I am autistic and I have a friend who I also think is autistic, but she doesn't think she is, because she can read people (but hey, so can I, sometimes, I think, perhaps). She can believe whatever she wants to believe, her happiness is none of my business. She knows everything there is to know about the Titanic though. :)

One thing people should know is that, according to the double empathy hypothesis, which actually holds quite a bit of water, having an autistic best friend may be the best sign you’re autistic yourself.

3:04 me wearing the decade-old hoodie with the design that's almost completely faded, because it's really soft inside and the fabric doesn't touch my neck.

She told me. We've been BFF's since we were 13 & 14. We're 48 & 49. She wasn't diagnosed until we were in our 40's. We were weirdos in different ways but our weirdness fit. They still do

Thanks for the interesting video! It took me 48 years to realize I was autistic. I assumed everyone else thought and experienced life like I do. I told my few close friends on my Birthday and they all basically said "We know". My autistic friend John first suggested I might be too over a year ago. Months of research, self reflection, and talking to friends, family, and the community later and I finally know who I am :)

I'm Autumn Rose, and I'm autistic ❤❤❤❤

The joke's cruel: with my best friend, we've been throwing 'autistic' at each other's weird behaviours for years, in a playful but kind of derogatory manner. 10 years later, I turned out to be actually autistic. He laughed hard but wasn't surprised. Now, it would have been cool to check him too. There are no good professionals to get a diagnosis where he lives, but we'll start with tests online)

Since me discovering my own autism…all of my friends are suddenly coming out of the woodwork with diagnoses too 🤣😂 my sweet kindred spirits - sharing about yourself inspires others to do the same ♥️

I remember being super heartbroken when my "best" friend at age 12 told me i wasn't her best friend, and was in fact one of two "good" friends. She never mentioned her other friend before, for a whole year. Turns out it's her neighbor. I took it really hard. Didn't know I was autistic and needed the friendship defined sooner. I let that friendship fade because i was so embarassed i'd been mistaken about my "bestie" status.

My best friend is 2 cats

If they don't know either, and you follow the suggestion at the end of the video, they might just go on an information exploration and find out for themselves - which could be really helpful for them, especially with a best friend to hash it out with.

I seem to be able to make 'a friend' but that friend always fades after a few years. Friends seem to want to not be just one-on-one, but to mingle and share with others, a 'party' being the most horrific example of mingling. I also don't know who should call whom first because I don't want to come across as needy. Also, spending an hour or two with a friend is okay - but not the entire day, and definitely not a sleep-over. With relationships: All my partners have said I'm not the person they fell for, after we began living together. I can wear my mask for periods at a stretch but not day and night for months on end. And who invented the rule that says if your partner is invited somewhere, you must also attend? It's weird for me that I loathe going to the supermarket but am quite relaxed at an airport. I guess it's because at an airport I won't run into anyone I sort of know, but at the supermarket that is very likely, and at the supermarket the checkout person invariably asks how I am and have I had a nice day, which is absurd. A partner once said to me: 'You look like you don't belong anywhere.' I' m not sure if they were referring to my facial expression or my choice of clothes, but both are likely.

Briefly mentions science fiction conventions and then minutes later sounds the Star Trek red alert. Nice

Great advice not just for showing solidarity and openness for autisrics but folks from other marginalized groups. Thanks Quinn! 💜

I am officially adding 'autistipeeps' to my vocabulary. :)

Interesting topic, Quinn. I feel like [for me] it's pretty easy to tell [if someone else is autistic], but I'm autistic myself, so it's a bit different. I feel like being educated about ASD is really what will help you be able to tell.

Late diagnosed of 4 years ago. So cruel when you form a close friendship and they act like they reciprocate but don't really see you as a friend really

Another excellent video. Loved the Michael Palin Ripping Yarns inclusion. I loved watching that show in my youth. As for standing out due to our "fashion sense" .. I've always dressed oddly. I have about 50 asst crsvats because I don't like wearing ties. I dress on the more formal side of smart-casual. The linen suit or the three piece tweed XD hardly practical.. but certainly a very "Pete Look"

The sound effects slay me! Grange Hill intro speaks through the decades! 😂❤

That's pretty much the pattern matching I do whenever I get to know people. And the hit rate is close to 100%.

A very good video. The strategy you recommend at the end would certainly work for me. There is no chance I could resist talking about it. It might be hard to get me to stop, though.

I have known I was autistic at an early age. This was in the 70s My diagnosis was my own since it wasn’t really recognized at that time. I got kicked out of Second grade just for reading. I wasn’t supposed to read yet according to my teacher. I never actually attended middle school. I was just beginning ninth grade at new school. After the first month there I found out about a nation wide testing in high school. I ended up taking the test too because our 9th graders were put in the same school as high school because of overcrowding. I was the last one to get my test scores. They wanted to do one more test on me. The results were hand delivered to my parents and principal. I was told that my lucky numbers are 16. SAT-1650. IQ-165. I didn’t even know what being in the upper 99% meant. I was told that I really didn’t have be in this school. I wasn’t being challenged enough in their curriculum. So here’s the bottom line: I had only had 5 classes in elementary school. I never really attended high school. My high school gave me the red carpet treatment. Anything I needed they’d go out of their way to get it for me. I could wander around the school and stop in any class I wanted to. But I couldn’t tell anyone or I would have to attend classes. Here’s the rub, I found out that I was a part of the upper 99%. In the Midwest but I was the highest scoring in all Minnesota! I was told that I have put their school on the map for having the highest score in Minnesota. I was also told, that I had to keep it SECRET or it would crush the honor role students who had been studying for this all year. Although I could leave school anytime, I decided to stay and hang out with my friends. So how do I know if I’m autistic? I never really went to school but I could be accepted by any college in America!

