Is it Aspergers? (concerned for my friend)

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Our parents became friends when we were infants, I have known this friend my entire life, she is more like an older sister to me..

Looking back I notices some odd behaviours, is it related to Autism/Aspergers, or just her being quirky?
Or is it nothing but a sometimes eccentric personality? (I'm just concerned for my friend)
What do you think:

- when she was little she liked to hide in small areas: usually closets, sometimes under beds, or similar. She did this so often as a toddler that her family put a hook at her height so she could close the door herself. When we had play date/hung out we would usually end up sitting in my downstairs linnens closet, etc.
- when she was little she would spend hours very quietly playing by herself.
- she COULD NOT handle group play dates.. The best she could do was me and ONE other person, she preferred one on one if she was to have a play date. (she would have a meltdown, then/or withdraw into herself)
- she does not care one bit about appearance, she just strives to be comfortable (cannot handle some types of things/fabric/clothing touching her, it all has to be loose and light weight)
- she ALWAYS wears a backpack that is astoundingly heavy (I always offered to carry it, finally after years I got the explaination that it made her feel comfortable and safe to have the heavy backpack on)
- some noises really hurt her ears..
- some feelings hurt her (like lightly touching the top of her head, or her ears)
- she is VERY paticular about the food she eats, she is very finickey, her menu is very limited; she would be happy eating the same exact thing day in and day out. (in fact, she did, from pre-school through senior year of high school her lunch was ALWAYS pepperoni pizza, chocolate milk, peaches, carrots, and sunflower seeds. EVERY SINGLE DAY!! and if they were out of any of those for lunch, the rest of her day was off)
- She CANNOT touch grass
- she doesn't like people much, but loves animals (and when around her animals she is a completely different person - someone who will talk to others)
- her hands are never still, she is always fidgiting them.
- she seems to have a tic where she scrunches up her face, and she almost always bounces her legs while sitting.
- I know that she has been diagnosed with (and medicated for) ADD, Anxiety, and Depression, but sometimes I think that there is something missing, and she even verbalizes to me that she feels "out of place"/like she doesn't understand the way she is...
- occasionally she rocks back and forth, her absolute FAVORITE thing is going on swings. that is what most of our childhood trips to the park were, her on her specific swing, and she will stay for hours until she has raw spots and wounds on her legs from the edge of the swings and blisters and raw spots on her hands from the chains...
- She has horses and it great with rescues/horses other people couldn't train and get through to, and can tell you ANYTHING about them from breed origins, to different types of equine jobs, to feeding, to the meaning of "horsepower", to genetics, to good breeding lines! etc.
- She has odd interests (fire and explosives being the biggest, longest standing. then osteology/skeletal articulation, then butchering...)
- she has great art and musical talents.
- she isn't gerat at reading, or comprehension questions...
- she has great animal skills (mainly with horses and dogs; paticularily with horses.)
EXAMPLE: She loves to get a rescue horse and rehab and train them. the last ones were a pair or extremely bonded horses, a girl and boy, they had been starved for months, abused/beat, and then left in a falling apart barn/the hay loft even collapsed. they wouldn't let people get within 30+ feet of them. She was their FIFTH home since people gave up with them. the boy had given up on life and would just collapse after running for his life avoiding humans. the girl was protective and VIOLENT and had injured people. somehow poeple had corralled them in an enclosed area(where others were injured). She walked in, the horses were skiddish, but the boy wasn't running and the girl wasn't in "attack mode". the horses let her approach them, and get about 1-2 feet away from them. the boy became curious and started investigating her, she reached out and touched the horse, he ran like hell but then came right back over. DAY 4, she had them both in a halter and walking on a lead rope. week 1.5 she had them able to be touched all over, and acting like a NORMAL horse!!
EXAMPLE: she got the chance to adopt and WILD MUSTANG! she got nervous when people were telling her "It took me 78 day before my mustang would even let me touch them", etc. she got the mustang home, and about 15 minutes off of the trailer in the middle of the panic, she went in, and the horse seemed mesmerized... she pet him. day two putting a halter on and off to get used to the feel, day 4 leading like the horse had done it for years, then about 2.5 months later she started bringing that horse to competition and doing very well.
EXAMPLE: a horse that was supposed to be a children friendly horse was mean and would bite, kick, rear up attempt to injure people, etc. would pull a hitching post out of the ground before letting people near it or touching it. She went in the ring, and the horse did its "I'm mad at you" act, but instead of escalating, it stopped and held still. it listened and was GOOD! it was tacked up, and rode like a normal horse.

Sorry, I apologize greatly for all of the rambling on, I just find the horse thing with her so facinating...

These threads pop up daily about having ASD, whether it's yourself, a friend, a friend of a friend, the friend of your next door neighbour's great uncle.. etc..

My advice will never change.

Step 1.) Go to Autism doctor
Step 2.) Profit?

We Don't Know!*

Only an appropriately-trained, licensed and experienced mental-health professional can make a valid diagnosis of "Asperger's" or another ASD. Such a professional would have to meet with your friend in person over several sessions before even a tentative diagnosis could be made; and as far as I know, no such person is a member of WrongPlanet.

Online tests can not provide an objective ASD diagnosis either, so don't bother with them.

*Yeah ... about two or three times a week, we get a "Could it be Asperger's?" post of some kind, and none of them can be answered any other way - don't let the poseurs convince you otherwise.

This.

lol, sounds like me,