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credburn posted:I'm really tired to making such a strong effort to mask and appear normal (or just neuro-typical). I wish I could be comfortable with being weird and different and just being alright that it's going to make people uncomfortable. Instead every day feels like a final rehearsal for a play and I'm constantly going over my lines and making sure everything is perfect. The trick for me, and this was pre-diagnosis, was finding a small core group of people who knew the weird, obtuse me and actually liked that person over the social masks I put on most of the time. Once I found those people, I started realizing it's just easier to not give a gently caress and let people bounce off me if they don't like the way I am. These days I have an extremely healthy social circle that I see once, maybe twice a month, with a small handful of people I see more often. It's the perfect balance for me and all of the people still in my life respect that. Oh, on that note, I got my psych testing results back yesterday, full report. On top of the severe ADHD, I am also on the spectrum! So hello friends!
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Mar 1, 2023 14:57
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So I had a friend recommend the book Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity because she already knew my psych eval was going to end up with an autism diagnosis. I gotta say, that book was excellent and it was extremely nice to get to read a book written in a voice that reflects myself, my experiences and my struggles. I highly recommend it, especially if you're newly diagnosed or suspect you might be on the spectrum. I linked to Thriftbooks because its not Amazon and also Thriftbooks rules
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Mar 9, 2023 14:46
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TIP posted:I just put this on hold at the library, should be available in... 14 weeks I might buy a second copy to basically goon library, I was that impressed with it
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Mar 9, 2023 19:55
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So I ended up posting on Insta/FB about my diagnosis, since I've tried to be really open about my mental health and my struggles with my friends. Here's the post:quote:***LONG MENTAL HEALTH POST AHEAD***
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Mar 13, 2023 14:32
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Cloacamazing! posted:Anyway, I asked for books earlier in this thread and found a couple myself, so: I added these to my wishlist over on Thriftbooks for when I want new poo poo to read, thank you!!!
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Mar 14, 2023 15:47
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Bank posted:I met with some of my wife's acquaintances who I don't consider myself close to. I think we've had a total of 5 conversations lasting more than 30 seconds. I'm in the group of "outgoing autistics" and I am a big hugger, but I also recognize that not everyone likes physical touch and I try to be very cognizant of that. There have been people I've given hugs to and realized that probably didn't want that hug, and just avoid doing that moving forward. Occasionally I'll bring it up and apologize because I'm not the best with recognizing boundaries (shocker!) But overall, I think hugging has become as another poster noted, a more 'private' salutation whereas a handshake is a more formal introduction. Handshakes happen a lot for me on first introduction too, but usually gives way to hugging/high five/whatever. Regardless of all that though, you're not weird for thinking it's weird, not everyone enjoys physical touch for a multitude of reasons and its important for everyone to recognize that
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Apr 3, 2023 14:21
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Camrath posted:So this is a thing which I’m not sure is a ‘me’ thing or a more general autism thing, but it just happened again yesterday.. So piggybacking off my last post about being outgoing, this happens so loving much to me and it can be extremely difficult/frustrating. I only have so much social bandwidth in my life and while I'd love to be able to spend time highly engaged with everyone 24/7, that also leads me to burnout and I need to be extremely aware of maintaining that balance so I don't end up shutting down for like a week. I think that previous posters touched on the point that I've noticed about all of the people who latch on to me - they are all neurodivergent in some way, shape or form and I think they are able to quickly tell that I am "different" while also being very outgoing, and they are drawn to that. I think any time an ND can sus out that another person is ND, they are going to switch to communicating on that ND wavelength, which gets them highly engaged in the conversation and person. I know that whenever I recognize that I get to drop my "protective" social mask that holds back some of my "weirder" traits, I end up being insanely engaged in talking with and spending time with that person.
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Apr 3, 2023 14:28
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Also, sorry for the barrage of posts but I'm finally getting caught up on replies from over the weekend. I did want to share this though, just to see if anyone has perspective. My mom and sister are/were both teachers who taught kids with special needs primarily. My sister just completed her masters, focused on children with severe autism, like non-verbal and such. All three of us have been diagnosed with ADHD for over a decade (32 years for me!) so like, we're all aware that we're neurodivergent however... My sister has not accepted my ASD diagnosis, thinks the psychologist who did my evaluation was biased coming into it and just does not believe that I have autism. She hasn't come out and said it, but I'm getting the feeling it's because I'm "too social" but also because I've spent a ton of effort and time developing masks to be able to get by in life. I'm also meeting with my mom to discuss the results too, but she's been a lot more open to the diagnosis and recognizes that there are several ASD candidates on both side of my family tree. Does anyone have experience with getting a sibling to believe your diagnosis, specifically a sibling who (I personally think) should be able to understand things, not accepting a diagnosis?
