I have been recently diagnosed as autistic, and now I seem to see autism everywhere in my social circle. My brother, a daughter, at least two friends. . . Either there are a lot of undiagnosed autistic people out there OR I tend to become friends (more comfortable) with fellow autists, OR I am just being silly and am attributing autism to NT people with strong interests. Fellow neurodivergent folks of all types, what is your experience? (Edit: changed ND to NT. oops!)

  • Haui@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    I think it’s a multitude of things:

    1. autistic people tend to gravitate to other autistic people since we share strong interests and other traits
    2. although there is a cutoff for diagnosis, autistic traits are everywhere and if someone has them, they might not be diagnosed but still have some traits
    3. autism is hereditary. So some people in your familiy will have it too
    4. a lot of people don’t get diagnosed for vaious reasons so they don’t necessarily identify as autistic but they might be.

    I could name many more but those are the top reasons I could think of.

    Summary: It’s awesome to see that people actually are like you in a way. You‘re in a brave new world. Try to enjoy.

  • Erika2rsis@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    In my experience, I tend to feel more comfortable around other autistic people, but there are some types of autistic people where I feel the opposite way. It’s called a spectrum for a reason!