I am a 35 year old male, if that matters. I’ve been suspecting I’m autistic for about a year and the more I remember my life, the more I believe that I am, I was obsessed with tinkering with cars as a teenager and have made it a career. I would stay in the garage back then, often all night, I wouldn’t eat, I was obsessed with that interest, I used to role play as a kid by myself, like we were on the school bus and I was the bus driver, not sure if that means anything but its not a typical thing for a 5 year old I don’t think, at the same age I also was obsessed with roadmaps and would draw new roads on maps, making sure they look as real as possible, definitely not typical of a 5 year old. I was a mute in kindergarten and was frightened beyond belief in my school photo. I recently discovered I mask in almost all social situations going back to childhood. I was bullied, ridiculed and ostracized by my older brother which caused me many issues also which I recently discovered in therapy. I was told I was autistic as a kid by him but in a cruel ‘point and laugh at you’ way. Anyways throughout life for the most part, meeting a new person is very awkward at first and I can’t wait to end the conversation. But meeting autistic people, I’ve been known to immediately jump into free flowing, non awkward conversation about for example, electric cars, never met the dude and was told “he's autistic so just be aware”. Looking back, why did we need that warning? He was a completely normal human, to me anyways. And I think it should be up to him who he tells. My ex wife was very surprised, that’s not like me at all. My ex girlfriend and I hit it off almost immediately after she decided to ask me out on a date 12 hours after matching, and we were two peas in a pod after that. It’s not like I thought we connected on any level before meeting and I wasn’t sure if I was going to text her back the next day. Her son is autistic and she saw traits in both of us over time. She always said that if she was autistic, then I definitely am. She was later diagnosed. I went on a date recently with an autistic woman, same thing, it came completely natural to me like we already had been friends, even with the first phone call, which have ALWAYS gone awkwardly. And with dates women who were weren’t autistic, at least that I knew of, have been extremely awkward and I mask a lot during those. With the autistic women, I feel like I’m myself and the mask is off. I’m very literal and always corrected people that for example say Oriellys Auto Parts instead of Orielly Auto Parts. I’m very detail oriented and my vehicle inspections at work are described as being very detailed and consistent, I feel a need that every inspection has to be as thorough as the last and have all capital letters in the notes, and I feel bothered when they tell me just do a quick inspection for whatever reason. I was obsessed with road maps as a 5 year old, I would very carefully draw new roads and freeways and make sure they looked real, again, 5 years old. I had a threaded blanket as a child, that I would keep beside be just to constantly poke holes through, and was made fun of by my brother for that as well. I’ve stemmed in many various ways since then and never knew why. T. rex arms, all day long, when alone at home of course. I could go on and of course it been dismissed by the few people that I’ve shared this with including my doctor, he said “autism looks like if you freak out if a Kleenex box is in the wrong place, it’s like saying “well if you were having a heart attack you would be dead, your fine“. Anyways, Im glad to be here and have finally found people and a community I can actually say that feel like I fit in with and know how it feels, at least to grow up and live in a society that wants me to be ‘normal’
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some of the things you describe, I was about to say, that's normal, I did that too - then I remembered that I'm autistic 
