4 ms·
I very much experience all of those things you mentioned, especially the masking and hearing hypersensitivity, but I guess I thought these were "normal" experie
by _yb2s 4y ago
I very much experience all of those things you mentioned, especially the masking and hearing hypersensitivity, but I guess I thought these were "normal" experiences... or more accurately, I never considered that not everyone might not experience life like that. Doesn't everyone get really bothered by noises sometimes? Isn't everyone putting out a lot of effort to interact with others well? I don't know. I am regarded as friendly, and having good social skills, but that took tons of practice and study. For example, people mention that I make great eye contact, am confident, and a good listener. But I never made eye contact with others until I was 15, when I read about the importance of it in a book, and suddenly realized it was a thing other people did. I started trying it out, but find it hard to guess how much is appropriate... and doing it too much apparently seems like I'm very confident, but actually I just don't know what to do exactly.
I'm late 30s, and my son was recently diagnosed with autism after having a lot of conflicts at school, and getting kicked out of a lot of schools. I didn't expect this because he seems "normal" to me.
Any advice on next steps? Is it worth learning more about this or doing anything about it, and if so, what?
- isodude 4y agoIn a word, yes! Here's some links for you. Maybe there's schools around where you live that have a more student centric way of teaching. Smalls schools may fare better than larger ones etc. I find that talking a lot about things that happen with friends etc help, why are people so wierd and so on. Like you said yourself, it wasn't until you read it in a book.. + https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_arousal_approach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_arousal_approach + https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3ABo+Hejlskov+Elv%C3%A9n&s=relevancerank&text=Bo+Hejlskov+Elv%C3%A9n&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1 https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3ABo+Hejlskov+...
- _yb2s 4y agoThank you, I ordered some of the books you linked!
- isodude 4y agoNice! I have more links but those will have you reading for a bit :) Also, do not forget that there are loads of people both online and offline that are able to help. Connect with other parents in neighborhood that have the same situation, the office that diagnosed your son should be able to help, there tend to be groups that you can join, and "educations".
- glacials 4y agoI am not a doctor. I am not trained in these things. But from the experiences you've stated, I am 99% confident you are autistic. I highly suggest checking in with a mental health professional (I suggest one that has experience with autism, as otherwise you may get one who doesn't acknowledge its modern definitions) and/or going down the autism rabbit hole online to continue to see if your experiences align with other folks with autism. /r/AutisticAdults is a great place to start. I am also happy to chat privately, email in bio.