Call me Gale or GW!
(Hi! First post! I am autistic [technically the diagnosis was Asperger's, but terminology moves on] and I've been on the site for about a decade, though I only made an account in the last year.)
When I get excited, I can't help but squeak and sort of spasm my hands, usually up by my face. If the joy goes on past that, I might start pulling on the tip of my nose to show I'm happy.
Other things I do to stim when I'm in a good mood is to pet my arms or place my thumb over my middle or ring finger and press them together (I like the pressure).
Edited by Gravity-Warrior on Dec 28th 2023 at 7:18:20 PM
My two loves, pop culture and birds
janet likes her new icon.
Stark Holmes
I don’t really talk about it because I worry I’ll be defined by it, but yeah. I’m already crazy from the get-go, but it made a lot of sense when I first found out.
Discombobulate.
Has a spear
New aspie troper here. Hello.
Local waddle dee.
the look of someone who just had suspension
How do you do, fellow autists?
I've been diagnosed as "autistic" at an age of 2. It's relatively mild (possibly just Asperger), but for the longest time I was stigmatized for it before I moved out about 2 years ago. (Glad I moved out of that little shithole.)
22 years later and I still have an hard time accepting my own neural wirings, but at least I got a talent in English and an ability to learn by observation out of it, which I intend to abuse.
![[down]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_down.png "[down]"){kind=icon}
A crumbling little rural town in Yamaguchi (I can't even bring myself to remember the name without willing myself not to vomit) my mother and I moved into when I was a baby for family reasons: it was full of backwards, ignorant yokels and self-serving pieces of shit who treated me and my family like I was (at best) nothing more than a thing that needs to be babysat, or (at worst) a flat-out drain of resources that shouldn't have been born. There's literally no happy memory I have in there: I hated it there so much, I can't think of enough rotten things to say about it.
Edited by Cordite-455 on Feb 22nd 2024 at 12:35:52 AM
i did a bad thing / i regret the thing i did / and you're wondering what it is / tell you what i did / i did a bad thing
a collection of small trees
Glad you moved out of that shithole? What's the shithole you moved out of?
Welcome! There are a couple cool Discord servers you might like. One is called the Autistic Gaming Initiative, which despite its name, is really more of a general server with an autistic userbase, than it is about gaming (which is just part of it). It's pretty active and very relaxed, and might be a great place to hang out and meet other autistic people and chat about stuff.
I'm up for joining Discord servers! PM me if you know any good ones!
Oh, hey, glad to see others around! This got super rambly so I've shoved it into a folder, but here's my own experiences.
I went through school with nobody thinking I was autistic despite having an official diagnosis. Ended up dropping out in my final year of high school because the education system wouldn't be flexible (what a surprise!) and I wasn't coping with going to school full-time (which I was expected to do, despite, you know, the autism, and various physical health issues).
At least my parents take me seriously. Although my mother sometimes doesn't entirely get me, she'll put up with my nonsense, and knows that I'll never be able to live on my own. Which is a good thing, because hooo boy I'm very lucky I can still live at home.
Anyway, my autism led me to discovering anime/manga and self-learning Japanese from the age of 12/13 and I've never looked back. I like to think I'm semi-fluent in Japanese by now (it's been 18 years!) and the Japanese people I talk to on social media seem to understand me, so I've got that going for me, I guess.
Can't count for shit though. I put all of my character skill into Language and my Arithmetic level is still 0.
What makes my case frustrating as well, for me, is that I have a genetic syndrome (basically a whole bunch of shit wrong with me that's due to a tiny part of my DNA not existing) which means it's not like it's Pure Autism (which is bad enough to deal with on its own, I'm sure). It's autism with a very odd setup and lots of comorbid issues. I don't want to go into details because the syndrome itself isn't talked about that often (despite it being relatively common), but essentially, my brain has no idea what it's doing on a fundamental level at times. Also, chronic depression (for 100000 reasons) does not help. Neither do ongoing physical health issues.
But in all seriousness, it's really annoying knowing how your brain should operate, but not being in control of it. I don't mandate what I like or how I feel about things. My brain just goes "You like Pokémon Horizons: The Series now and you'll be obnoxious about it until I tell you you've had enough of the show" and I have yet to find out a way to fight it.
So, uh, does anyone else tend to talk about their brain as a separate... thing? Especially the parts of it you have no say in? Like, it's not that I'm stubborn, it's that my brain is stubborn. Since I can't control most of it, it's like it's not entirely "me", somehow? I can't explain it well and I doubt this makes any sense, lol. Brains are weird I guess.
Edited by Zazie122 on Feb 22nd 2024 at 7:29:35 AM
Avatar: Amethio (Pokemon Horizons)
a collection of small trees
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Education systems in general aren't flexible. Schools are built around the assumption that all people think the same way, but some are just slower or whatever. Not different learning styles or even different motivations.
It's very hard to get people to change a system. Systems are built around what appears to work, or work for most people, and the outliers who don't fit into the system? That's a problem of course, but changing the system to work with them is a lot of effort that people don't want to take.
It's messed up and I don't know what the solution is. I'm glad your parents take your autism seriously at least.
