5 signs you might be autistic: Girls and women edition

5 signs you might be autistic: Girls and women edition

1. You're a people pleaser.  You try to avoid conflict by saying yes to everything... even if it means disregarding your own needs. This strains you both socially AND emotionally. 

2. You've become an expert at mirroring others by studying those around you who seem to be especially well liked. So you're able to blend into most social environments extremely well, but only because you're using mirroring and scripting to get by.

3. You prepare meticulously for social events, spending hours planning what you'll wear, what you'll talk about, and who you'll talk to. This can make you seem social and extroverted, but is exhausting beyond belief before, during, and after the event.

4. You're able to hold a conversation really well when the topic is of interest, but struggle with topics that aren't. So you switch from being extremely animated to quiet and seemingly reserved as the conversation flows from topic to topic.

5. You often forget to ask people about themselves during conversation and have a hard time retaining personal details about others. This can make you seem disinterested and self-absorbed even though it feels like your brain is actively rejecting the information. 

To put these signs into context, they all relate to the social communication aspect of autism. Specifically what the DSM describes as "deficits in social emotional reciprocity" (back and forth conversation)

In my next post I'll share more signs relating to the social communication challenges, but will focus on the criteria in the DSM that discusses "deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors" (gestures, facial expressions)

Before I end this post I want to be clear that, though I started by saying these are signs of autism in girls and women... they are not EXCLUSIVE to girls and women. 

They ARE, however, extremely common presentations of autism, particularly in level 1, high masking girls and women.