7 Signs of Undiagnosed Autism in Adults
Summary
TLDRThis video script discusses the often-overlooked signs of undiagnosed autism in adults, challenging common stereotypes and emphasizing the importance of recognizing diverse manifestations. The speaker, Paul Mikf, outlines seven key areas to observe, including social interaction difficulties, a need for structure, sensory sensitivities, spiky skill sets, emotional regulation challenges, unusual mental associations, and a general sense of being 'different'. The script aims to raise awareness and encourage understanding of autism's broad spectrum, highlighting the need for support and community among those who identify with these experiences.
Takeaways
- 🧩 Undiagnosed autism in adults is more common than people realize, with increased diagnosis rates in children indicating a growing awareness.
- 🔍 Overreliance on stereotypes can hinder the recognition of autism in adults, as autism manifests in various forms.
- 🤝 Social interaction difficulties, such as understanding peers and navigating social cues, can be a sign of undiagnosed autism.
- 🔄 A need for structure and routine might indicate executive function challenges, which are common in undiagnosed autism.
- 👂 Sensory sensitivities and insensitivities, including unusual responses to light, sound, and pain, can point to autism.
- 📊 A 'spiky' skill set, where individuals excel in some areas and struggle in others, is a characteristic of autism.
- 😡 Emotional regulation issues, such as meltdowns, shutdowns, and withdrawal, are common signs of undiagnosed autism in adults.
- 🔗 Unusual associations and mental jumps in conversation can indicate differences in cognitive processing associated with autism.
- 🌟 Being perceived as 'different' or the 'odd one out' in various social contexts can be a sign of undiagnosed autism.
- 🤔 The video emphasizes the importance of understanding and meeting autistic individuals to gain insight into the spectrum of autism.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the video?
-The main topic of the video is the seven signs of undiagnosed autism in adults and how to recognize them.
Why is it important to recognize autism in adults?
-Recognizing autism in adults is important because it helps individuals understand their unique challenges and behaviors, and it can lead to better support and accommodations.
What is one common misconception about autism mentioned in the video?
-A common misconception mentioned is the overreliance on stereotypes, which can blind us to other signs of autism that might be obvious in hindsight.
What does the video suggest about the prevalence of autism in children today?
-The video suggests that autism is more common than most people think, with statistically one or more autistic children in every classroom.
What is the first sign of undiagnosed autism discussed in the video?
-The first sign discussed is difficulties in social interactions, such as finding it hard to understand peers and feeling drained by social processes.
Why might an adult with undiagnosed autism prefer to spend time alone?
-An adult with undiagnosed autism might prefer to spend time alone because social interactions can be overly complex and exhausting to process.
What does the video mean by 'need for structure' in the context of autism?
-The 'need for structure' refers to the preference for routines and predictability, which can help manage the challenges of executive function and reduce the stress of social unpredictability.
How does sensory sensitivity manifest in adults with undiagnosed autism?
-Sensory sensitivity can manifest in various ways, including unusual reactions to light, sound, taste, texture, smell, pain tolerance, temperature regulation, and coordination.
What is a 'spiky skill set' as described in the video?
-A 'spiky skill set' refers to the presence of significant strengths in certain areas while having notable difficulties in others, compared to the general population.
What is the significance of emotional regulation challenges like meltdowns, shutdowns, and withdrawals in the context of autism?
-Emotional regulation challenges are significant as they are mechanisms used by autistic individuals to cope with overwhelming situations, and they can greatly affect relationships and daily functioning.
What does the video suggest as the simplest yet most powerful sign of undiagnosed autism?
-The simplest yet most powerful sign is the overall sense that a person is 'a bit different', which can manifest in various ways and make them stand out as the odd one out.
How can being part of an autistic community help those who are undiagnosed or questioning their autism?
-Being part of an autistic community can provide a sense of belonging and understanding, as well as the opportunity to see the signs discussed in the video reflected in real life, which can be validating and enlightening.
What is the potential overlap between signs of autism and ADHD as mentioned in the video?
