Have you always felt different, but couldn’t figure out why? An autism diagnosis can help shine a light on why certain things came easily whereas others proved to be very difficult. First, you need to realize that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) occurs in all age, socioeconomic, ethnic and racial groups. Communication and social difficulties generally characterize ASD as well as repetitive behaviors. The most severe forms of autism are usually diagnosed within the first two years of a child’s life, but mild forms are often undiagnosed till later in life. There are three main areas where symptoms tend to occur:

• Verbal and non-verbal communication
• Social interactions
• Ritualistic or repetitive behaviors

Some adults with autism have only mild challenges and are high functioning whereas others may have more severe symptoms that interfere with regular life such as impaired spoken language. The symptoms manifest differently in everyone. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is mostly a lifelong condition and some of the common symptoms in adults are:

• Difficulty in regulation emotions
• Difficulty in interpreting what others are feeling or thinking
• Trouble maintaining or keeping up a conversation
• Trouble interpreting social cues, body language, and facial expressions
• Unable to maintain a two-way conversation and show preference to monologues on a favorite subject
• Only participating in a specific range of activities
• A tendency to engage in routine or repetitive behaviors
• Strange consistency to daily routines and any changes lead to outbursts
• Inflection without any reflection of feelings
• Deep knowledge about one specific topic such as a specific branch of any industry or science

Adults are known to have extreme and specific interests in a certain topic such as a specific area of history or a sports game. These interests may be very much like obsessions.

Symptoms at Home

Some autistic adults are known to exhibit repetitive behaviors and are baffled by others’ feelings. At home, you may have a collection of toys or figurines placed on your desk that have to maintain their order at all times. Some other common manifestations of ASD that adults may exhibit at home include:

• You always wanted a best friend but were never able to find one
• You often invent your own expressions or words to describe things
• You follow the same schedule every single day and don’t respond well to unexpected events
• You have been referred to as ‘eccentric’ by your family for as long as you can remember
• You tend to trip over your feet or bump into things
• You find it difficult to understand phrases and expressions
• You prefer to play individual games in your free time such as golf rather than those that involve working with a team
• Even when you are in a quiet place, you have to make some noise such as clearing your throat repeatedly

Symptoms at Work

If you are autistic, you are going to have symptoms at work too and they are:

• Making involuntary noises in meetings like clearing your throat
• Pointed out for talking in a robotic voice
• Unable to make eye contact with your boss and colleagues
• Speaking to coworkers the same way as friends and family
• Assigning a special place to every item in the office and not wanting them to be moved
• Difficulty in comprehending your boss and peers’ feelings and expressions

If you have any of these symptoms, you can take an online autism test for adults to see if you are on the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). If the results state that there is a high probability, you can make arrangements for a formal diagnosis so you can find out the best ways to cope with your issues.