Suspected Autism and or PTSD

Post Reply New Topic

Hello, I am 19 years old almost 20, and I am really in need of someone or some one's who can help me to understand if I have Autism, or if it's my undiagnosed PTSD from childhood.

I live in Florida and have been sifting through multiple websites and blogs, but diagnosing autism in adults is something relatively new, as I've understood it, and I'm coming up short with people to go to for help on this.

Does anyone on here know a way I can go? I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank-you for your time.

Hi - I'm autistic and also have PTSD. Seeing a therapist is one way to find out if you have autism and/or PTSD. I was diagnosed autistic when I was about 3 years old, but I kept getting reminded that I was "on the spectrum" by each therapist I saw. And likewise with PTSD I couldn't get far into therapy without that coming up. Both autism and PTSD result in anxious reactions, social avoidance, and situational overwhelm. But there are some things specific to autism, such as sensory overload, difficulty maintaining dynamic eye contact while processing verbal input, focused interests and repetitive behavior and "stimming". Some things are specific to PTSD such as difficulty in processing and contextualizing traumatic memories and experiences that trigger those memories, panic reactions to those memories being triggered, and avoidance of situations that are similar to the original trauma. In my own case it took me a long time to accept that I'm autistic, even though I remember the hospital telling my mom, because it was tied into the trauma itself - I never forgot really, but it took ages to be able to process the meaning. There are some good tests you can take online in the pinned posts under the General Autism Discussion forum right here on WrongPlanet - they're under "Sticky: Set of scientific tests related to Autism Spectrum Disorders".