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Apr 3, 2023 14:36
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Cloacamazing! posted:My mother (elementary school teacher) initially didn't believe me, but came around to it after reading a couple of books on the subject. I guess she recognized a lot of things from me in those autobiographies, I know I did. That might help with your sister, but of course she'll need to get to the point first where she's willing to entertain the idea that you might be on the spectrum. You say your mom is more open to it, maybe she can help? My sister immediately accepted my diagnosis, and I think she talked with my mother about it. Hilariously enough, my mom wants to see me this week so she can talk about my diagnosis and we're doing that the day before I hang out with my sister to talk about it. My mom is currently reading Unmasking Autism and I'm trying to get my sister to read it, but she's doing her usual ADHD "It's too tough to find time to read a book" thing, so I'm trying to push her to listen to the audiobook instead. That book spoke really well to my feelings, experiences and such, and it's helped my partner a lot with understanding where I'm coming from. I've had at least a half dozen friends pull me aside since I posted about my diagnosis and say either they believe they are on the spectrum or that they were diagnosed but aren't public about it for reasons. A bunch of them had the same reactions that your friend did, and for me that's why I'm going to look at my friends and try to see what characteristics fit them, rather than find reasons to say that doesn't fit them. The latter has been my experience a poo poo ton of times throughout my life and I don't want to repeat that experience for others.
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Apr 3, 2023 18:05
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Family meeting #1 is done, things with mom went.. great, honestly? She's very accepting of the diagnosis because it helps explain things in my life and helps me ID ways to address issues in my life. She's about 2/3rds through the book and is really fascinated with the concept of neurodiversity, given that she's pretty drat ADHD herself. We discussed family history, found out my one cousin who I kinda knew was on the spectrum is firmly on the spectrum, what does masking mean, some stuff from my childhood that we have WILDLY different memories of and kind of what does the diagnosis mean for the family. And I was very direct with her about what I needed, which is for them to be more understanding when I don't have enough bandwidth to make plans or when I occasionally have to cancel because I just can't. Tonight I'm getting pierogi and brews with my sister at a local brewery to discuss things, this is the conversation I'm sorta nervous about. But my mom said she backs me 100% and even agreed that she doesn't fully understand my sister's objections to it. But she also talked with me a lot about how to lead that conversation with compassion and such, so I'm hoping it'll go well tonight
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Apr 6, 2023 16:37
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Quorum posted:In reality, of course, an autism scare is when someone drops by your house unannounced lol this
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Apr 7, 2023 23:37
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Met with my sister and there were absolutely no nuclear explosions and it.. actually went pretty good? She was very worried about my diagnosis becoming something I would use to like, not go to events or whatever, idk, I don't get it but she now gets that this diagnosis really just helps me better understand myself and find ways to deal with things. She's going to send me some articles about like childhood trauma and some other stuff she wants me to look into, on the flip side she promised to read the book I recommended and a couple of articles I need to dig up. Feelin' much better now!!
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Apr 7, 2023 23:39
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I like having a job but it's absolutely definitely not for everybody. I would only recommend it if one of your hyperfocuses is people and interpersonal relationships (mine is)
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Apr 7, 2023 23:56
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Stoca Zola posted:All I ever wanted was to get really good at one thing, and then to do that thing over and over. Have you considered local warehouse work? Generally there's little client/customer/person facing interaction and you're doing a fairly repetitive task throughout the day. I know of some places that hire people part time for like 20-30 hours a week to supplement their full time warehouse person, that could be a decent gig where you get to focus on a task and don't have to worry about the 37 other responsibilities that are stupidly assigned to one person. I'm seriously EXTREMELY thankful that I don't mind holding down a full time job/career but I'm also now becoming more aware of all the work I need to do to balance everything in my life, especially my own mental health needs. Luckily I found myself into a low-stress career where my skill set of being an emergency fire fighter (thanks ADHD!) are seen as indispensable the handful of times its needed a year.