I want to wear historical costumes and folk clothing, and instead of wanting and dreaming I just do it often because they're incredibly comfortable and nobody is going to stop me 😊 I'm a gothy one since my youth as well (not a true Goth, but goth-ic). I wear whatever fits my mood and is physically comfortable. Two consistent factors is there must be long sleeves and natural fibers.

I loathe being forced to make eye contact, took me 20 years to learn that. My mom never let me have any noisy stims. I wish we didnt have to hide ourselves from the general population in order to survive.

I've come to realize that all the long-lasting friendships I've had were with other ND or autistic individuals. My two closest friends from college have OCD and ADHD respectively, and my close friend I met back in middle school suspects she is autistic as well.

It was me. I was the autistic friend. Or, that is, my friend who turned out to be autistic after his daughter was diagnosed struggled approaching me about what he suspected was my own autism. He had just learned about it and was talking with me in the hopes that I would catch on. After 3 years or so, I finally did. At the time there was just to much going on my life to add that to the mix, but once things settled down it couldn't have been more obvious.

I had a friend for over 20 years with an autistic son. Neither of them ever said they thought I may be autistic too. I haven't seen him since I was diagnosed, but I don't think he would believe me if I did tell him.

Love your content, love the transition @8:32. The like % is incredible ... 2,600 views, with 361 likes, strong testament to the quality of your work. Cheers!

I too, was a teen goth! I think I use a similar technique for ascertaining if someone is LGBT. Drop in things I've heard, read, seen, different talking points or signifiers that show I have an interest and therefore safe to open up to. My old boss had a rainbow mask on once, and I said to her, I love your mask it's very LGBT! It was a gamble, but it was how I found out she was gay. "I am very LGBT!"

Star Trek Conventions and baking contests... Ow I dont wanna baseball in my face! I feel called out. hehe being silly. This video is relatable in so many ways. Best friendships I've had are usually with other autistics like myself.

If you are autistic, the friends and relationships you have made over your life that have been the strongest, had the easiest rapport and you had the easiest communication with, the chances are those people are also autistic, have ADHD or both.

There is also the fact that Autism is used as a derogatory slur. We are factually seen as lesser and used as an insult. That adds to the burden of telling anyone. What surprises me is it isn't okay to say the n word though you can literally take an entire group of people and use them as slur to hurt others. I don't see a difference. Sure the former word has a deep history though it's nowhere near the same as taking a literal group of people and using them as a slur. There are so many reasons we might not tell you. Over text they blend in very well and you would never know. There is also the fact that in telling people think we are stating we need special treatment and there is a stigma in just telling people. I just want you to know so you know why I do things a certain way. I don't care about special treatment. If I mess up tell me so I can correct it and avoid doing it again. Don't just yell at me and expect me to know what I did wrong. Don't just think I want you to coddle me. Help me grow as a person. It's all anyone of us want.

I live in a town of about 5,000 people. The closest city where I might be able to meet other Autistic people is 45 minutes away driving but I have major anxiety with driving so that's actually way too far. I'm very much alone here.

Oh yes my daughter is fabulous at masking. In school but out of school we sure know she's autistic. I'm struggling to get anyone to look at even assessing her because school don't see anything 😢

Social situation with group large enough that discussion splits into 2 or more? That is nightmare. I will not be able to fallow any.

None of the three sir. I subscribe to you. So I watch my inbox. I hide because I dont want to be hit with shame and blame from others. Also, I already know my best friends are autistic (as am I). I have no need to ask what I already know.

I'm awaiting a diagnosis at age 32 😅. I'd eqaute My journey of self advocacy to the scene from the planet of the apes when the chimpanzee says no 😂. It's changed my life, I always knew I was probably autistic from when I was about 14 years old when I met somebody else who was diagnosed and the realisation hit me that they was just like me. At the time I just tried to brush it off as me not wanting to confirm to all of the stupid social rules we're expected the follow but I could never get the thought out of my head and I developed a really intense obsession with this person. A couple years later I went to a summer camp with him and just spent my entire time there watching him. It probably sounds really creepy but it was interesting seeing how he changed his behaviour around other people to blend in. I like to think of masking like Schrödinger's cat, people act differently when they're being observed to when they aren't being observed. I'm trying to fall more on the "alive" side of this thought experiment these days by being myself and not worrying what other people might think 😅.

Social gatherings become increasingly more difficult to maneuver with the increasing number of participants because of the hive mind: everyone settles on a frequency band of thought and they lose their individuality. We, as autists, I believe, are unable to limit ourselves in such a manner and thus will fall out of sync with the gathering altogether.

Thank you for this video.

Very well explained. Hope this goes both ways as ever! ❤

When things reach that critical mass where people break into groups, the Auditory Processing Disorder kicks in and I can't hear what someone is saying. I also experience anxiety because I don't think I fit into any of the groups

I recognise it in people sometimes. But depending on how well u know them depends on if u should tell them Ur thoughts x

"Take a look in our wardrobe." Still LMAO. Autistic or not; practicality trumps fashion and preparedness trumps pain every time.

Was Bart Simpson autistic? His wardrobe would suggest it lol