Steve Asbell tweeted this “Masked Autistic Quiz” for people who may be autistic and not know it. This isn’t an official test, and he is not a doctor. But if you find yourself answering “yes” to many of these questions, you may want to look into the possibility that you’re an undiagnosed autistic:
Source: Steve Asbell
(via: Asperger’s Issues)
Self-diagnosed autist here, and #21 gave me a different viewpoint, because I was — maybe still am — the opposite. Gender/romantic/sexuality norms were a Rule — one of those Rules that autists follow as guidelines for life making sense (see #7 in the test), and have meltdowns when presented with contradictory evidence, even if they came up with the Rule themselves. I AM cisgender, I AM heterosexual, and that is something I know for certain that I know, in a world of all sorts of uncertainties — a world where I often AM part of the social minority in other cases.
I don’t mean to insult anyone in the LGBTQ+ community, and I know people have all sorts of explanations and differing viewpoints for these kinds of things, but removing all emotion and subjectivity from the equation, the biological purpose of sex is reproduction, and so it would be illogical to be attracted to anyone with whom you could not produce viable offspring (see #10, “need to understand the purpose of a task”). I’ve given the matter more thought since (I have learned even as a heterosexual that attraction does not necessarily follow logic), but I guess I never realized before that my autism played into this matter somewhat.
I can understand how you may view it that way for yourself, and there is no problem with that, however there is a problem if you dont let other people differ. I’m asexual, so I do not understand why anyone is wanting to do the dirty, but I can understand that they do want it. Similarly I dislike seafood. I will not eat it. However I understand that some people do like the flavor/texture/aroma etc. I’m not gonna stop them from eating seafood just because I think it’s disgusting. (Also this is coming from someone who used to think exactly the same way you did)
“biological purpose of sex is reproduction, and so it would be illogical to be attracted to anyone with whom you could not produce viable offspring”
That is exactly not how many or most non-autistic queer OR straight people make decisions about sex.
I would add that biology doesn’t impart purpose to anything, purpose is something that we as conscious thinking beings impose on it, biology has reproduction because without reproduction biology wouldn’t be – but it has no purpose, it’s just self-perpetuating – and biology happily makes “purposeless” sterile “dead-end” creatures all the time. One generally wouldn’t say the purpose of stars is to make heavy elements, even though they do.
I would like to point out that ADHD is no longer considered on the autism spectrum and that the two have many similarities. Many of these questions will also point towards ADHD.
as an ADHD/Autistic,
this is accurate af
i deal with this daily
often i dont even realize im masking until a wave of mental + physical + emotional exhaustion hits and suddenly i cant eat anythign except my samefood can only wear loose soft comfy clothes and i cant “people” AT ALL even if it’s just interacting at the dinner table
i know i dont have to mask around my family but its an unconscious survival mechanism that’s on all the time
so if you relate to this post (and/or my reply) think about how you act before and after a sudden unexplained wave of exhaustion hits and how it compares to typical symptoms of autism. that exhaustion could come from masking.
My friend/roommate always called me autistic so I started looking into and holy crap did every thing fit into place and make sense. So I brought it up with my therapist bringing in a bunch of note cards with lists of my symptoms and tendencies that people with high functioning ASD have. She had no knowledge of autism so she asks her supervisor about, taking my note cards along with her. The supervisor, who I’ve never met, never talked to me, knows nothing about me other than maybe my already diagnosed mental health disorders, takes a minute (again, never talking to me) to decide that no, I wasn’t.
And that was that, I’ve never pursued a second opinion, just assumed I have it because it makes perfect sense. So I’ve left it undiagnosed and have gone about my business.