Given birth? Battled through school? Fought for yourself or someone else? All women have been warriors, tell us how you have below!
Given birth? Battled through school? Fought for yourself or someone else? All women have been warriors, tell us how you have below!
I was diagnosed as neurodiverse a few years ago. When I was young I battled an entire school system that wasn’t designed for me. I had no help, no support and it was awful but given the circumstances I did great! I now often point out to people when they’re showing symptoms of it because it’s so easy to miss.
I’m vulnerable, and I’ve been targeted for bullying a few times. It’s rough and awful but I always get through it.
Any advice for someone questioning whether they are neurotypical or not? I’ve been reading the book Is This Autism? by Donna Henderson, but I still feel there is a lot of ambiguity. I consistently score high enough on the intake questionnaires for diagnosis, and have similar scores to autistic populations, but … I just don’t know. I’m not even sure I would trust an expert if they diagnosed me, though - I feel there is so much room for misinterpretation.
EDIT: Oh, and I meant to add, I’m sorry to hear about your experiences - I would tend to agree you’re a good egg and have done great, so glad you’re here with us and for your perspective and influence 💕 It sounds like you’re a tough cookie, too!
Great question! If you’re questioning it, you’re likely to be autistic. There is room for interpretation, although at the same time there’s lots of small traits that don’t hit the books. When I googled my condition I found a long list of traits and my jaw dropped cos it was me on a page, although people can have a hodge podge of traits and to varying degrees.
I’d say it’s always worth getting an assessment because there’s lots of small things that could make your life far easier. Things like coloured backgrounds, software, tinted glasses can hugely benefit you. It’s hard getting a diagnosis as an adult though.
And thanks that’s very kind ❤️
I think I get stuck with not knowing exactly what is meant by a lot of things, for example a key autistic trait is needing routine and getting upset with breaks in that routine. I sorta hate routine - I don’t like doing the same thing every day, I dread the work week partially because of its routine meetings, etc. I prefer to flit from thing to thing, it sometimes seems almost like a minor ADHD trait, to be honest.
But I have read that “routine” can be interpreted different ways - like, ordering the same meal at a restaurant every time can be considered “routine”, and when I think about that pretty much my whole life I find one dish that I then order every time I go to that restaurant. It’s rare that I order anything but that same dish every time. I wouldn’t be terribly upset if that dish weren’t there, but it would be disorienting.
I also tend to have a kind of rigidity and almost “OCD” like set of behaviors. I get bothered by small things and I am sometimes seen as perfectionistic, highly detail oriented, and compulsive. When I read about OCD it doesn’t seem to describe me that well, but I certainly have some kind of OCD like behaviors. Some of this OCD behavior sometimes come across as getting upset when routine is broken, so I just can’t make sense of any of it.
It sometimes feels like meaning breaks down when interpretation gives room to classify any set of behaviors any way you want - you could say I have OCD, or PTSD, or autism … all from the same behavior. But I doubt the accuracy, then.
Also, I really can’t consider diagnosis - the government is currently targeting autistic individuals. Anti-trans politicians have used the comorbidity of gender dysphoria and autism as a way to deny that autistic individuals genuinely experience gender dysphoria, claiming they are being taken advantage of and groomed - one state even issued an emergency order that would deny gender affirming care to minors and adults who have autism or other mental health issues.
So having an autism diagnosis would be a liability for me, and I don’t know that it would really change anything for me.
However, I was wondering what you meant about colored backgrounds and other accommodations - I have been wondering if I were autistic, what would I do differently? I already have blue-light filters on my glasses and use a blue-light filter on my computers, and I often keep my computer screens dimly lit because I’m so photo-sensitive.
I’ve never figured out how to live comfortably with someone else in terms of lighting, overhead lights in my house really bother me, and my partner unfortunately seems to need much more light than me to see well, so I feel like I’m always being tortured under these bright lights. But wearing shades all the time seems like a non-starter 🤔 Maybe this is what you meant by tinted glasses, something between?
Thanks for your help! 💕
Yep I get it. Everyone had different traits, personal quirks and habits. It’s not all the condition some is how we were raised, our experiences and so on. Autism is so often seen as negative and with any condition people tend to make negative assumptions. It’s not a nice feeling.
I can get sensory overload so I have shades sometimes. It’s not always, it’s just sometimes. I also have hue bulbs so I can have warmer coloured lights etc which really helps.