More adults are wondering if they have autism. Here are tips to seek a diagnosis

By Kenya Hunter

Natasha Nelson, a 35-year old entrepreneur in Stone Mountain, Georgia, didn’t have an innate sense of social norms. She didn’t know why people meeting for the first time would choose to engage in small talk instead of deep conversations, or why people like to make their beds.

Then, a few years ago, she was diagnosed with autism, just after her youngest daughter received the same.

“If your life has always felt like it was in chaos and you don’t feel comfortable and you don’t feel like you thrive and you just feel like you’re constantly surviving and going from one thing to the next, what you got to lose?” Nelson said, encouraging people to seek a diagnosis.

Common signs of autism include trouble with social communication and a fixation on certain routines or topics — Nelson says “people have become my special interest now” — and may go unnoticed