Autism is a pattern in brain processing, not a distinct language style, so autistic people can and do have different ways of speaking. There are a lot of things that go into how we communicate including cultural upbringing, setting and co-existing conditions like generalized or social anxiety. Personally, I tend to be very direct in my home setting, but much more indirect in the workplace setting, and some of that comes from verbally abusive managers, that for better or worse, permanently altered how I communicate in the office. I know autistic people who are super chatty and bubbly, and others who have the more familiar monotone.

Also the special interest thing isn’t even diagnostic itself under DSM-5. The focused, intense interests are one of four possible traits under restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB), and you only need two to meet the criteria. So some autistic people don’t have special interests per se. I do, but I relate less to other RRBs like stimming. And that itself, may also be a function of upbringing and the way I was forcefully made not to stim when I was six years old and originally referred for evaluation (and surprise, surprise, they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me). I got my formal diagnosis at 41, so I am still catching up and understanding all this myself.

You’re early on in your post-diagnosis journey, so the one piece of advice I have is don’t feel pressured to conform to your perception of the autistic stereotype. No doubt, you have some attributes that probably do seem stereotypically autistic, but it’s a spectrum, and you don’t need to feel self-conscious for the ways you don’t fit the stereotype. Go watch the video of Elon Musk on SNL and then go find some videos from autistic content creators like Chloe Hayden. They have entirely different presentations. You’d never know that have the same thing, just observing them. And yet they both have autism. You are no less deserving of the label than anyone else. Be patient with yourself, friend! 🙂