Ask me about: Being an adult with autism! Or just autism in general.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about: Being an adult with autism! Or just autism in general.

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

I haven't been to see a doctor since the last time one told me I couldn't possibly be autistic, but I might be "on the spectrum"

I said "Would this spectrum you refer to be the AUTISM spectrum by chance? The one that is defined as a SPECTRUM of PRESENTATIONS of AUTISM?"

"...You're very well informed."

gently caress.

DOCTORS.

# ¿ Jul 15, 2022 05:49

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 20:30

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

TIP posted:

I half expected the doctor to say "touché".

Alas no, but they rolled over completely at that point lol

# ¿ Jul 15, 2022 05:52

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

TIP posted:

Wow, those stories don't usually have a happy ending. Nice.

I actually fired them as my doctor anyway because I didn't trust them anymore and I didn't want to have a fight every time I needed to show agency. But (happy ending) I went and found a psych who specializes in ADHD and autism comorbidity to get my ADHD meds from and he has been great.

I do still need to find a new PCP though, but ughhhhhhh I don't want to go through this agaiiiiiin

# ¿ Jul 15, 2022 06:01

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

TIP posted:

I think I need to work on how to take a compliment.

I used to reflexively return the same compliment, but that doesn't really work in every situation and even when it's true it seems fake.

Now I try to just say thank you but it's hard for me to not shove in some compliment of my own to balance things out, but I think that also often feels fake and sometimes I feel like it might even be insulting?

Like a friend of mine just said "I think you're hilarious" and my response was "Thanks, I always really enjoy talking to you". Later he made a self deprecating comment about his bad jokes and now I feel like he thinks my response was because I don't think he's funny.

I'm probably overthinking this (I do that), but I'm curious if any of you have any strategies for taking compliments?

One other thing I sometimes catch myself doing is just agreeing with the compliment when it's something I'm really confident about, and I know that's a bad look.

I am in this entire post and I don't like it.

Mostly I just say "thanks but it was really [gives credit to literally anyone else]"

# ¿ Jul 15, 2022 07:08

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

Even neurotypical people fall in love with the image of other people they hold in their heads - their idealization of that person - all the time. We are all, NT and ND alike, often operating on imperfect information regarding the people we love, and our emotions may outrun our knowledge.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2022 00:09

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

I think the flexibility has to come from allowing our (and others') identities to change over time.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2022 19:43

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

for fucks sake posted:

There is, it's called MDMA. Not something you can use every day though, to put it mildly.

Edit: to clarify, with MDMA I found it effortless to understand how people felt, how they were reacting and would react to things I said or did, in a way that is totally out of reach for me sober.

the adhd thread talks about using guanfacine and other drugs for this fwiw, i haven't tried it but it seems to help some people

# ¿ Jul 30, 2022 22:09

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

cinnamon rollout posted:

Something my son does is when he eats pizza he flips the pizza slice upside down. He will turn the slice over on the plate and either pick it up and eat it like that, or pick at the bread and pull it apart to eat it.
He has some strong food preferences which is all fine and good but this thing with the pizza is the most interesting and I was curious if anyone else ever did anything similar as a child, or still does? I was thinking about my own food habits and couldn't come up with any, I'm sure there are some though.

I used to do this all the time when I was a kid and at some point I just stopped and wanted to eat pizza the normal way so it doesn't drip on me, and I tend to want to eat the ingredients all together instead of separately like I did when I was a kid. I suspect it has to do with the intensity of taste in kids vs adults.

I still have all kinds of textural and taste sensitivities around food that most people don't have.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2022 07:44

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

SSJ_naruto_2003 posted:

It helped me to take this before I went but it sounds similar to what she's going to do.

https://embrace-autism.com/raads-r/

Disappointing, hitting "Score" just reloads the page (Windows/Firefox)

# ¿ Aug 12, 2022 02:08

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

i called my parents by their first first names for a while but it didn't sick past 4-5 and i soon just called them 'mom' and 'dad'. though my mom likes to tell people about how when i was four she asked how my oatmeal was and i made sort of a dubious face and said "...still processing."

(i had to explain to her years later that i was straight up quoting spock, i was already a trekkie)

# ¿ Mar 20, 2023 03:33

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

Bobby Deluxe posted:

Trying not to give people advice has been the bane of my existence.

One of the reasons I love being a consultant

# ¿ May 28, 2023 23:57

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

I've literally never heard it called that before.

# ¿ May 31, 2023 01:16

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

FirstnameLastname posted:

that's a good idea imo

to avoid things being overwhelming, break them into smaller chunks

basically, flowchart function over form format when possible

this is incredibly good advice

# ¿ Jun 3, 2023 23:00

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

I missed the opportunity to have kids because I married someone who beat the poo poo out of me every day and barely escaped. Now in my mid-forties, I regret every minute of those years, and grieve for the family I will never have. It's just as well, though, because the constant daily abuse left me with severe cPTSD and chronic debilitating pain, so it's not like I could care for kids anyway. YAY! Isn't life wonderful?

# ¿ Jun 22, 2023 02:06

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

Cloacamazing! posted:

Anybody else get unreasonably angry when they have to repeat themselves?

Yes, directly coinciding when the times when I'm reverting to nonverbal mode, which itself is usually triggered by trauma or major stress

# ¿ Aug 13, 2023 11:17

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

you know what i just realized we have in common with modern aircraft?

leading edge flaps

# ¿ Oct 22, 2023 23:12

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

Organic Lube User posted:

If autism is a superpower, the mana cost is way too fuckin high sometimes.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2024 10:36

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 20:30

Kesper North: Nov 3, 2011; EMERGENCY POWER TO PARTY

Black Feather posted:

He looked at me like I was an alien and actually said, "I never thought about it like that."

neurotypicals.png

the fact that you could make him do that is the most diagnostic possible thing lmao

# ¿ Feb 10, 2024 23:04

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about: Being an adult with autism! Or just autism in general.