Published on 12, July, 2020
What "autistic" things do you find yourselves doing? I do a lot of different things which I know a neurotypical wouldn't think twice about.
One of them is making sure everything in my house is straight, so the chairs, my books and DVDs on the shelf, pictures hanging on the wall and plenty more than that.
Recently I was doing up an MG Maestro and had noticed the offside headlight wasn't seated properly and was facing a little to the side. This bothered me so much, playing at the back of my mind until finally I went out and straightened it because I couldn't cope with it not being right.
I feel like I was actually approaching a meltdown, that's how much this sort of thing bothers me.
Am I alone in being this way?
I would perceive what you are describing as having a basis of OCD rather than autism
I have both. During my assessment it was noted how I kept everything straight and neat, though I did wonder if I had been misdiagnosed with autism but upon being reassessed in 2018 they determined I do have autism, again. From what I've read and been told by professionals autism and OCD go hand-in-hand, appears you can't really have one without the other for many.
When I lived with my grandmother in Bradford I would hang my laundry out on the line in the backyard. It seemed fine to me but she'd always go out afterwards and re-peg it all. When I asked her about it she'd say 'I couldn't stand seeing it like that, what would the neighbours says?!'. I think they'd actually say (or think) very little/nothing about it, in reality
Ditto my Nan.
Allyboo. You've reminded me of my late mother, she was constantly worried about what the neighbours said and thought... and always telling me. It was really VERY important to her.
Ben
Yes, although I think it's still a bit too raw / close to home for me so far, so is painful etc. As time goes on I hope it will be less so and more of the fascinating and even humourous (laughing with not at)
That's really positive and good to hear. I've been noticing the same. It's fascinating really.
Yes, I'm noticing (like an avalanche) traits and so on in myself+family history which make more sense to me now, especially since I started exploring autism more this year.
That's interesting, I wonder if my grandmother did that? I saw plenty of autistic traits in my mother, I didn't notice at the time but looking back I can see them more clearly and am more positive than ever that she had autism. My mother would make all the beds and she would repeat this action throughout the day and she would tap her index finger on her cup, which to me was a stim.