DSM IV

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What are the parts that you fit?
Could you please give an example of how each manifests in your daily functioning?
(I) Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:

(A) marked impairments in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction
(B) failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
(C) a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interest or achievements with other people, (e.g.. by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)
(D) lack of social or emotional reciprocity

(II) Restricted repetitive & stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:

(A) encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
(B) apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals
(C) stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g. hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)
(D) persistent preoccupation with parts of objects

For sake of time I will just say this for now and when I have more time to really answer well, I will try to with examples. But the only parts that I don't fit are:

Part 1 C lack of wanting to spontaneously share achievements enjoyments etc with other people. I definitely don't have that problem. I am more like a typical 4 year with this where I want to share with everybody including complete strangers and I do not thinking it is strange or inappropriate at all.

And part 2 D Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects. I can have that sometimes a little bit but it's more of a stim than a real preoccupation.

Other than that, I fit everything.

(1A) Don't make eye contact. Will look intently at other parts of the face (lips, usually) or look around the room. Facial expression alternates between RBF and exaggerated. Gestures are either very limited or exaggerated. Posture very rigid.
(B) Distinct lack of friends and limited social circle throughout lifetime.
(C) Like to do things by myself. Don't like to share special interests with others.
(D) Emotions in others make me extremely uncomfortable. I forget to return smiles or wave at people. Avoidance of social situations where possible.

(11A) Form intense obsessions with people and things. Become hyper-focused to the exclusion of everything else.
(B) Need to follow rituals and routines to feel comfortable. Sudden changes can result in shutdown or meltdown.
(C) I'm a hand flapper and object chewer. Also very tactile.
(D) My eyes persistently go to the smallest detail instead of the bigger picture. I like to see how things are constructed by examining their parts.

1. ABC

I have always had difficulty with nonverbal communication, I cannot maintain any eye contact, I get no information from looking at a persons face and I don't know what body language looks like.

I have attempted to make friendships and relationships but almost always fail in one way or another such as too rude, overstaying welcomes, too invasive to name a few

I have kept to myself for the most part but when I do "share" my interests it's usually one sided

All this information is based on both my personal experience and secondary sources from people who interact with me.

2. ABC

I have a long term interest in Sonic The Hedgehog spanning 6 years and 8 months, it is all I draw and I draw daily.

I also have a specific schedual I must follow, if the schedual is broken I often shut down or have panic attacks

I rock or sway side to side, wring my hands together and RARELY flap. I also hit and bite myself

Probably all of it since I meet 8 out of the 12 in the criteria I was told but I was never sure what that meant like all the parts from A and B or just some of it from A and B and that includes C-F making it 8 total but I would say it's all a plus and a minus depending how how I interpret the criteria. For example:

(A) marked impairments in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction

I had a hard time with non verbal communication (don't know if I still do) and I still talk loud sometimes and I used to misinterpret tone of voice and facial expressions as being mad at me and I had a hard time with eye contact and then didn't and I still have troubles with it sometimes and kids have made comments about my facial expressions and body posture and my mom has pointed them out to me too. But I can point, and shrug and move my hands for "I don't know." No one has made comments about my posture or facial expressions in a while. I see facial expressions all the time and hands moving and bodies but they mean nothing to me. If there is no fighting and no one is crying and there is no yelling, I just assume they're happy. Hand gestures mean nothing and I don't get the winking my mom sometimes does and she is the only person I know that does it and she also uses air quotes and I don't always understand what it means. But I can easily read her when she is upset because she will have this look on her face and I get uncomfortable with it so I don't bother her. Like the other time I put my son in the house because he wouldn't quit whining and bam the door opened and my mom pushed him out and her body was stiff and I saw her face and she shut the door. I dared to not let my son back in the house again because of that look and her body. But yet I have been told I have a hard time with body language and facial expressions. I can read obvious ones like yelling and door slamming and feet stomping and when someone is mad and when someone is crying. But yet I wouldn't know when my husband is upset with me because he never raises his voice so I wouldn't know. Then I am baffled when he goes "Sorry I got upset with you" and I am like "when?"