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Apr 8, 2023 14:57
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Sterf posted:nevermind I was wondering where this post went!!!! I'm gonna be honest with you, I loving brute forced my socialization in face-to-face settings via alcohol. It's not a good path to do that, I absolutely do not recommend and one thing I am devoting myself to is helping other neurodivergent folks find ways to socialize without having depend on substance use, like alcohol, to do that. So if you ever wanna talk more about that, whether it's in the thread or via PM, let me know!!!
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Apr 8, 2023 15:00
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I work in financial services/fintech and that's mostly because all of the other job offers I got when my last job tried to full time force me back in office (Summer of 2020!) had lovely health benefits and this one had exceptional, top-of-the-line benefits. Like my psych eval was fully covered, $30ish co-pay. Tele-therapy is $5 and in office is $10 up to twice a week. Dental and vision benefits are baller. I couldn't pass it up being that I live in America. Pay is alright but I'm saving like $10k+ a year on health expenses. However, I do feel guilty about working for a company that is, by it's very nature, predatory and to "atone for that sin" so to speak, I try to donate about 10% of every paycheck, I mentor other NDs who are struggling to get into IT or find their footing (I ran a service desk for 4 years so I know the lay of the land) and am trying to be a more vocal voice about making sure ND voices are heard and celebrated in our workplace. Luckily my company is extremely supportive of anyone doing mental health work and has support groups within the company and is quick to offer (generally) useful accommodations. However, the way I see it, unless we continue pressing them to keep it up, we might lose that, so I will use my voice to support that
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Apr 12, 2023 14:09
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End of the day though, I don't think "a job" is the right thing for everybody, given the system's current state. For a lot of people, it's better to find a unique way to get by instead of jumping into the system, given that the entire intent of the system is to chew you up and spit you out.
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Apr 12, 2023 14:10
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Cloacamazing! posted:Above all, keep this in mind: You are under no obligation whatsoever to disclose anything during the job interview. If you don't want to disclose your family situation, don't. If you don't want to disclose you're on the spectrum, don't. You are allowed to omit things, you are allowed to lie. I'm someone who's very "outwardly" ADHD, in that I'm always rocking my leg, constantly bouncing from thing to thing, pretty hyperactive like a very stereotypical ADHD adult, so I don't always have the option of hiding my neurodiversity, but the above post is 100% my stance. If you don't feel comfortable, you don't have to. However, I ask you to ask yourself why you're uncomfortable with talking about it (specifically, is it the company/org you're applying to) because if it's the employer, you should probably just save yourself the time. If an employer is going to show their colors in the interview and be an rear end in a top hat or otherwise treat you ill for disclosing that diagnosis, that's pretty nice of them to save you the time of finding out they are poo poo heads later. If you're uncomfortable sharing for other reasons, like past experiences or trauma that you are working through, then it's fine to not disclose it and continue working on yourself. Don't feel guilty or like you're hiding anything, it's your right to share what you're comfortable with. That might change, it might not, everyone's journey is different
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Apr 12, 2023 18:27
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DrNewton posted:I too have the rocking of the feet and can be outwardly ADHD/Autistic but I have come to the point that I can pass as quirky. Also, the job interview is online so I can hide their quirks better. My one coworker mentioned the first time we got lunch after like a year and a half of working together that he was a quick yes because he knew I was ADHD and would fit in with the team perfectly lol One of the previous posters mentioned using the neurodiverse label and I really like that as a suggestion. Leaves it very open ended without having to get into medical details while still being a very unique part of you that fits what they are asking.
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Apr 12, 2023 18:37
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As someone who was late diagnosed with ASD (38), what Quorum posted is pretty much spot on. My therapist was the one who ordered me to get a psychological evaluation, as she didn't think my previous diagnosis of Bipolar fit the person she'd treated for a year. She was kind of shocked with the ASD diagnosis but I really wasn't. If you've got decent or better healthcare, it'd be worth seeing a therapist first to discuss and then have the therapist order the psych eval, as that allowed for my insurance to take the $700 hit that I had already budgeted FSA money for. Beyond that, my experience was that my psychologist doesn't do adult autism diagnoses, but does have extensive experience with diagnosing children with autism, so she had to reach out to a colleague who specializes in adult autism to discuss my results before coming back with a "mild ASD" diagnosis. I really feel like my experience was super easy/positive but also very out of the norm, so take that as you will. For me, the benefit of knowing that a whole bunch of things I've struggled connecting the dots with throughout my life was huge. I've been diagnosed as moder/severe ADHD since I was like 6 years old, so I've always known I'm DEFINITELY neurodiverse, but there were always a ton of "unexplained" parts of me and previously, bipolar kinda fit the bill but thinking back, naw. ADHD, ASD, anxiety, depression though? Makes perfect sense and we've developed a treatment plan to begin tackling the things that are holding me back from making progress in other areas, like identifying and learning to communicate my emotions better. Working on that is going to go a LONG way to helping myself set better boundaries and form better bonds with the people I care about.
