Neurodiversity thread - for all MNetters who are neurodiverse - ASD, ADHD, Dyspraxia and more.

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Welcome one and all to the new thread. A safe haven for MNetters who identify as neurodiverse, diagnosis or not, and those waiting for assessment. Links available in recent threads. Newbies welcome. We just ask that you introduce yourself

I was a very easy child, and didn't go through a teenage rebellious stage until I was 24, briefly, and got a tattoo.
I was so dull and passive!

private crying

I never cried in public at least not once I was 5 or so; people assumed I didn't cry. Did it at night in bed at the thought of having to go to school again It fucking sucks, doesn't it?

I stopped crying in front of people because it was always my fault - for being fat and not making an effort to lose weight, for not trying to fit in better. It was easier to let it out alone.
Dh is lovely now when I cry (seems to be a stage of meltdown for me), and just cuddles and doesn't talk.

I've rediscovered chewing (in quite a big way), and I'm finding that if I chew loads during the day my physical anxiety symptoms all but disappear, and I don't eat as much. I chewed a lot as a child, and sucked my thumb, but it was discouraged (I chewed my bed to pieces ), so I ate food, lots of it. Is this a typical sensory thing?

See, I did fine at school academically. I was "good" and generally got on well with the teachers. It was the social side that was hell, with all the bitchiness and shifting friendships and inexplicable rules and pointless fashions...

Tomorrow is going to be interesting. There's the boys' swimming lessons, which is a sensory assault on so many levels, followed by the school Christmas fair, ditto, with added socialising. Not sure how well any of us will cope, but we can buy cake and leave promptly if necessary.

blue I think the only reason I wasn't kicked out of school was because I got good results when it came to exams. I got on woth some of the teachers. To an extent.
As for other kids. In high school there was a group of people I thought were my friends. My mum would get so frustrated trying to explain they weren't my friends and we're just using me to laugh at/bully/take the blame. I didn't see it until it had been going on for years. And every time they fell pit woth me and apologised I honestly thought they were sorry.

I cry. A lot in private. I have cried myself to sleep more than I can count.

Polter, it may be typical, but it feels bloody miraculous at the moment!
I'm feeling a bit evangelical about it now, and want to tell everyone to chew things!

Cloud I was (and am) very very compliant. I know the exact time, location and context of the last few times I cried in front of someone else, they date back to primary school, because there are so few times.

Maybe I'll try the chewing thing.

I feel I could do with a chew toy. ..
I like biting. It may also help me to stop eating so bloody much.

high school. After 20 years I can still barely talk about it. So compliant academically, but it was a total nightmare socially.

But knowing I might be asd is really helping me come to terms with what went on.

In the last few weeks I've been low carbing, but it's been so much easier since I've been chewing, as I'm not craving food when I'm stressed (which is most of the time). I've ordered two more things from, and I feel fully justified as I'm a nicer person to be around if I'm not stressed and anxious.
It might be worth a go HRF

What did you get Polter?

Socially at school I was dreadful, hung around with the other "losers", occasionally forced to parties with my twin, which were horrendous.

Just spotted a cloud pendant on the stimtastic site, having already placed an order with chewigem!
Will have to earmark it as a birthday present I think.

I was very "good" at school, if by good you mean compliant, invisible and trying not to speak in class. I struggled socially but found my other "saddos" who were wonderful. I achieved really well academically but used to kneel on my bedroom window-sill thinking about throwing myself out..... from eight years old, which I would now recognise as Probably Not Normal For Children.

I'm thinking of registering a domain name for a blog and DP has just helpfully told me that twitchingautist.com is available

Tempted to do it just so I can link to it on here and have the MN censors go into overdrive

Also very good at school. I liked the nice structured system, where you could be invisible, and be rewarded according to a marking scheme that made sense. However, it would have been nice if school had picked up on my shocking home life, and done anything at all to support me in my final year - anorexia, depression, and suicidal ideation, all very obvious. My marks tumbled, my final oral presentation elaborated on methods of suicide throughout history, and all I ever got was a detention for not showing up to an extramural I'd forgotten about. The rewards of being a Perfect Schoolgirl, hey.

I could have written your post Rosalie. Except it was bulimia, not anorexia. I was desperate for someone to notice how god awful I felt, but I had no idea how to get any attention after spending all of secondary school actively trying to be invisible, let alone any help. My marks suffered as well and I was hoping a teacher would pick up on that at least, but as they were still well above average, no one ever said anything and when I did they gave me skeptical looks and told me not to be silly/not to complain.

On correcting people (I missed that bit earlier) I am dreadful for it

I interrupt complete strangers if they're wondering about something and I know the answer. Or even if I think I know the answer. Which is possibly helpful if they're looking at the tube map wondering where Leicester Square is, but I butted in on a stranger's conversation this morning just because they were musing and I knew the answer. It turned out they were just "making conversation" and didn't actually care about what the answer is, how strange is that

Being an insufferable know-it-all is not one of my finer traits and it definitely doesn't combine well with my general lack of social grace.

I'm terrible for correcting people. And butting in with my amazing knowledge.

I've dealt with the urge to correct people by becoming an editor . It's still hard to restrain myself when I'm not at work though (we won't talk about that time I bought chalk and went back to correct the greengrocer's sandwich board).

autisticrat have I been reading your name incorrectly? I thought it was a portmanteau of "autistic" and "aristocrat"!

I'd love it if my kids were like me. I was quiet and off in my own world most of the time. Didn't like school but loved schoolwork. Just my luck to have got an extroverted, touchy-feely mother. I actually coped better at high school than primary because I found "my crowd" - mostly boys who were probably on the spectrum, and a few very accepting extroverts.

Don't worry, you're not the first person to ask, winged… I chose it because of its ambiguity I'm both AutisticRat (because I really, really, really like rats, as others on this thread would probably confirm) and Autisticrat (because one day we will rule the world ). That's why I chose not to use CamelCase.

I have a thing for wordplay. It's what comes of being from a family where the plural of a popular breakfast biscuit is Weetabices.

What's the plural of Elvis? As in there were loads of elvis's/elvis'/Elvi at the Elvis lookalike competition?

Ok the apostrophes do t work in my example - I wasn't submitting them for serious consideration. I'm on a train and there's a buzzy door which is causing me issues.