[SERIOUS] Redditors with autism, what's it like to have autism? What are your everyday troubles, quirks or challenges?

I'm 17, and have been raised knowing about my Asperger's. It's been strange whenever a meeting with teachers or whatever has come up about it. Several times, my IEP has had things I thought I didn't need, and I had to think through whether they were really unneeded or it was just my brain trying to convince me it's just like everyone else. I tend to think that "normal" people are just like me, and can't tell if I'm on the almost-normal end of the spectrum or if my antisocial lifestyle keeps me from knowing how my peers actually live.

I rarely participate socially without prompting and usually take far too long to think of something to say, so in group conversations, I usually just listen in. A lot of the time I focus tightly on just one thing, including my own thoughts. This results in people seeing me as very quiet/shy when I want to participate more but can't figure out how. When I start thinking about something get caught up in it, I look strange to everyone else and if it happens in class, I stop paying attention to the lesson. It's often accompanied by vigorous hand movement I can't describe in detail. The hyperfocusing and attention to detail is usually advantageous on my FIRST Robotics Competition team(number 401 if you're interested), but can sidetrack me to work on less-important jobs or becoming too attached to a clearly impractical feature of the robot.

/r/AskReddit Thread