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Apr 23, 2023 15:47
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To be honest, one of the most consistent traits among my ND relationships has been that neither party minds picking up with the friendship where we left off. I've had friends who I haven't seen in almost a decade reach out and we would go grab dinner and catch up and it was back to where it was before, just a different set of obstacles for us to be aware of, like kids, careers, etc. And I've had people that worked on my team when I was a team leader reach out like 3-4 years after the fact, wanting to get back into IT and needing someone who can vouch that they are capable. I'm always glad to step up and do that for people who I worked with, so long as you weren't actively awful. My last three jobs have come from people I either worked with at the time, or people I had worked with prior who loved working with me and wanted me to find a home at their new company. I definitely recommend just hitting some people up that you know are in your field or even doing a general post on Facebook to a limited audience
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Apr 25, 2023 14:20
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LinkedIn is a fuckin' cesspool as far as posting/content goes, but it's extremely useful for networking and keeping in touch with professional contacts
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Apr 26, 2023 14:32
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Soylent Pudding posted:Does anyone remember back in 2009 or 2010 when it seemed like the forums was embracing Asperger's as a self diagnosis? I vaguely remember that and a backlash of "no you're just self diagnosing because you're a weird goon who's looking for an excuse to keep being a weird goon". I’ve been talking with a friend of mine lately about something similar with the rise in ADHD diagnosis. I absolutely remember the Spergin Forums days and I too related to a bunch of that convo but convinced myself I’m far too social to fit the criteria. Welp turns out I have mild ASD. But as I was telling my friend, it’s tough to hear people you might think aren’t sharing symptoms with you talking about something you’re struggling with. HOWEVER , it’s a great moment to build and teach compassion, and a great way to frame the message of ‘Yeah so like, we don’t gotta make comments when people do weird poo poo. We’re all weird’
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May 1, 2023 14:13
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girl dick energy posted:Made a big post about how I deal with overexplaining and the fear of being misunderstood, in E/N's braindump thread, and thought it might be helpful for y'all, too. I like this post a lot. The whole idea of microdeceptions to help keep conversation flowing is a great way to think about it, and honestly learning "the script" of how to navigate small talk without giving up too much is what really changed my social interactions for me. Learning that you can just talk about pets, or sports, or something else that isn't necessarily my personal stuff like my emotions or relationships or whatever allowed me to be able to navigate the awkward early stages of meeting people, helped me get an idea of the type of person they are before I start sharing more personal details beyond "I live here, been with my girlfriend/partner for 8 years, we got some cats, I love X Y and Z'. A Thing to remember when you're worried about being misunderstood is that if someone isn't willing or able to give you the space to better clarify yourself, that's a really good tell that they may not be a good fit for you. We are going to consistently and constantly need to clarify things, whether it's why we behaved a certain way or why we said something a certain way, whatever it might be. But knowing that a person is going to stop and listen and make sure they 'get it' before moving on is a good sign that they will be worth continuing to have conversation with.
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May 3, 2023 14:47
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My ADHD hyperfocus on socializing and people forced me to, idk, learn how to be a strongly social person while still maintaining a very strong wall that only let's in people I've deemed safe. I had times in the past where I thought someone was a safe person to have close to me, only to be hurt by them when they essentially tried to get me to change core parts of who I am. End of the day though, I'm extremely loving lucky to have strong social connections with amazingly understanding people
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May 3, 2023 14:50
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neurospicy / spicy brains is a term I've heard in relation to ADHD for some time that's seemed to take on a wider meaning over time, I have friends that use it and I have friends that hate it, doesn't bother me 
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May 31, 2023 16:43
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Yeah, I generally only feel comfortable using that language with other NDs and don't appreciate when NT people use it. It's nice to have language to use among ourselves, especially kinder language that isn't "divergent" but yeah, feels like it's minimalizing struggle when use by or with NT people
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May 31, 2023 19:00
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Cloacamazing! posted:It really does feel that way sometimes... As someone's who's an "outgoing autistic", ugh, yes, this so much. People don't always get that while I love people, being around them, etc. I don't always LIKE certain situations, certain types of crowds, certain types of venues, etc. Or that, well, sometimes my social battery is just DRAINED and taking forever to recharge. It's part of the reason I've made the choice to try and invest my time / energy into my groups that are primarily ND and ND-friendly. There's less "Deal With It" attitude and more "How can I help?" attitude.
