I’m the same. I’ve always found friendship very difficult because I rarely find anyone who’s as obsessed with Doctor Who and Harry Potter as much as me, or who will also have geeky conversations about Marvel, or Ghostbusters.
I also find it tough to stay in contact with people. The only friends I have are either in America or in Scotland, because they share common interests with me.
I really dislike the idea of a high/low functioning spectrum. Most NT people, looking at me and interacting with me, would not be aware that I’m autistic. I’m great at masking how I don’t make eye contact and I can make small talk with little issue. I can generally take care of myself with things like cooking and personal hygiene.
But I also have really bad executive dysfunction. When I was in school I skipped a day or two every week. I tried getting a job, and I didn’t last more than two weeks in any of them because I kept not showing up to work. On particularly bad days I can’t get myself to eat or talk. I’ve struggled most of my life with showering and brushing my teeth every day.
Am I high functioning? Am I low functioning? What do these things even mean? All that’s important is that I get the help I need, which in my case is steady income without a job. I think everyone, both autistic people and NT people, would have a much easier time understanding autism and autistics if we got rid of the idea of a “spectrum” and treated it more like this. What do you struggle with, and what kind of help do you need.
That’s a fair point. You don’t really hear of spectrums for any other disability but autism.
This isn’t so much an issue of the idea of a spectrum, but of a particular conception of spectrum that assumes it as like a linear thing. Functioning labels definitely need to go, and I’ve seen a lot of people move towards like “high/low support needs” as a sort of broad categorization, which is definitely better, though still lacking a lot of nuance and specificity
You might like gelato. It’s supposed to be served a little warmer than ice cream. Of course if you buy it at the store and put it in your freezer it’s going to be exactly as cold as ice cream, but if you can find a decent place that serves it, it might be a little warmer.
But to answer your question, I wouldn’t be surprised if autism is a factor in your not liking it. Sensory issues show up in weird places.
The reason functioning labels exist though is that some autistic people need help with just about every task required for daily living, including some of the ones we might not think twice about. Like, I can get out of bed, make my own food, shower, drive a car, go to school, pay bills, etc., and even when autism makes those things harder, I’m still capable of doing them. Which makes me “high functioning” or low support needs, even though I still do need (and not get!) support. But there are “low functioning” or high support needs people who can have multiple people giving them round-the-clock care and still not have all the support they need. I don’t like “functioning” terminology either but I do think it’s important to recognize exactly how wide the spectrum is. And I guess I would also say it’s important to note that having low support needs doesn’t mean your autism can’t be massively disabling–again, the point is that the spectrum is huge, and you can be massively disabled while still not needing anywhere near as much help as other people. I know my autism affects me in every aspect of my life, especially socially but also when it comes to spacial awareness and my ability to process sensory stimuli. But I’m still low support needs/“high functioning” compared to a lot of other people.
Texture is a big deal for me that others struggle to understand. Smoothness is a quality I am drawn towards. It also equates to cleanliness. Softness too. I have difficulties with the irregular. And noise. Clarity of sound matters. I despise supermarkets and other bustling places. Why the constant need to add to an already chaotic and painful audio environment with supermarkets constantly blaring out pappy music over the speakers? Why do supermarkets insist on moving things around all the time. It is deeply confusing and makes me anxious. Clarity of communication also matters. Why do so few people appreciate that words have meanings. Specific meanings. Use them well.
Doctor Who is my ultimate safe space.
Yeah, this is true. With my autism, I struggle with cooking and cleaning, because of the coordination involved as well as keeping focus because my mind tends to wander easily.
I also need help a lot with shaving due to coordination issues. I do try to do it myself, but I end up getting frustrated when the whiskers don’t go away, pressing too hard on my skin with the electric shaver and cutting myself.
(Yet according to the Personal Independence Payment people, I have no issues with any of this because I can pass a piece of paper to someone. Which means my parents and brother essentially have to act like my carer, because PIP won’t give me the money to get the support I need.)
Cooking for me is fine, but I treat it like a laboratory procedure. Everything is measured in precise quantities in seperate pots before I even start. Timings are exact. I get satisfaction from that. I am highly averse to chaotic “that’ll do, make it up as you go along” cooking. I classify. I order. I time. It works. 