(B) failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level

I have always had friends and could make them easily if they came to me but when I would try and approach others, I would get rejected and I didn't try and seek out spontaneous friends, only people I was familiar with and who lived in houses I was familiar with. Also I had a hard time relating to them when I would be at their house but at my house I was fine and as I got older I preferred the younger kids because we had things in common and I could relate to them and I couldn't do school and friends at the same time. Now I have none and I don't know what to do with friends and I would say it was a lot easier when I was a kid because we had more things in common and we were doing what I wanted to do. But I was always the last one to be played with because kids would come over to play if they had no one else to play with and I never really had true friends.

(C) a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interest or achievements with other people, (e.g.. by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people)

I have always told about my days in school ever since I could talk and I wouldn't let anyone have a turn until I was done talking and I had to learn turn taking in speech therapy. I would also tell stories with my Barbies using reenactments, I also showed off and wanted to talk about my achievements, and show my good work. But I have also overshared and said inappropriate things and tell things that should have been kept private. Now today I am not so much of a talker and I will only talk if someone talks to me but I mostly prefer to read or play my game than talk and tell about my weekend and I won't go on and on about it.

(D) lack of social or emotional reciprocity

Kids would say I was selfish and didn't care about others and I remember freezing up when a kid would get hurt and other kids would be comforting them and I would just stand there because I didn't know what to do but I have learned a certain things to say when someone is sad or upset like "i'm sorry" but however when I was in the 4th grade, one of my friends was upset that we didn't sing my 4th grade's teacher version of Happy Birthday to her so I sang it to her to make her feel better. I knew how it felt to be excluded and not get the same treatment as other kids because it happened to me all the time. As for social, I have always played games with other kids like tag, what time is it mister fox and other yard games I liked and I played video games too with other kids and board games. My husband will say I lack empathy and I often got at school that I don't care and my mom has said this to me too when she was upset. She has said I only think about myself. Then of course she has contradicted it because she will say how I do have empathy.

(A) encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus

I have always gotten "obsessed," my mom's word, with things. I would talk about it and my mom would always shut me up so I went to other people instead and I would day dream about my obsessions and they would distract me in school and my mom calls this OCD even though they didn't causes me any anxiety or distress. I don't talk about my interests anymore though and I prefer to keep them to myself. I still get so into my interest I forget about the world around me and I end up not cleaning the house and I stay up too late and I know I should go to bed but it's so hard to quit.


(B) apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals

I am pretty flexible and I like surprises, I get my moments where I can't handle spontaneous things and especially when things get dumped on me the last minute, then I feel stress and anxiety and I am very irritable. I was worse when I was a kid but I hated change in my environment, not change in routine and I hated different routes to places and I got upset when my parents decided to go to a different pumpkin patch that one year. It also depends on my mood too and that changes what I can handle. I also do not live groundhog day. I can't even plan my days about how I will do my day without finding it overwhelming because it's decisions decisions decisions, I hate that. But then again I feel my life is chaotic because of no routine so hence more anxiety. I also get overwhelmed if there is too much to do and it's too much change. Breaking it into pieces is what helps and it lessons the anxiety.


(C) stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g. hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements)

I rock back and forth or pace or playing with my fingers, etc. I do different things. But not for hours of the day. I also do stims that are considered normal. pacing was one of them but it drove the teachers and kids crazy so maybe it was beyond the norm. I did it mostly in school though, all my stims because it kept me focused and concentrated. I also do it when I am stressed and anxious or just happy.

(D) persistent preoccupation with parts of objects

I would line things up and also look through my things and organize them and also take out my clothes and look at them and then put them back neatly and it had nothing to do with cleaning or organizing. I have also stared at things and objects. I never connected this to autism, I just assumed it was normal. But I still looked at the whole thing and as for playing, I still played with my toys appropriately despite that I would sometimes go through my Barbie outfits and line them up and looking at them. I also will take the pin in and out of my 3DS and I tend to fiddle with anything in my hand. I have broken a few things from this such as making my Zelda book fall apart from page flipping, wrecking my antenna from playing with it and chewing on it. But this might fall under the C part of this.


As I say here, plus and minuses. Pluses for that makes me think I would fit it and minses for what makes me think I don't fit it. And from my understanding all these have to cause you an impairment so if it doesn't cause you an impairment, then you don't fit that part. But then I have read on here a couple times that it can still count towards the diagnoses if you have at least an impairment so it doesn't matter if your other features don't cause you an impairment so I guess I met all of this.