Self-assess against the DSM structure, not every example

Reading the DSM-5 autism criteria literally, example by example, leads people to wrongly rule themselves out. The structure is what matters. Category A covers social communication in three parts — social-emotional reciprocity, nonverbal communication, and developing/maintaining relationships — and it is a conjunctive gate: you need to meet all three in some way, not just one. Category B (restricted, repetitive behaviours and interests) is different — only two of its four sub-criteria are required, so you can entirely lack insistence-on-sameness and still qualify through the other three (routines, intense interests, sensory reactivity). Critically, the manual states its examples are illustrative, not exhaustive, and some are even contradictory to each other, so the target is meeting the overall criterion in your own way — not matching every specific example listed. Then there’s the onset-and-impairment layer: traits present from early childhood may not have caused problems until demands exceeded capacity (often at puberty) or were hidden by masking, and the required ‘clinically significant impairment’ in adults typically shows up as a breaking point — depression, anxiety, losing friends, a partner or a job, or autistic burnout — rather than an overt behavioural sign. If that everyday suffering is present, name it explicitly to a diagnostician so the impairment criterion is actually conveyed.