Erm… can relate to this. The need for perfection can drive me to distraction. Shave too close. Polish too hard. Align everything.
Yeah, it does seem that cooking seems to vary within our community. Some autistic people like myself struggle with it, others like yourself excel due to being able to take a logical and methodological approach to it.
One of the higher ups at my workplace has an autistic child who loves cooking. It’s one of her child’s biggest passions.
Good job there’s no such thing as vampires, otherwise we’d all be goners from the blood after cutting ourselves during a shave. 
Incidentally, thanks to you @WhoPotterVian for setting this thread up. It’s curiously therapeutic to know we are not alone. I accept (gladly) the many gifts that autism has given me but the unseen challenges I have faced throughout my life are so difficult to explain to those who do not have equivalent… wiring. It can be paralysing at times. Thank you for this outlet and opportunity to share. We may all differ in the details (it’s a very complex thing) but there is much commonality to be found that many others will never truly comprehend.
Like @deltaandthebannermen I’m not autistic myself (but do have a history of some other mental health issues), but I have a son who is diagnosed with infantile autism and ADHD, a son who just has ADHD and a son who is in the system with suspected autism and possible ADHD 
I have a very strict routine for my food and none of my meals take longer than 15 minutes to make because otherwise it’s just not going to happen. I don’t shave at all but if I ever grow facial hair that’ll have to change, I don’t think I’d enjoy having the hair on my face.
I’m sorry you’re having trouble getting the support you need! It’s really awful how hard it is to get help as a disabled person. Most institutions really just want to ignore disability, I feel…
One of my main issues is having no sense of time. I really really hate having to organise my life according to the arbitrary position of two lines on a circle. I am constantly late to things because getting ready takes me longer than I am aware of. I constantly used to get in trouble for being 5 mins late for work - when I just didn’t get why it even mattered. So I’d stay back 5 mins at the end of the day - so what? I still did all my work. Fortunately I’m now in a job where this is not an issue.
I’d rather just work through a “to-do” list with each thing taking as long as it takes: “Watch 1 episode Classic Who. Read 1 chapter of VNA. Go to work, process all the stuff in my in tray, go to lunch, read 1 issue of comic, go back to work…” etc
I’ve also realized quite recently that I have more auditory processing issues than I thought, which certainly explains why I find TV and books so much more digestible than audio dramas… puts me a bit at odds with the rest of the DWEU community but I’m still determined to make it through the string of Eight audios I’ve been working through.
I had/have a slight aversion to getting wet. I assume it’s sensory because showers and swimming I’m fine with. But getting splashed by thrown water, or by a hose or a squirt gun? Uh-uh! I can go swimming and love it, have a lot of fun. But some soak me with spray from a hose or a puddle, and I don’t like it. Growing up I’d often have to go change clothes, even it was a small amount of water. Now it depends on how much water.
I used to have this issue when I was at school. I’d always set off at the last minute after breaks and lunches to get to the lessons.
Interesting. For me, it was showers that it affected me with, but only when I was a kid. I used to find them ticklish, which made things a little awkward when myself and my family went on holiday to Italy, the accomodation only had a shower, and I wouldn’t stop laughing. The others in the hotel we were staying in probably thought I was undergoing some form of torture.
I got diagnosed late last year and never had any huge problems besides having a very hard time talking and being social outside of the house which I still have problems with. I’m sensitive to loud noises but this is only one example.
Took me a very long time to get a diagnosis. It wasn’t something I was particularly looking for nor expecting, but parallels between me and an autistic student I was teaching needed exploring (after being picked up on by the specialist support worker working with my student) to make sense. It was, bizarrely, both a surprise (because it hadn’t been on my radar) and not remotely surprising to discover. Explained so very much. I confess, I also found it a little upsetting to realise many of the things I"ve found difficult or been ridiculed for as “eccentric” etc. had a perfectly valid explanation yet had been used for so long to persecute me. It gives me much peace to finally understand but I am frustrated by the decades I lived through where I was so very misunderstood by so many people throughout my education and working life. To quote the fifth Doctor… “There should have been another way!”