What Are the 12 Signs of Autism in Adults?
Have you ever felt like you're watching the world through a slightly different lens than everyone else? Perhaps you've wondered why social situations that seem effortless for others leave you drained and confused.
Or maybe you've developed elaborate systems just to navigate everyday interactions that others seem to handle instinctively.
If these experiences resonate with you, you might be experiencing some of the signs of Autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how people perceive the world, process information, and interact with others. While many people associate autism with children, the reality is that autism is a lifelong condition — and many adults remain undiagnosed well into their 30s, 40s, or beyond.
This is especially true for those who have developed sophisticated coping mechanisms or “masking” behaviors that help them blend in, often at significant personal cost.
I'm Dr. Matt Miceli from Verdant Psychology, where we specialize in conducting online psychological evaluations for adults who suspect they might be on the autism spectrum.
Through my years of experience, I've helped many adults discover answers to questions they've carried their entire lives.
In this article, I'll walk you through the 12 signs of autism in adults—from challenges with social communication and repetitive behaviors to sensory sensitivities and executive functioning difficulties.
Understanding these signs is the first step toward greater self-awareness and accessing appropriate support. Let's explore what autism might look like in your adult life.
The 12 Signs of Autism in Adults
Here are the 12 signs of autism you may experience as an adult:
1. Difficulty With Social Interactions and Relationships
One of the most consistent signs of autism in adults is ongoing challenges with social interactions.
You might find yourself struggling to build and maintain friendships despite genuinely wanting connections with others.
Many of my clients describe feeling like they missed the day everyone else received the “social rulebook.”
In adult life, this might look like:
Uncertainty about when to start or end conversations
Finding yourself inadvertently offending others without understanding why
Feeling confused by unstated expectations in friendships or romantic relationships
Preferring one-on-one interactions over group settings where social dynamics become more complex
Difficulty determining appropriate topics for different social settings (like discussing your special interest in great detail during a brief work meeting)
These difficulties aren't due to a lack of caring or interest in others. In fact, many autistic adults deeply value relationships but find the unwritten social rules difficult to understand.
2. Challenges With Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal communication — the subtle language of facial expressions, gestures, and body positioning — comprises a significant portion of human interaction.
For many autistic adults, this aspect of communication feels like trying to understand a foreign language without any translation guide.
You might experience:
Missing sarcasm or humor that relies on vocal inflection
Difficulty interpreting others' facial expressions or tone of voice
Uncertainty about how close to stand to others during conversations
Having facial expressions that don't match what you're feeling inside
Challenges with maintaining what others consider “appropriate” eye contact (either making too little or too much)
In workplace settings, these challenges lead to misunderstandings with colleagues or supervisors who might misinterpret your expressions or body language.
You might miss important nonverbal cues that signal when someone is losing interest in a conversation or when a meeting is informally concluding.
3. Literal Interpretation of Language
“It's raining cats and dogs,” “Let's touch base later,” “She has a chip on her shoulder” — idioms and figurative expressions fill our everyday conversations. If you're on the autism spectrum, you might find yourself consistently interpreting language more literally than it's intended.
This might manifest as:
Preferring precise, clear communication with explicit instructions
Being told you take things “too literally” when others were being sarcastic
Feeling uncomfortable with ambiguous communication or vague requests
Finding yourself answering rhetorical questions that weren't meant to be answered
Feeling confused by figures of speech, metaphors, or jokes that play on double meanings
I work with clients who describe the mental translation process they go through during conversations. They actively remind themselves that certain phrases are idiomatic rather than literal, which requires significant cognitive energy throughout social interactions.
4. Repetitive Behaviors or Routines
As an adult on the autism spectrum, you might find that routines and predictability are necessities for your well-being.
While everyone appreciates some level of consistency, routines might serve as anchors that help make the world more manageable and less overwhelming for you.
This might appear in your life as:
Distress or anxiety when work schedules change unexpectedly
Strong preference for following the same morning ritual each day
Eating the same meals repeatedly or on specific days of the week
Following precise routines for everyday tasks like showering or organizing your workspace
Difficulty adapting when your usual route to work is blocked or your favorite product is discontinued
When these routines are disrupted, you might experience disproportionate levels of stress or anxiety that others find difficult to understand.
