Autism or CPTSD?

[BlueMoon_]

For a while I have wondered if I might have autism, for a couple of reasons, but a big one is it seems so impossible how people can just interact with each other and make friends so easily. It seems like I'm from another planet from everyone in the socializing department.

I also have other things that make me question if I'm autistic, but I'm not sure if they are strong enough to say for sure they are from autism. For example disliking loud noises, fidgeting around a lot, and liking routine.

I'm not sure enough about having autism to go and get diagnosed, though.

However I have read that symptoms of CPTSD can be similar to autism.

Are any of you guys autistic or wondered if you were autistic before, but found out it was CPTSD instead? How did you find out the difference? Thanks!

[storyworld]

Hello!
I am not autistic but wanted to reply to say that I saw your post and understand how confusing this might be. I've read that CPTSD can mimic ADHD. Since autism (I've heard) is supposedly related (loosely?) to ASD, it seems like there could be some crossover.

[Kizzie]

I read up on this and found this one sentence kind of says it best: "Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that presents in early childhood, whereas CPTSD is a mental health condition that emerges after exposure to complex trauma".

This is not to say you don't have autism though, the two can co-occur according to what I read.  Just Google something to the effect "Are autism and CPTSD the same thing?" and lots of info will pop up.