Monotropism Questionnaire

I got 201/235 after hearing about the questionnaire through tiktok. I'm what you would call a self-diagnosed autistic as of about the beginning of last year (I don't think many people in my life know since a few of the people I talked about it with fully disagreed based on their lack of knowledge and updated findings). Very exciting to see this kind of thing published!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and score!

NAS88136 said:

Very exciting to see this kind of thing published!

Exactly! Do you find the theory of monotropism relatable to your autistic experiences?

NAS88136 said:

I'm what you would call a self-diagnosed autistic as of about the beginning of last year (I don't think many people in my life know since a few of the people I talked about it with fully disagreed based on their lack of knowledge and updated findings

I self identify too, I have been on the waiting list for formal identification for 2 years and 4 months but I don’t think I want to pursue it anymore because I think the whole process will be pathologising and currently I am very proud and positive about my autistic identity.

I am sorry that when you tried to disclose, other people disagreed. You know yourself best and you deserve to be accepted and understood as an openly autistic person. You must have felt invalidated. I completely understand why you are therefore hesitant to disclose your autistic identity to more people.

This video below might help you when deciding who to disclose to:

Disclosing your autistic identity;

https://youtu.be/Sq82fb7NROY

I hope you feel accepted in this autistic community! We are here for you!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and score!

NAS88136 said:

Very exciting to see this kind of thing published!

Exactly! Do you find the theory of monotropism relatable to your autistic experiences?

NAS88136 said:

I'm what you would call a self-diagnosed autistic as of about the beginning of last year (I don't think many people in my life know since a few of the people I talked about it with fully disagreed based on their lack of knowledge and updated findings

I self identify too, I have been on the waiting list for formal identification for 2 years and 4 months but I don’t think I want to pursue it anymore because I think the whole process will be pathologising and currently I am very proud and positive about my autistic identity.

I am sorry that when you tried to disclose, other people disagreed. You know yourself best and you deserve to be accepted and understood as an openly autistic person. You must have felt invalidated. I completely understand why you are therefore hesitant to disclose your autistic identity to more people.

This video below might help you when deciding who to disclose to:

Disclosing your autistic identity;

https://youtu.be/Sq82fb7NROY

I hope you feel accepted in this autistic community! We are here for you!

You are very welcome!

NAS88136 said:

Part of the way I have learned to mask is to force myself to deal with many things and multitask but I much prefer giving my focus fully to one thing at a time.

Do you mean you have forced yourself to appear polytropic?

This often leads to autistic burnout because of what autistic advocate Tanya Adkin describes as monotropic split. The world is not really designed for autistic monotropic neurology because we are often expected to cope with multiple demands for our attention at once when actually it is much more meaningful and natural for us to hyper focus.

Monotropic split article:

https://emergentdivergence.com/2022/07/14/guest-post-what-is-monotropic-split/

I much prefer to hyper focus too, particularly on the topics of autistic experience, our autistic culture and neurodiversity. I love it!

What do you like to hyper focus? What are your dedicated interests?

I do find the theory of monotropism relatable to an extent, I think it's better for me to conceptualize it as how easy/difficult it may be to focus or notice things at any one time. Part of the way I have learned to mask is to force myself to deal with many things and multitask but I much prefer giving my focus fully to one thing at a time.

Thank you for your kind words and the link! I will definitely check it out~