He had a huge collection of toy cars and Lego’s. He was very into video games in which he designed and built things.

He could not stand when his foods touched.

His uncle, the last of this remaining relatives, points out that he was “not normal”.

He had difficulty sitting still, made noise, and was disruptive.

He has always talked to himself and would narrate what he was doing almost as though someone was in the room.

…Has liked to collect information about history and anything about science. He reports he “can be annoying” about it.

Though he is heterosexual, he would hang out with the gay kids because they were more accepting.

He joined the Marine Corps…it was a very intense and loud experience.

He had a very sensitive sense of smell, and would smell people as a child.

He is very sensitive to the texture of clothing and doesn’t tolerate tags. He is particular about his shoes.

He does not like to be interrupted at work and this offends other people. [He] becomes overwhelmed by unnecessary tasks such as work emails.

I appreciate the story of these two sentences illustrating growing up without any diagnosis:

“Received 4th grade math homework in 2nd grade because he got furious over how trivial homework was.”

…16 years later…

“Patient has with SIGNIFICANT difficulties and enormous effort managed to complete an education.” (Emphasis theirs)

• a long time without two-way communication, now he can adapt because it’s expected of him
• mostly uniform “social smile” with little variation
• generally a rather uniform and seemingly distant facial expression
• social chatting only with family members, not others
• little interest in other kids his age, rarely (if at all) being the one to initiate contact

Found this in some doctors notes from a few years back, not sure if it was specifically autism related but it seems close enough :P

It’s kinda funny now seeing my smile at the time being described with little variation and sometimes seeming sightly condescending. Makes me wonder how much of that was just me trying to smile at appropriate times

His eye contact was variable; at times he avoided eye contact and at times he utilized intense, prolonged eye contact. He was able to communicate his own feelings and showed insight into others’ emotions, though he did not spontaneously label emotions during any of the activities.

Radicalautonomy showed some insight into the nature of some social relationships but had trouble understanding his own role in them. Generally, Radicalautonomy frequently attempted to maintain the examiner’s attention and made appropriate social overtures. His response to the examiner’s social interactions was limited. Most social communication included some reciprocity (back-and-forth), but he tended to engage in more one-sided or weaving communication (e.g. offering topics, facts, or information).

As a result, the quality of rapport was sometimes comfortable and sometimes stilted. With respect to Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors, which are best referred to as special interests, repetitive actions, or desire for routine and sameness, Radicalautonomy did use echolalia and used some unique verbalizations that seemed to be idiosyncratic or stereotyped (i.e., highly repetitive utterances with consistent intonation patterns).

I am trying to find a place locally to take my assessment, but because I’m an adult, I need to pay for it. It’s so hard to get an adult diagnosis, like as if they are trying to prevent you from doing this, because it has no presence in an adult, so you’re wasting our time.

I hope I can bring back some quality lines.