I'm torn about whether this is a psychologically healthy way of viewing the situation. On the one hand, I think there is a distinct difference between when it's on and when it isn't, and this is a matter of inclinations and preferences that are outside your control (i.e. the other person's). Maybe sometimes you can move the dial on this, but it sort of has to want to be moved. On the other hand, there's an obnoxious male habit of massively inflating the salience of even the slightest indication of female interest or encouragement, since this is taken as signalling that it's on, when actually it may be nothing more than a bit of arbitrary social smoothing.
In my real experience, which is admittedly rather limited, genuine romantic/sexual interest isn't particularly subtle and doesn't require constant anxious interpretation to detect it. You do however need to be able to follow up on open cues when they are directly presented to you, which is surprisingly easy to foul up. Autism undoubtedly makes all of this more confusing.