A List of All the Things That Normal People Can Just Do But Are Now Behaviors Because I’m Autistic

So many things on this list that I do.

When I was younger, I was quirky. I didn’t have a diagnosis then, and nobody noticed the myriad of small ways that I managed my sensory world, or if they did they just thought “yeah, she’s a kid, she’s particular and picky.” But then I became and adult and those quirks didn’t go away. I continued to do kiddish things because they felt nice on a sensory level.

And then I got a diagnosis of autism, and I knew that if that had been around for all of my childhood, those quirks wouldn’t have been quirks. They would have been behaviors. There would have been an explicit program introduced into my life to extinguish them. When I was “normal” they were fine, but now that I’m autistic they are signs of my difference, and when you’re disabled every sign of difference needs to disappear. That’s how you survive in the…

View original post 572 more words