so today is autism acceptance day so it feels like a good time to talk ab this.

Back when I was getting meds for the first time, my mom and I were talking ab mental health stuff and she told me she thought I might have autism (1/?)

My mom’s a doctor and she went to a medical conference ab autism a couple years ago and she told me she’d done some research and she said some of my habits and traits matched up w the symptoms for autism spectrum disorder (2/?)

At first I wasn’t really sure until I did my own research, and i realized that she was right. In fact, my parents actually took me to a psychiatrist when I was in 3rd grade bc my teacher recommended that I get checked out (3/?)

The psychiatrist apparently said he didn’t think so, but he recommended that I get checked out again when I was in high school just in case. A few of the symptoms on the list my mom gave me included having trouble maintaining eye contact and- (4/?)

-trouble maintaining friendships. I am notorious for having trouble with both of those things; I have trouble maintaining friendships with irl friends quite a bit. Usually after I developed a connection with someone, I’d grow more and more distant from them- (5/?)

-by accident. And I’ve always had trouble maintaining eye contact; I thought it was just anxiety but looking back I’ve always had trouble looking people directly in the eyes long before I developed anxiety. (6/?)

Another one of the symptoms that really stuck out to me was stimming; for the longest time I’ve had a habit of running around while listening to music. Not dancing, not really running either? Just sort of skipping back and forth in a straight line (7/?)

I’ve done that for ages, for as long as I can remember, and apparently my dad asked me once why I do it and I told him it calms me down. I never really thought ab why I do it that much, but it actually checks out as stimming (8/?)

The list of matching symptoms goes on, but at this point my parents and I are certain that I’m autistic. I’ve been meaning to talk ab this for a while but i never really knew how to phrase it (I’m not even 100% sure I’m phrasing it correctly rn) (9/?)

but I just really wanted to get it off my chest. My family and I are planning to go see an expert a couple cities away to get it diagnosed, but that may take a while and bc of current events it may get delayed quite a bit. (10/11)

Anyway, thank you for reading this thread all the way through. I’m not worried or bothered ab being autistic, but I was very anxious ab talking ab it on main. I don’t really know how to end this thread but I hope you have a good day (11/11)