What might seem like a minor inconvenience to someone else — like a canceled appointment or a spontaneous change of plans — can feel genuinely disorienting and upsetting for a person with autism.
5. Intense Focus On Specific Interests
Many adults with autism possess the remarkable ability to develop deep, specialized knowledge in areas that capture their interest.
These focused interests often go beyond typical hobbies — they become areas of expertise and passion that bring tremendous joy and fulfillment.
You might recognize this pattern if you:
Find it difficult to shift your attention away from preferred topics or activities
Can focus for hours on activities related to your interests while losing track of time
Notice that others seem surprised by the depth of your knowledge in certain areas
Feel most comfortable and confident when discussing or engaging with your special interests
Have encyclopedic knowledge about specific topics (whether it's astrophysics, medieval history, train schedules, or a particular music genre)
This intense focus represents both a significant strength and a potential challenge. On one hand, it leads to expertise, innovation, and career success in specialized fields. Many groundbreaking advances in science, technology, and the arts have come from people with this autistic trait.
On the other hand, it can sometimes make it difficult to attend to other necessary aspects of life or to engage in conversations about topics outside your areas of interest.
6. Sensory Sensitivities
The world is full of sensory information — lights, sounds, textures, smells — that most people filter without conscious effort.
If you're autistic, your sensory processing system might work differently, leading to either heightened sensitivities or reduced awareness of certain stimuli.
Common sensory experiences for autistic adults include:
Seeking deep pressure or weighted blankets for comfort
Strong reactions to certain smells that others barely notice
Difficulty filtering out background noise during conversations
Discomfort with fluorescent lighting, bright screens, or visual clutter
Sensitivity to certain fabrics, tags in clothing, or specific textures of food
Finding certain sounds physically painful or extremely distracting (like background music in stores, office equipment, or multiple conversations)
Many adults develop sophisticated coping strategies over time. Examples include wearing noise-canceling headphones in overwhelming environments, choosing clothing carefully, or arranging their living spaces to minimize sensory triggers.
Despite these adaptations, the energy required to navigate sensory-rich environments like shopping malls, busy restaurants, or open-plan offices leads to fatigue and overload.
At Verdant Psychology, I help clients identify their unique sensory profile and recommend personalized strategies for managing sensory challenges while honoring sensory needs.
7. Difficulties With Organization and Planning
Many adults on the autism spectrum experience challenges with executive functioning. This is the mental processes that help us organize information, plan ahead, manage time, and juggle multiple tasks.
These invisible skills form the foundation for independent living and career success, making executive functioning difficulties one of the most impactful yet least recognized aspects of autism in adulthood.
You might notice these challenges in your life if you:
Find it challenging to shift from one task to another
Find it difficult to break large projects into manageable steps
Have trouble keeping your living or working space organized
Feel overwhelmed when faced with too many choices or options
Experience “time blindness” — losing track of time when engaged in activities
Struggle to estimate how long tasks will take, often running late despite your best intentions
These difficulties aren't related to intelligence or motivation but reflect differences in how your brain processes and organizes information.
I've worked with highly intelligent professionals who excel in their technical fields but struggle with seemingly simple organizational tasks like keeping track of paperwork or managing their calendars.
8. Black and White Thinking
Another common cognitive pattern in autism is a tendency toward black and white (or concrete) thinking. In other words, you might see situations, issues, or choices in absolute terms rather than recognizing nuances or gray areas.
This might show up as:
Strong adherence to rules, even when others might bend them in certain situations
Difficulty understanding exceptions or contextual variations in social rules
Preference for clear, unambiguous information and instructions
Seeing people or situations as all good or all bad, rather than containing mixed qualities
Discomfort with uncertainty or situations where there's no clear “right” answer
This thinking style has both strengths and challenges. On the positive side, it leads to strong ethical principles, consistency in behavior, and clarity in communication. Many of my patients excel in mathematics, computer programming, or quality control, where precision and rule-following are valuable assets.
However, in relationships and social contexts where ambiguity and flexibility are required, black and white thinking can create difficulties. You might find yourself frustrated when others don't follow rules as consistently as you do, or when situations require judgment calls rather than clear-cut decisions.
9. Strong Emotional Reactions
Many adults on the autism spectrum experience emotions with remarkable intensity. While everyone feels emotions, autistic individuals describe their emotional experiences as more overwhelming, immediate, and sometimes more difficult to regulate than those of their neurotypical peers.
