For people who question your diagnosis: why?

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I was diagnosed two weeks ago (as some may remember...I don't know if anyone does). It shouldn't have been a surprise, but it has been. Yet, hanging around here has helped me come to terms with it. I still don't feel autistic* but I'm willing to concede it's the best way to describe my problems. There is no one way to be autistic. I have decided to go along with whatever plan my psychologist thinks is best and not argue with her about it.

The following is why I'm skeptical, though. I'm curious if there are other posters who have a similar list:

1. I don't have sensory issues. I have my likes and dislikes, but they don't drive me nuts. The only sensory-related thing is that I get restless fairly often, and I have weird sensations in my hands and arms. But I don't have acute olfactory, hearing, or sense of touch.

2. I don't get confused about the "why" behind people's behaviors and feelings. If someone in my presence is crying, I tend to think they are overly emotional. I feel weird around other's emotions, but I usually understand what has generated them and what they are. I just don't share them. (I am alexithymic, which means I have a hard time understanding my own emotions. That is a different thing, though).

3. My repetitive behaviors and thoughts started as an adult (21 years old), not as a kid. I had special interests as a kid, but they were not obsessive (drawing, mostly). I could break away from them without feeling off-kilter. The same can't be said now, but maybe it's because I don't have anything else in my life to hold onto, whereas when I was a kid, I had family around me to keep me in check?

4. I don't like to socialize, but I know how to without thinking about it too much. I have a good sense of humor, I know when to shut up and when to speak, I don't have social anxiety, and I haven't been chastised for doing anything inappropriate since I've been an adult. I can socialize, but I just have never gotten any pleasure from it except when I hang around my sister. My eye contact is inconsistent. I think it's okay most of the times. It's poor when I'm around people who make me feel exposed, like my therapist and yoga instructor. I don't recall being scolded for having poor eye contact when I was a kid, and I lived in a household where there was a lot of scolding. I got in trouble for my facial expressions, but never because I wouldn't look anyone in the eye.

I apologize in advance if I'm driving anyone crazy. I'm still feeling my way around here and the autism thing.



*The Asperger's thing seems to be a land mind that I'm trying to avoid.

Why would you "feel" autistic? What would the definition of that feeling be? Would it be the stereotypical rain man? Of course not. Like its said, if you've one person with autism, you've met one person with autism. No two are exactly alike (although that's likely to be more a figure of speech then an actual fact, but I think it's one of those for the sake of argument sayings; the point is the point, not the point).

You're you, and to you, you feel like you. Getting a Dx doesn't make you feel any more or less you. It just tells you something about you. I think the fact you're even dwelling on it to the extent that you are is kind of proof that your Dx is correct. How many of us over think stuff?

<--- Sunlight, sudden loud sounds slays him.
<--- Knows why people cry, but it aggravates him. Can't relate to that particular emotion.
<--- No repetitive behaviours. Does have strong unbending focus on special interests.
<--- Allergic to socializing. Gives him hives.