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Jun 1, 2023 15:02
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coolusername posted:I’ve been in therapy and psych for decade+ since my late teens and have an ADHD diagnosis, and it’s never been suggested. Professionals even think I’m nice and friendly. I like hugs and I’m fine with social contact. But there’s been a few times where even the ADHD threads have gone “um Cool… r u sure that’s not autism.” The whole "autistic people are not social" thing is another misconception brought to you by Ye Olde White Man Psychology, which has brought us other great hits such as "Your ADHD will go away when you're an adult". Semi-serious about that, I swear the academic psych world would just wholesale make poo poo up for a while there. For serious though, the venn diagram of ADHD and ASD symptoms are pretty much a circle. If you look at something like inattentive type ADHD, then compare that to lists on ASD symptoms, you can't have inattentive type ADHD without also checking most of the boxes for ASD. I'm personally of the opinion that they are not cousin disorders, but rather they are the same fuckin' thing presenting differently in different people. I was told my entire life I couldn't be autistic and that I just needed to learn to deal with this or that, all because my freakin' hyperfocus and life long dopamine drip has been socializing. It took me 15+ years of socializing like 3+ times a week to get to the point where it feels natural to both me and the person on the other side, but no one wants to take me seriously on that because "you're just so naturally social!!" noooo this stuff is painful but I love doing it anywho I don't get to choose that fam
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Jun 3, 2023 13:12
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FilthyImp posted:I finally found a place that would do an assessment, and one thats paid by my insurance. Felt relieved I didn't have to drop the $600 that it would have otherwise taken. So, my therapist pushed me to get an evaluation done because she didn’t think I was bipolar. She also didn’t think I was on the spectrum, and made that known to me. My best friend was convinced I was on the spectrum, but she was really the only one. The psychologist who did my eval talked to my therapist about that beforehand and we focused a lot on ASD testing, including that test y’all have posted a few times recently. My results were clinically borderline and she didn’t feel confident saying one way or another, so she brought in an adult ASD specialist to review my testing and notes, and they said ‘hell yeah he’s on the spectrum! He just masks extremely well’ and now I have my diagnosis! My big point to the post though is that until you DO the testing, you might get vibes that you’re not being heard. Use the test to highlight your real struggles, be very honest about stuff, especially social stuff. Some of the ASD testing IDed that while I’m highly social, it’s because I dedicated a ton of time and effort to ‘learning it’, so to speak Side note: she was originally gonna do a full battery of ADHD tests but I aced the first one so well? Poorly? That she was like nah you got severe ADHD my friend, no need to test
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Jun 4, 2023 17:50
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And for the record, an evaluation is NOT necessary to like, identify as ASD. I honestly only recommend it in cases like mine where you aren’t sure yourself and others consistently downplay what you have to deal with
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Jun 4, 2023 18:01
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Yeah like I specifically asked my psychologist to not share with my PCP or anyone else and to keep that poo poo sealed TIGHT. I identify openly as AuDHD but I do NOT want that on my medical chart given that I live in Hell States Of America
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Jun 4, 2023 22:56
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Cloacamazing! posted:Do you mind describing how empathy works for you? I brought that one up with my assessor, since I knew I had empathy and that had been one of the reasons I thought I couldn't be autistic. She made me describe it, and apparently I have been empathying wrong (or at least, not very neurotypical). Didn't even know there was another way. Man I'm really glad the first link I found was a hit. There's a huge misunderstanding that Autistic people aren't empathetic, the problem is that we're generally over-empathetic and express it in ways that are very different from the norm. I'm extremely bad at "soothing" people, it's something I've had to spend so loving much effort trying to do. I don't like doing it because when I'm upset or angry or whatever, I just wanna be left to myself to kinda work through the emotions and then talk about it after. In the moment, I'd rather like, someone take care of chores I don't want to do because I'm feeling depressed than someone comfort me directly in the moment. So that's how I always expressed my empathy and guess what? That's not normal lol But yeah, that article is a great "debunking" of the 'not empathetic' myth of ASD.