-The video mentions that signs related to structure and sensory sensitivity have a high overlap with ADHD, suggesting that individuals resonating strongly with these signs may want to consider the possibility of an ADHD diagnosis.
What advice does the video give for those who resonate with the signs of autism discussed?
-The video advises such individuals to meet and interact with other autistic people, either through communities or in-person meetups, to gain a deeper understanding and potentially find resonance with their experiences.
Outlines
🧩 Signs of Undiagnosed Autism in Adults
The script discusses the prevalence of undiagnosed autism in adults and the importance of recognizing its signs. It emphasizes the commonality of autism and challenges stereotypes. The video aims to outline seven key areas to look for signs of autism in adults, including social interaction difficulties, need for structure, sensory sensitivities, spiky skill sets, meltdowns and shutdowns, unusual associations, and a general sense of being different. The speaker, Paul Mikf, introduces himself and his channel, 'Autism from the Inside,' which focuses on sharing the human side of autism.
🔄 Social Interaction and Structure in Autism
This paragraph delves into the first two signs of undiagnosed autism: social interaction difficulties and the need for structure and routine. Social interactions are described as draining for those with autism, often leading to avoidance or appearing awkward. The need for structure is portrayed as both a rigid adherence to routines and, paradoxically, as disorganization when routines are disrupted. These behaviors are framed as coping mechanisms for executive function challenges, highlighting the contrast between the two extremes as indicators of internal struggles.
🌡 Sensory Sensitivity and Spiky Skill Sets
The third and fourth signs of undiagnosed autism in adults are sensory sensitivity and insensitivity, and having a spiky skill set. Sensory issues extend beyond the typical light and sound to include pain tolerance and coordination, which can manifest as clumsiness. A spiky skill set refers to the presence of exceptional abilities in certain areas contrasted with significant struggles in others, compared to the general population. The paragraph provides personal anecdotes to illustrate these concepts, such as excelling at table tennis despite being a decent but not extraordinary tennis player.
😡 Emotional Regulation Challenges
The fifth sign discussed is emotional regulation, characterized by meltdowns, shutdowns, and withdrawals. These are described as mechanisms to cope with overwhelming situations. The paragraph explains how these behaviors can be binary, with individuals appearing engaged and functional one moment, then suddenly experiencing a breakdown or retreating from the world. It also touches on the impact of these emotional regulation challenges on relationships and the importance of recognizing them as part of the autistic experience.
🤔 Unusual Associations and Being Different
The sixth and seventh signs of undiagnosed autism are unusual associations and mental jumps, and simply being 'a bit different.' Unusual associations refer to the brain making connections that others might not, which can lead to miscommunication or confusion. Being different is described as a general sense of standing out, which can be positive, negative, or neutral. The paragraph suggests that if someone often feels like the 'odd one out,' it could be indicative of autism. It concludes with the speaker's personal experience of feeling at home within the autistic community, where everyone is different in their own ways.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Autism
💡Stereotypes
💡Social Interaction
💡Structure and Routine
💡Sensory Sensitivity
💡Spiky Skill Set
💡Emotional Regulation
💡Unusual Associations
💡Difference
💡Masking and Unmasking
Highlights
Undiagnosed autism in adults is more common than perceived, with increasing diagnosis rates especially in children.
Autism manifests in various forms, and relying on stereotypes can hinder recognizing it in adults.
Seven key areas to look for signs of autism in adults are discussed: social interaction, need for structure, sensory sensitivities, spiky skill sets, emotional regulation, unusual associations, and being 'a bit different'.
Social interaction difficulties, such as draining experiences and avoidance, can indicate autism.
A need for structure and routine can be a sign of autism, with both inflexible and chaotic behaviors being expressions of executive function challenges.
Sensory sensitivity and insensitivity, including atypical responses to light, sound, and physical sensations, can be indicative of autism.
Unusual physical coordination and clumsiness can be linked to sensory sensitivity, a trait of autism.
A spiky skill set, where individuals excel in some areas and struggle in others, is common in autism.
Emotional regulation challenges, such as meltdowns, shutdowns, and withdrawals, are typical responses to overwhelming situations for autistic individuals.
