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@this-is-not-an-alien

BRILLIANT FABULOUS FANTASTIC I copied the entire thing into a writing file for future reference for Ophelia XD Thank you so much for that!

It’s also fun to me how the neurosparkles have quite a bit of overlap.

Like the rejection sensitivity, “Everyone in this store hates me” phenomenon, masking, and this bit!

Oh and the more nervous we are the less inhibitors we have so like you know how tipsy people get more and more free with themselves and less concerned with consequences – well that’s what happens when we get overstimulated we get “high” on happy chemical we’re deficient in but NTs have normally.

Which is how I can absolutely sing in front of a large crowd if I’m overstimulated enough but can’t even chat with someone at home if I feel the slightest apprehension

Like SAME! I am usually pretty reserved and composed but the second I get the rush of adrenaline from being scared out of my mind I get giggly and honestly twice as funny as I usually am. Or at least. I think that in the moment. For some reason people never laugh when I crack a joke right after a near-death experience. Bizarre of them.

 

@lady-grace

Sorry this took a while!

Ok, interesting I feel like that’s all I’m saying XD So at what point does someone know they’re Autistic? Like, how many traits?

Actually! I have an answer!

Here you go, this is the DSM diagnostic criteria for Autism in adults. (Rooted around through way too many links from decidedly… iffy autism resources.)

It’s a bit information dense and clinical, not to say a little pathologizing, but a good overview! It also says how many of these traits you need for a theoretical diagnosis.

Also, it helped me a lot to find the traits by remembering when I was little. I used to have issues I don’t have anymore, mostly because I learned to work around them or mask over them.

You might show traits in a somewhat different way than described, but it doesn’t mean it’s completely absent. Like, for example, in the first category, ‘Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity’ I barely match anything, but I am constantly hyper-aware of it because I know I’ll slip into it when I don’t pay enough attention, and it gave me something I described for years as ‘social anxiety.’ Like… it did cause me anxiety, but there was a cause for it. That counts too, since it’s a form of masking.

Yes! Like, I don’t do the eye contact thing. Well.. I’ve done it when I’m walking past people and don’t want to open up a conversation or anything XD not sure that counts lol

Lolll I think everyone does it then, but eye-contact genuinely doesn’t make or break a diagnosis, contrary to popular belief. My also autistic brother makes eye contact without any issue, like many others, so it’s hardly a hard and fast rule.

An autism trait I’ve always missed completely was ‘inability to play imaginatively’. Even when I was little I’d make up incredibly intricate and extensive stories while playing, and apparently autistic people can’t do that? Again, it’s a spectrum.

I’ve never written an Autistic character before. However, there’s one character I haven’t written yet and I just found out a lot of stuff I was toying with for her is Autism symptoms

Honestly, I can’t encourage you enough to do it if you feel like it XD It could definitely be super interesting to write!