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Jun 5, 2023 14:41
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It's something I've had to work on a lot with my S/O. She needs someone to comfort her and listen and not offer solutions and well, that's not me at all. But it's something I've been trying to be better about because overall it has positive implications across my life.
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Jun 5, 2023 16:30
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Quaint Quail Quilt posted:I was talking to a coworker who I really enjoy their company and we got to talking about ADHD and I was saying there can be some overlap with autism and that I'd been looking into it and took the RAADS-R test. I'm just gonna spend my days here linking studies that prove the things you think you feel lol So, I think this extends beyond just autistic people identifying and grouping together with other autistic people, but rather it's NEURODIVERSE people that group together. ADHD, ASD, OCD, Depression, Anxiety are WAY WAY WAY more common in my friend groups than is baseline for the average person. I think the reason comes down to the fact that we can read each other's body language better, we don't expect or need eye contact, we're okay with someone who isn't "presenting" as normal since we're not normal ourselves and the fact that many of us have a shared bond in the trauma that our neurodiversity has put us through, whether it's family struggles, social struggles, academic struggles, etc. We just know that we've all been through Some poo poo.
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Jun 6, 2023 15:15
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FirstnameLastname posted:i just found out Today you're supposed to look at people when they're talking But not as much when you're talking and that's how eye contact is supposed to work??? is this true yeah thats not normal lol I struggle with that a ton too, I don't really like making prolonged eye contact very often. there's a time and place. And this is coming from someone who's regarded as pretty social, sooo. A lot of it is learning how to make meaningful eye contact and finding other ways to ensure the other person you're still paying attention. if someone is obviously bothered that I'm not making eye contact, I just address it directly these days because I am not accommodating others on that one
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Jun 7, 2023 04:26
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FirstnameLastname posted:yeah i don't ever stare at people it kinda feels like I'm looking at the sun when i make direct eye contact, i really don't like to maintain it oh yeah to some people it's totally shady. There are a lot of tricks you can learn to help with it though. My big ones are like, searching people's faces for imperfections, another is watching their eyebrows. You don't have to look AT their eyes, just NEAR their eyes and it'll work. Most NT people won't notice, but any ND people who had to train themselves on eye contact will notice but won't say anything. I will say, eye contact is much less important in younger generations. A lot of the younger people I know and talk to on a semi-regular basis do a lot of the same avoidance stuff that I do and we end up settling on not looking at each other while we talk lol OH another tactic I use a lot with friends because it helps me so loving much, is side talking, i.e. stand side by side with the person you're talking to while you're both looking forward. It's a super easy way for me to not have to focus eye contact on a person and rather focus on the conversation If you have more questions feel free to ask tho, I've been working on figuring this poo poo out for like 25 years now bagmonkey fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Jun 7, 2023 |
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Jun 7, 2023 14:19
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though one of my favorite things when I'm talking to people is watching them track my eye movements. Like I'll just stare over someone's shoulder and they feel absolutely compelled to see what I'm looking at. Bro I'm staring at a tree while I collect my thoughts friggin chill
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Jun 7, 2023 14:22
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Agreed, it's a lot of work. Even as someone who's considered pretty outgoing, I only have a small handful of truly NT friends because they require a lot more attention and work and blah blah. The ones I keep around are very rewarding friendships, but they are not easy by any means. I'm of the opinion that you don't HAVE to have NTs in your life, but it's worth taking the time to engage with them, understand them and find ways to meet in the middle on things you're able to do so on. That doesn't mean being every NT's favorite human, but rather we should be taking some amount of effort to engage, understand and respect them if we're wanting them to do the same. I think most autistic/ND people do this even if they aren't consciously doing it, but it's something to think about.
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Jun 8, 2023 19:53
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nesamdoom posted:This is one of my favourite games ever. I look so close to their head but not at them that it's like they are a few inches off mark. It's so funny when people react to it. But I also used to point at things that weren't there when I'd notice a friend look at me at work or across some area. Can I be honest? I bolded the part I think is a totally unrecognized ASD trait. I absolutely love loving with people more than anything in the world, to the point that I generally gotta be very clear with people when I need to be taken seriously. Typing that out, I realize it's definitely an avoidant habit but also like... it's really genuinely enjoyable lol I can't figure out what it is cuz yeah, I have this very small group of people I can just... idk, be natural around? and not all of them are ASD or ADHD. It's just something about their presence let's me feel okay with just being me
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Jun 12, 2023 03:36
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