If Ever I Needed Evidence that I am Actually Autistic…

…then, crikey, here it is. This was a ‘10 things about me’ list from before I knew I was Autistic, from an early newsletter I sent to readers in 2015. Honestly… The Tism is bleeding obvious if you know what to look for!

The sleep issues (sigh… I’ve been averaging 4.5 hours a night for weeks now ); the panicked rigidity when someone ‘springs’ a suggestion on me; slow processing speed (need time to think things through); not liking surprises but actually being quite accepting of ND behaviour (I didn’t yet know my son was ND but I could clearly see he needed the sensory experiences, which makes me feel good that in some ways I knew how to honour his needs even without any contextual knowledge); being “all too much”; being extremely uncool (i.e. nerd, geek, weirdo, bullied… typical Autistic high school experience); my Taylor Swift special interest; and my panic when plans are changed.

Also, we could add to this the excessive honesty and over sharing nature of this newsletter and also the fact that I am a writer (one of the common artistic expressions for ND female identities), special interest (obsession) with horses and animals, and needing to live in the country because even the suburbs are too much pressure for me.

Folx, I give you Joey’s presentation of The Tism!