Unusual associations and mental jumps in conversation can make communication difficult and are signs of autism.
Being 'a bit different' and consistently standing out as the odd one can be a powerful, albeit subtle, sign of autism.
The experience of being with a community of autistic individuals normalizes the feeling of being different.
Joining an autistic community, such as through Patreon, can provide support and a sense of belonging.
The video offers a playlist on masking and unmasking for further understanding of autism behaviors.
An online social group and in-person meetups in Melbourne are available for those interested in connecting with the autistic community.
The video concludes with an invitation to engage with the content and the community for a deeper understanding of autism.
Transcripts
seven signs of undiagnosed autism in
adults undiagnosed autism in adults is a
lot more common than most people think
if you look at diagnosis rates of
children these days you'll see that
statistically there's one or more
autistic children in every classroom and
no it's not an epidemic we've been here
all along you just need to know what to
look for so in this video we'll go
through some of the things you can look
out for to spot autism in adults who if
they were children today would be
getting picked up and diagnosed by the
system
hi everyone Paul mikf here from autism
from the inside I make weekly videos
Sharing The Human Side of autism so make
sure you hit subscribe to get the latest
content one of the things that often
prevents us from noticing autism in
adults is an overreliance on our own
stereotypes so we know that autism comes
in all shapes and sizes which means
ironically if you're looking for one
thing or even a small number of
different stereotypes that will likely
blind you to some other signs that might
be obvious in hindsight so today I'll go
through seven signs or perhaps more
accurately seven areas of where to look
for common signs of autism we'll go
through social interaction a need for
structure sensory sensitivities spiky
skill sets meltdowns shutdowns and
withdrawals unusual associations and
finally in some ways the simplest yet
most powerful one that I'll save until
the
end so let's jump straight into it the
first area the first sign of undiagnosed
autism can be found in social
interactions now in general the
important one thing with all of these is
a difference from mainstream population
but there are several differences in
this area that tend to be expressed in a
very similar way if I find it difficult
to intuitively understand my peers
difficult to conform difficult to know
what to do socially that often ends up
in the whole social interaction process
being very draining I'm thinking about
it too much I'm trying too hard I'm
trying to manually process all of these
thousands of tiny little social cues I'm
often not doing a fantastic job and it's
not always a fun process so that may
lead me to avoid social interactions it
may lead me to like to spend a lot of
time by myself it may lead me to appear
to be awkward in social situations or it
may lead me to just ditch the whole
trying to be like everyone else all
together and come across as quite
eccentric all of these are signs
pointing to a similar thing namely that
it's difficult to fit in and doing what
everyone else is doing in the same way
that everyone else is doing it is a
challenge number two is a need for
structure and routine and ironically
whether you see someone who is very
structured very routine oriented
seemingly quite inflexible or the
opposite coming across as chaotic and
disorganized they are often two sides of
the same coin one of the reasons I need
stability and routine and security is
because I am so flexible if I don't have
a script prepared socially I could say
literally anything and it turns out a
lot of those options are suboptimal so
to help me cut down on that executive
function I make a decision in advance
this is what I'm going to say this is
how I am commonly going to answer the
same question if I can predict it in
advance a need for structure will often
come across as a person who likes to do
things their own way and who really
resists conforming to the status quo
especially if there doesn't seem to be a
good reason as to why I have to do
things the way other people are doing
them and all of these outward signs are
effectively pointing towards internal
executive function challenges what
you're seeing are my coping mechanisms
that allow me to work and get stuff done
and if you take them away if you
interrupt me or disrupt my routine or
throw in too many unknowns then I won't
be able to concentrate I won't be able
to prioritize I won't be able to
organize my almost infinitely chaotic
brain and suddenly I'll flip from being
super organized to Super disorganized so
that's why both those extremes are
essentially two sides of the same
coin the third sign of undiagnosed
autism in adults is sensory sensitivity
and equally importantly sensory
insensitivity now when people say this
most of the time people are thinking of
light and sound and funny tastes and
textures and smells and things like that
but sensory is actually a lot more than
that it includes things like pain
tolerance temperature regulation
coordination that one confused me for a
while back when I was first researching
