Internally, many undiagnosed adults with autism say they feel different from those around them.

You may have seen videos on social media where people detail the signs that made them realise they’re autistic. Viewers are finding them enlightening and comforting as many people – mainly women – are undiagnosed as they reach adulthood.

According to Dr. Megan Anna Neff, a clinical psychologist based in Oregon, a recent study found that 80% of women with autism are still undiagnosed at age 18.

There are many reasons for this: For starters, people learn to adjust their behaviour to fit in with society. Additionally, the autism diagnostic tools used today were developed exclusively on white boys from high socioeconomic status, said Stephanie Gardner-Wright, a licensed master social worker and certified autism clinical specialist in Michigan.

There is also a huge focus on the external signs and not so much the internal symptoms of autism, Gardner-Wright said. And those internal symptoms are very different from person to person.

“There are so many ways that autism can show up and present,” Neff added. “I think there’s more diversity within autism than there is between autism and allistic.” (Allistic people are folks who aren’t on the autism spectrum.)

That said, there are a number of signs or thought patterns that undiagnosed autistic people may be able to relate to. HuffPost spoke with mental health professionals, including some people who are neurodivergent themselves, about the signs of autism in adulthood:

A Feeling Of Being ‘Different’ From Others

All four experts shared that it’s common for autistic people to feel different. Brandon Tessers, the director of Effective Artistry, a therapy group that supports neurodivergent people, said some folks will describe it as “feeling like an alien sometimes,” while Dr. Vanessa Bal, the director of the Center for Adult Autism Services Psychological Services Clinic at Rutgers University in New Jersey said folks describe it as “a lifetime experience of feeling different.”

The difference between this feeling and the occasional outsider feeling everyone deals with from time to time is that for autistic folks, this feeling does not come and go and is not only during one specific period, like middle school, Bal told HuffPost.

Gardner-Wright added that this is a big indicator and an internal experience at that — you cannot look at a person and know if they feel like an outsider. The feeling could be overpowering or could be more subtle, it depends on the person, she said.

But, it’s important to know that autistic people don’t necessarily feel like outsiders all the time, Bal noted. They may find settings that are more inclusive for neurodivergent people. Additionally, some adults also say they feel more comfortable with who they are and worry less about differences, sometimes seeing them as........

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