Neurodiversity support thread for women with suspected, diagnosed or self-diagnosed autism, ADHD and other NDs #18

[PolterThreadStarter]

As usual, latest support thread.

Welcome

That's beautiful writing ratty but takes too much effort to read for me!

This is what everyone says - "That's beautiful… what does it say?" 😂😂😂 I find it really easy to read, when it's neat… it's a super-standard ordinary 20th century British handwriting style, slightly modified (e.g. I changed the capital G a bit, dropping the loop down below the line, to make it easier for a modern eye to understand). If I want it people to be able to easily read it I seem to have to print rather than write joined-up writing - but I can't fully concentrate on what I'm writing if I do that, at least not well enough for an exam.

Copying not coooking. My typing seems to be just as bad as my writing.

No name, MrsN, just a shop name IIRC. Don't remember exactly what it says.

This is going to sound weird but there's a real beauty in your third paragraph, rio.

Except for cheap pens and pencils, that have intermittent squeakiness and juddering that send shivers down my spine (quite literally; I feel sick and get cold shudders all up and down me, like I do if I think about wet wood ), I enjoy the different subs that different writing implements make. Unless I'm in a room with 50 other people who are also writing

*different sounds

I think I might try those Pentel Wow ones, thanks for mentioning them :) I always avoided triangular barrels, or any kind of "ergonomic" pen like those weird Stabilo Easy ones (used to be called S Move I think?), because my "wrong" grip meant I couldn't hold them, but I guess I could try them now!

My english teacher used to complain my hand writing was "like a drunk spider trying to throw itself off the page" I never write anything anyone else reads now though, everything I do is typing, so only I have to interpret my chicken scrawl now!

On the cool stationary, we have blackboard paint and whiteboards all over our house to remind us of things and we got some cool liquid chalk markers the other day that came in so many colours, gold chalk!

I'm normally incredibly sound sensitive but pens don't really both me too much, apart from and not so much sound but I feel it, you know the pointy end of the pencil, where the wood isnt polished its like raw? the bit you stick in the pencil sharpener, that is the worst thing to touch!!

I like a pen that's quiet. Most I can feel the scratchiness of them, I don't know it's weird. I'm so glad I never had to sit in a room with that many people writing, lucky me always had my own room.

Can't say I've heard that before, slitghy baffled by how there is a beauty to it lol. If I didn't know what I'd written I'd be wondering what I had writtten.

I love that description bubbles.

I never said it was legible 😂 I think it's because it looks kind of like random squiggles, but there's clearly an organising principle or something behind it, which means it's got a kind of intriguing mystery about it. This sounds like such pretentious babble but ykwim!

rio, are you dyspraxic? I forget which people have which various neurodivergences on this thread sometimes

Ahh right I get you. I think my comment on its legible ness was meant to be me saying it's quite ugly lol.

I don't think so, I'm clumsy but not excessively so and my fine motor skills are pretty good. I suspect more dysgraphia and dyslexia but I've kind of givens up on identifying stuff lol.

Lots of things have many different kinds of beauty that people don't see…

That's probably not much use to you if you suddenly find you're sitting an unexpected exam and have to write by hand, though

I imagine if I'd been diagnosed as a kid these days I'd be 'ASD, dyslexia ad dyspraxic tendencies'. People who see my handwriting are surprised I'm a nurse, should really have been a doctor! I'm pretty good at reading docs' handwriting though, comes from years of deciphering my own!

I like gel pens because they glide and aren't scratchy.

Its exceptionally unlikely so I'm willing to risk it lol. I'm diagnosed autistic so that kind of covers most things, I was always offered laptop etc etc, not that I always took it though lol. I feel sorry for whoever had to mark my exams, though they did pass them so can't have been too bad.

Thank the various gods we have alternatives to writing by hand

Funny isn't it, I find gel pens very scratchy! I guess angle makes a difference, I always feel they're catching on the paper.

I think I probably have at the very least sub-clinical traits of OCD, ADHD and dyspraxia. I don't know if it's worth pursuing assessments...

My only diagnoses are ASD and bipolar disorder, but TBH I fit a hell of a lot of the criteria for ADHD, and when it comes to coordination, let's just say I'm currently nursing a bruised arse from falling over backwards over a stool in a pub beer garden and landing flat on my back yesterday, and bruised knees and elbows from tripping over forwards in the kitchen and landing flat on my front a couple of hours ago.

Ouch auti! That sounds sore!

I definitely have attention issues too. Can hyper-focus or be very distractible. I don't feel the need to be diagnosed with anything else at present...I feel like between the Dyslexia and the ASD most needs get supported. I needed to know about the ASD, it explained so much, it's helped to know. I feel other elements are either related to or part of the ASD and that's enough for me.

I find mechanical clicky pencils irritating, if you press just a bit too hard then the lead snaps. I tend to use black biros. I really like Oxford Campus Notebooks, where the paper is 90gsm, so ink doesn't show through. I do like black gel pens as well. I used to use blue fountain pens but gave those up after a couple of years.
My writing varies depending on the pen. Eg this (first photo) is gel pen on 90gsm. (Was doing a bit of HP fan fiction). Second is biro on the 90gsm. It's slightly bigger and rounder writing. (This is a story I was writing about a school trip).
Writing also depends on the thickness of the nib. If a gel pen's thickness is actually quite thin the writing tends to be smaller, etc.

Sorry didn't include second photo

Tofffee your writing is very very neat and lovely. And Harry Potter 😀

I like the oxfords campus ones too, such lovely soft paper lol.

Especially in the first pic you gave, your handwriting looks quite like the type taught in French schools.

I've never used Oxford Campus. The Notemakers I use are 90gsm too, but I'd describe them more as smooth than soft. Which does cause some problems with certain kinds of inks, as they can sometimes just sit on the surface rather than absorbing.

And even though the ink doesn't usually show through, I only like to write on one side of the paper. I will occasionally flip the book and work through it the other way if I have to.