autism how is being clumsy an autistic
trait that a lot of children have and
the answer is it's a sensory sensitivity
if I can't feel where my limbs are in
space I'm more likely to accidentally
bump into things and knock things over
if I really like deep pressure I'm
likely to hug people too hard cuz I
don't realize that they don't like it so
the question with all of these is how
far do you fall outside the norm some
people are a little bit sensitive to
smell some people have a relatively High
pain tolerance but if you start to
notice that actually your experience is
significantly different to the other
people around you then that's a pretty
strong sign of undiagnosed autism
actually very quick disclaimer some of
these signs especially the last two
around structure and sensory sensitivity
have a high overlap with ADHD so if you
resonate very strongly with those two
and not so much with the others then uh
maybe something like ADHD might be a
better fit but that's a much more
complicated question so I won't go into
that too much today
okay so number four the fourth sign of
undiagnosed autism in adults is having a
spiky skill set okay so what do I mean
by that well if you think about my
personal skill set there are some things
that I can do some things that I can't
do some things that I've learned some
things that I haven't learned but in
terms of intrinsic ability my ability to
learn certain things and perform certain
tasks there are going to be some things
that I find find generally easier for me
and some things that I find just
particularly difficult that others
others are fine with but that I find
them really difficult some people are
good with numbers for example and other
people haven't thought about math since
high school well an extremely common
characteristic of autism in children and
in adults is having a very spiky skill
set meaning there are some things I am
extremely good at and by extremely I
mean compared to the rest of the
population and some things that I really
really struggle with again compared to
the rest of the population now this does
not mean Sant level skills I'll give you
an example when I was younger I used to
play a lot of competition tennis and it
was pretty common for there to be a
table tennis table inside in the
clubhouse so that you could play while
you were waiting to go out on the court
I was reasonably good at tennis I could
win things in my local area there was no
chance I would ever play at a state
level or a national level or an
international level reasonably good but
nothing spectacular and so you would
think that skill of being able to play
tennis would somehow translate in being
able to learn table tennis right I mean
roughly the same hit the ball with the
bat kind of skills but for some reason I
was way better than anyone else when it
came to table tennis in those kind of
tennis Clubhouse situations so much so
that I ended up playing with my left
hand instead of my right hand just to
make it a little bit more fun and
interesting for me now if I actually
played against someone who knows how to
play table tennis then they would put me
in my place very quickly but it's an
example of something where I am
significantly better than average
naturally in one area now the opposite
is also true what about something like
remembering dates or birthdays or
cooking dinner or reading a map a
typical autistic profile will likely
have some pretty significant gaps in
that skill set things that just about
every other adult can do fairly easily
that for some reason is difficult almost
impossible for us a personal example
came up for me recently a lot of
restaurants don't have paper menus
anymore they require you to scan a QR
code and then figure out what you want
online and then order it online through
their app and that's a barrier for me I
would sooner stay home and not eat than
have to do that whereas for other people
they're like this is fantastic I just
get food whenever I want it I don't even
have to talk to
anyone okay moving on number five the
fifth sign of undiagnosed autism in
adults is emotional regulation things
such as meltdowns shutdowns and
withdrawal and the reason I'm putting
all of them in the same category is
because they're kind of all mechanisms
to deal with the same thing what do I do
when the world is too much and I just
can't take it anymore does it hit me
unexpectedly and I break down and have a
meltdown does my brain switch off and I
go into survival mode no information in
no information out and I just shut down
for a little while or have I learned to
withdraw away from the world away from
relationships and block out the world
that way until I've got enough energy to
come back again autistic shutdown and
withdrawal is a huge challenge in many
relationships and it's one of the top
areas that my clients won't help with in
my relationship coaching work so if you
notice behavior that looks a little bit
binary in terms of I'm engaging and
everything seems fine and I'm fine and
you're fine and we're doing really well
and then something happens and suddenly
I have melted down or shut down or I've
withdrawn and you can't get through to
me for some reason they are relatively
extreme forms of emotional regulation
that are quite common in the autistic
population a slightly less extreme form