You might recognize this trait if you:
Find that emotions seem to go from 0 to 100 very quickly with few intermediate stages
Experience emotional reactions that feel disproportionate to the situation
Have difficulty “talking yourself down” once emotions are triggered
Need more time to process and recover from emotional events
Experience meltdowns or shutdowns when overwhelmed
Meltdowns in adults look different from the stereotypical image many people have from childhood presentations. Rather than obvious external displays, adult meltdowns might involve intense internal distress, tears, inability to speak, or needing to leave a situation.
Shutdowns, where you essentially “go offline” and become unable to process or respond, are also common responses to overwhelming situations.
These reactions aren't childish or manipulative but represent genuine neurological differences in how emotions are processed and regulated.
10. Social Exhaustion and Need for Alone Time
If you're on the autism spectrum, social interactions likely require significantly more mental energy and conscious effort than they do for neurotypical individuals.
What others do automatically — reading facial expressions, filtering background noise, choosing appropriate topics, monitoring your own body language — you may need to process consciously, creating a substantial cognitive load.
This often manifests as:
Needing significant alone time to recover after socializing
Feeling unusually tired after social events, even ones you enjoyed
Finding that your capacity for social interaction varies from day to day
Noticing that virtual interactions might be less draining than in-person ones
Experiencing increased difficulty with other tasks after periods of social engagement
11. Identity and Belonging Challenges
A common thread in the stories of many undiagnosed autistic adults is a persistent sense of being somehow “different,” without understanding exactly why.
This feeling spans across different environments and life stages, creating a pervasive sense of not quite belonging.
You might relate to this if you've experienced:
Feeling like you're “from another planet” or watching human behavior from the outside
Being told you're “too sensitive,” “too logical,” or “too intense” throughout your life
A pattern of not quite fitting in across different schools, workplaces, or social groups
Finding yourself constantly adjusting your behavior to try to fit in, yet still feeling out of place
Questioning your identity or wondering what's “wrong” with you
For many of my clients who discover they're autistic later in life, learning about autism brings an overwhelming sense of recognition and relief.
Suddenly, lifelong patterns and challenges make sense within a framework of neurodevelopmental difference rather than personal failure. As one of my clients eloquently put it, “I didn't find out I was autistic; I found out I wasn't broken.”
12. Masking or Camouflaging
Masking (also called camouflaging) refers to the conscious or unconscious suppression of natural autistic behaviors and adoption of neurotypical social behaviors to fit in. Signs that you might be masking include:
Having different “personas” for different social contexts
Suppressing stimming behaviors (self-stimulatory movements) in public
Rehearsing conversations or preparing scripts for anticipated interactions
Feeling like you're constantly performing rather than being your authentic self
Consciously studying and mimicking others' social behaviors, expressions, or phrases
Experiencing intense exhaustion after socializing despite appearing outwardly competent
While masking can be an adaptive strategy that helps with social integration, education, and employment, it comes at a significant cost.
The constant vigilance and performance required by masking leads to chronic stress, identity confusion, burnout, and mental health challenges like anxiety and depression.
When to Seek Professional Help for Autism
If you've found yourself nodding along while reading about these signs, you might be wondering whether seeking a professional evaluation is the right next step.
Consider reaching out for an autism assessment if:
Multiple signs described in this article resonate strongly with your experience
Your autistic traits are causing significant challenges in your relationships, work, or daily functioning
You've tried various strategies or therapies without understanding why they haven't been effective
You're experiencing mental health concerns like anxiety, depression, or burnout alongside these traits
A formal diagnosis in adulthood has numerous benefits. Beyond the personal validation and self-understanding it offers, a diagnosis opens doors to appropriate accommodations in educational and workplace settings.
It also helps you access specialized therapy approaches that work with, rather than against, your neurological wiring. Perhaps most importantly, it connects you with a community of individuals who share similar experiences and strengths.
At Verdant Psychology, I specialize in conducting comprehensive online evaluations for autism spectrum disorder.
The evaluation involves several components, including detailed developmental and life history interviews, standardized assessments, and comprehensive observation of social communication patterns.
I invite you to schedule a free consultation to discuss how we can help you find the answers you've been seeking.
