so I would begin writing down the traits or behaviors that SHE notices, and then once you have a decent list, print out some common traits of Asperger's and give her both lists so she can see how the traits that SHE has recognized are relevant to Asperger's.

I think you'll find that some parents have a very difficult time accepting that something is 'clinically' wrong with their children. If they are just 'weird', well, that's fine, because they are sure it's something their child will eventually grow out of. However, once there's a diagnosis, it becomes permanent, the parents have to accept it, and sometimes, the parents don't understand the condition and feel like they are at fault or being blamed.

Once you show the comparisons of your behavior and the behavior and traits of Asperger's to your mother, and if it goes well, I would make sure your mother knows that it's not an excuse you're making up, and it's not something you're trying to blame on her. It's just who you are, and you feel that you could perhaps begin to improve in some ways if you are able to understand the root of your behavior.

Dont make eye contact....they think if you make eye contact that you cant possibly have autism even if you spent years training yourself to make eye contact. but realisticly, see an autism specialist, not just any blo joe psychiatrist

Jojo

Fragileclover, I really like that idea and I think it might work. I'll have to start keeping a list of these things. Your post also offered some great insight I didn't think about before. Thank you for that.

Jojobean, that was something I forgot...I tend to look away from the person I'm talking to...I guess that's just another thing my mom sees as "weird."

I also want to get tested to try and get a diagnosis. I've been talking to my mom a lot lately through email about all of this. She agrees that I do have several aspie traits and that if I think I have aspergers I should get tested.

I want the diagnosis for my own peace of mind. AS does cause minor issues in my daily life, but is nowhere near as bad as some of the stories I've read here. I just want to know that there's a reason I am the way I am.