For some reason, it just came to mind that, when I was a kid, I hated the way my fingertips felt weird after a nail trim.

I was unable to explain this to anyone in my family in a way that was heard.

#ActuallyAutistic

@naga it still bothers me so my nails get really long before a cut. i feel naked and like its major readjustment

@Gilgamesh Another one is from family trips to grandparents. The kids would often sleep in the living room, and my family just laughed at me when I told them Grandpa stirring his coffee would bother and wake me.

@naga i have so many instances where I expressed how a sight or sound or texture bothered me to the point it was psychically painful and people around me just brushed it off like it was nothing.

I know im autistic but because people are stuck with these unhelpful categories of high and low functioning autistics, people think I can't be because I seem "normal". ye, seem normal but have melted down on the floor crying for 4hrs because of a visual trigger

@Gilgamesh Yep. I'm ridiculously book-smart, so everyone just considered it "eccentricity" and never thought further.

@naga if you don't get a diagnosis as a kids its very hard to get it as an adult. which is my case.

I have a degree in psychology, so my psychiatrist straight up says to me she doesn't think I'm autistic but because I know the criteria for many abnormal psychopathology I'm seeing those autistic traits in myself and basically blowing it out of proportion.

But for example I also know the criteria for different personality disorders and I'm not going around convinced I'm a malignant narcissist or catatonic schizophrenia.

So I've just had to come into my own acceptance.

@Gilgamesh Yeah. I'm self-diagnosed as an adult. Even if I don't meet all diagnostic criteria, the perspective helps me understand things a lot better.

(Also a degree in psychology.)

@naga it also helps me to put into perspective my present and past experiences especially as a child.

well we have quite a bit in common, the psych, autism, polyamory, also a nerd in the traditional and technological sense and dare I say, bdsm.