of this is a similar Behavior but over a
shorter time scale so it might look like
don't talk to me at all for the next 2
hours I need to decompress or it might
look like a habit that I used to have as
a teenager of having a power naap in the
middle of parties there's music and
dancing and people running around making
lots of noise and I would just sit on
the floor close my eyes block out the
world for 20 minutes and reset my brain
fantastic okay number six the sixth sign
of undiagnosed autism in adults is very
unusual associations and mental jumps so
I say banana and you say space station
right clearly it's obvious what went on
in your brain just now to the outside
Observer these seem pretty random it
might be an esoteric quote or picking up
on a little side meaning or taking
something literally and then running
with that instead of picking up on the
main meaning of the sentence but if your
brain makes uncommon associations and
again uncommon is measured based on
comparing that to other people so it's
being measured apparently
cross-culturally that if you ask people
to pick a random color blue is by far
the most common there are other examples
like think of a vegetable most people
might think carrot or potato I remember
I asked this of a friend of mine in high
school and she said rubab and I thought
there's something special here how many
people when asked to pick a random
vegetable would pick rubab that is the
definition of unusual compared to your
peers and the result of these natural
unusual associations well there are lots
of positive ones in terms of creativity
and things like that but it does make
communication much more difficult cuz if
a link is very clear in my mind but it
just does not occur at all in my
listener's mind that's a problem and
vice versa if I'm listening to someone
and they think an implication is obvious
and my brain just hasn't gone there it's
gone somewhere completely different then
that can often make communication a bit
more
challenging okay finally the last one
the seventh sign of undiagnosed autism
this one is probably the simplest and
the most powerful and the hardest to
really pinpoint exactly what we mean the
person is just a bit different what does
that mean exactly what does that mean
they're just a bit different you can't
quite put your finger on it it might be
a good different it might be a bad
different it might just be a neutral
kind of quirky different there is
something that makes this person stand
out as the odd one out for some reason
and our brains are very very good at
picking the odd one out I did a video a
little while back asking the question
can you spot autism in under a second
you can watch the full video here if you
want but ultimately the answer is yes
you can spot difference our brains can
pick out patterns and find the odd one
out in a split second does being the odd
one out mean you're autistic no not
necessarily however if you find yourself
commonly being the odd one out in a lot
of different circumstances then that is
a sign that you might be autistic if
that is you and you resonate strongly
with that it's actually an extremely
surreal experience to hang around with
the autistic Community especially for
the first time and be surrounded by so
many other people who are also a little
bit different in lots of different ways
that are different to the ways that
you're different how many times can I
differently use different in the same
different sentence differently maybe I
should have an eighth category amuses
themselves El in ways that are unlikely
to be amusing to other people so this is
one of the reasons that I say to
understand autism you should go out and
meet autistic people and if you are
questioning yourself whether you
yourself might be an undiagnosed
autistic person then seeing what I've
talked about in this video in real life
and experiencing what that actually
looks like in other people can be a
really powerful experience because when
everyone is the odd one out I ionically
no one is the odd one out I experienced
this properly for the first time running
a camp for autistic teenagers several
years ago there was a lot of weird stuff
going on and if you thought you know
what I'm going to stand out for the
crowd I'm going to wear like a pink
onesie and see what people think well
you wouldn't stand out from the crowd
you might be the only one in a pink
onesie but there are so many other
people doing other weird different
things in other directions that
ironically your particular clothing
choice kind of Blends into the
background against that so anyway I
should probably leave it there for today
I have some other videos on this topic
as well if you're interested I'd
probably recommend checking out the
playlist on masking and unmasking and if
you're looking to join an autistic
Community you might like to consider
joining us on patreon you can join the
community and support this channel
financially as well for as little as a
dollar a week so thanks so much for
everyone who's already supporting
through that we also have an online
social group connected through the
Facebook page and we do some in-person
meetups here in Melbourne as well so
thanks again for watching watching I
hope you found the content valuable and
I'll see you again next time
bye
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