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Autism is not a superpower but the frequently associated hyperlexia sure is! https://twitter.com/natepyle79/status/1355992684989739008
Unfortunately it also made me so good at masking (while doing nothing for the anxiety and sensory issues) that I didn’t get to join the party until I was 38! But, yeah, it’s the great gift of my life.
I have explained this before, and hyperlexia varies hugely by individual, but I see short paragraphs instead of single words and they go “schloop” into my brain from my eyes & my brain absorbs them and then you wind up reading the Silmarillion when you are 6 & are Bad at Parties.
I also had teachers be like “you are not reading correctly, your eyes are not moving right” but joke’s on them, I have time to read a lot of objectively terrible books most people cannot waste their energy on and it helps me relax.
Anyway, if you are feeling overly seen by this thread you might have hyperlexia, you might have hyperlexia AND be autistic, if you were AFAB and got good grades you may take a *much* longer time to figure any of this stuff out, I’m cheering for you.
Also: autism and ADHD are so closely related, many of my friends got late autism or inattentive-type ADHD dx’s and we tend to find each other like weird cool neurodivergent homing pigeons.
“I Used Up All My Executive Functioning Skills Getting To College And I Don’t Even Have a Cool T-Shirt”
“A Doctor Finally Explained I Have Clinical Fine Motor Deficits And That’s Why I Cannot Knit And Feel Left Out”
Speaking of the Silmarillion, we’re getting Sansa a baby brother late spring and his name will be Beren.
I’ll deactivate in a lil bit, will leave this thread up for a while bc hyperlexia is rad as hell and knowing new things about your brain is good.
I’ll deactivate in a lil bit, will leave this thread up for a while bc hyperlexia is rad as hell and knowing new things about your brain is good.
Oh, last thing, if you want an Easier Time getting an adult autism dx, invent and build a time machine and tell your parents to write down when you hit various milestones bc they absolutely will not remember and the doctor will be mad at you?
Steve’s mom is dead & when he said “Dad, I know I talked late, how old was I? 2? 3? 4?” his dad helpfully said “something like that, yeah.”
Steve’s first WORD(S) were “The neighbor has a good dog. I like him” and when we told the doctors that they were like...y’all are autistic.
Steve’s first WORD(S) were “The neighbor has a good dog. I like him” and when we told the doctors that they were like...y’all are autistic.
Really the last thing: if you are not white, what I said about girls getting under-diagnosed goes a billion times harder for you, and kids of color usually have “major behavioral problems” in their charts instead of “autistic meltdowns” and it fucking sucks and I’m sorry.