Rural areas are usually the worst! Lack of exposure to a variety of people often results in unintelligent, prejudiced people.
Nostalgia is such a strong emotion that even people whose pasts sucked often have at least some nostalgia for it, even if it's basically their brain lying to them about how "great" and "simple" things were back then. To have zero nostalgia for your past, holy shit. How's your new area like?
I'm up for joining Discord servers! PM me if you know any good ones!
Oh, indeed. I know it's the kind of system that's hopeless for anyone who's even remotely different — and I'm sure it's the same worldwide. I can only speak on my own country's education system, but it wasn't kind to me, to say the least.
I don't think there is an answer (at least not realistically) for making the education system equally benefit everyone, especially when money is involved with education funding (if education is a right — which it is — why the hell is it limited by money? Those who require assistance in ANY WAY should be given it so that they can access the education they're entitled to... but alas, capitalism), and 99% of teachers know absolutely nothing about autism and other mental health conditions.
I understand that autism is a spectrum and it's hard to grasp some of it (shit, it doesn't make sense to me a lot of the time!) but in my experience a lot of teachers don't even try. Thankfully I never got outright punished for anything (somehow lol, I talked back to teachers whenever I thought they were being unfair to my classmates), but nobody was willing to adapt to my needs, either.
I feel like mass education is something that only works for certain people. I don't think we should get rid of it, but I also don't think it can ever be perfect.
Anyway, sometimes I think I'm not that autistic and then I interact with ~normal~ (sorry, I hate the terms "neurotypical" and "neurodivergent" for reasons I can't explain), I realise that oh. Yeah. I'm different to them.
Edited by Zazie122 on Feb 23rd 2024 at 6:31:02 AM
Avatar: Amethio (Pokemon Horizons)
Half-Kitsune
I'm high-functioning, diagnosed when I was 3. Unfortunately I'm not the kind of autistic where I'd be a super-genius, I'm the opposite. 
I am autistic. Part of the reason I'm on TV tropes on the first place is studying things I hyperfixate on, which I tend to cycle through. Right now it's Professional Wrestling and Bojack Horseman, while BIONICLE, Ancient Egypt, Steven Universe, and Pokémon are kinda always there.
Edited by datadoggieein on Feb 26th 2024 at 3:40:51 AM
Half-Kitsune
Right now my interest is in Asian culture, primarily Japan (even though I'll never get to visit because it's too expensive and I still haven't understood the language even with Duolingo)
If you play with fire, you're gonna get burned.
I currently hyperfixate on Kaiten Mutenmaru. I even wrote a detailed summary of the primary antagonist of season 2
.
Rookie Trope Repairer
Mood on the expensive front. If I ever were to go, it would probably be more cost-effective for it to be a family trip — my brother has expressed an interest in going, too. Oh well, there's always YouTube.
Anyway, first post! Diagnosed at an early age but wasn't told until I was 12. In hindsight, the astrology obsession I had when I was about 9 was most likely a hyperfixation...
"As long as I have my comrades with me, I can do anything!" (She/Her)
The Ruined King
I was diagnosed with adhd when I was… what, 5? and diagnosed with autism when I was only 11, which isn’t that far back from now. I’m somewhat restrained, although I do have a tendency to run around my house. It annoys my dad.
Love ruins all.
Half-Kitsune
Is infodumping random tidbits of information a thing that autistic people do? Because I find myself doing that more often with friends.
If you play with fire, you're gonna get burned.
The Ruined King
I love info dumping too!
Half-Kitsune
I learned that in WarioWare: Twisted!, One of Kat & Ana's microgames (the one based on Jack and the Beanstalk wherein the giant must slap Jack off of the titular beanstalk) in Japan was different, it was based on the Chinese story Journey to the West; the gameplay is the same, just that with Buddha slapping Sun Wukong off the clouds like in the story.
A loyal animal lover
I infodump all the time, too.
One of my stims is making kneading motions with my hands like a cat.
Oh, I believe in yesterday
My mother came up with the theory that if something isn't written or depicted, I assume it doesn't exist. She said this could be the reason I interpret media differently from other people.
But it's not like I can't figure out everything that is not explicitly shown. For example, I figured out that Sick cut off Azoth's legs in Kaiten Mutenmaru because there was a shot of Azoth screaming and Azoth's reappearance had him with metallic legs.
Does anyone else on this thread have similar issues?
Half-Kitsune
I tend to "mask" myself whenever I go out in public. You know, hide all my stims and quirks and everything to make myself appear "normal".
If you play with fire, you're gonna get burned.
The Ruined King
No offense, but I never understood doing that. I’ve always just been myself, spacing out at random times, fidgeting, running around (my dad hates the last part).
a collection of small trees
Some people get very mistreated if they don't mask. For them, it's a matter of survival. It sucks, but there are many allistics who whine about anything that doesn't fit their limited definition of "normal."
I'm up for joining Discord servers! PM me if you know any good ones!
I slowly rock from side to side when I'm happy and relaxed. Something I've noticed quite a few neurodivergent people do - my friend at work (autistic) does it, as does my sister (dyspraxic), as does my ex-gf (also dyspraxic).
We all die. The goal isn't to live forever. The goal is to create something that will.