Since I’m so newly diagnosed with autism, I’m still kind of feeling my way through the autism terrain. One thing that has been very helpful is participating in many of the autism groups on Facebook. It’s a huge relief to have finally found my tribe. It can be taxing to always be considered the odd/weird/strange one, or the overly sensitive one. Members of these groups can relate, and that has lightened my burden considerably.
Recently, on one of the group pages, someone asked a really interesting question which prompted hundreds of responses. The topic was things that you thought everyone did, but you’ve discovered that they’re actually a quirk of having autism spectrum disorder. Some of the answers were quite fascinating.
Of course, no two people on the spectrum are alike, so I’m not trying to say that every autistic person has every one of the quirks I’m listing below. (I don’t have 37 percent of them myself. And yes, I counted.) But it does shine a light on the many different autistic tendencies.
Please know that I’m not a medical professional, and therefore you shouldn’t use this list as a diagnostic tool. But reading it certainly makes me feel less alone. I hope it will provide comfort to my readers who are, or suspect they may be, on the spectrum. You are not alone.
And by the way, I’ve organized the information into a list that makes sense to me. It doesn’t mean anything in particular. It’s in no way official. And it’s a PDF form because I couldn’t get the list format to load correctly any other way. I also hope this will allow you to download it if you wish.
So, does any of this list sound like you? Let me know in the comments below! And if you want to take an unofficial online test, I suggest the Autism Spectrum Quotient. A score of 33-50 means you could be autistic. I got a 40.
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The View from a Drawbridge 
I’ve got 7 of the items on the list, but several of these are obviously due to other causes such as ADHD and childhood abuse. We need some different spectra, but you know that.
I do. A lot of these symptoms overlap with a whole host of other disorders, including acute anxiety, OCD, ADD, and eating disorders. A lot of autistic people have other things going on as well. But if anyone has a lot of them, it might be worth considering an evaluation by a professional. Thanks, Angi.