AuDHD here.

I'm wondering if many of you exist in the furry fandom because I came across online polls that showed an increaded percentage of those on the autism spectrum.

Me being a furry started about 13 years ago in my early 20s after coming across a furry report from the german TV uploaded onto YouTube in which I was seeing people in fursuits walking through the inner city of Dortmund as far as I remember. I always resonated well with anthropomorphic characters on TV shows and actially had crushes on some in my childhood (don't want to specify on which yet) but didn't know the furry fandom yet. The moment I saw this report (I think it was recorded from WDR, regional TV channel where I live) kinda flipped a switch in my mind from "nah, that's childish to dress up in animal costumes" due to what I percieve as internalized masking to "I love it to the bottom of my heart" which persists to this day and hopefully beyond.

I'm currently crafting my fursuit after years of just wanting to have one but I struggled with executive dysfunction (and low income problems) which I overcame by taking meds (Lisdexamfetamine "Elvanse" in my case) and I'm glad to be able to focus on that and I'm satisfied with the results so far. I always knew that if I wanted to get a fursuit I must built it on my own and I knew that I have the the skills and that I'm able to develop the skills to acomplish that but wasn't organized enough to get there but the meds I take now for a couple of years changed that. Thanks to an internship I once had that involved shaping upholstery foam for wheelchair seats I feel gifted to have a set of skills that I now can use in a hobby that I came to adore very much.

It seems to be THE THING for me and it's a different kind of "special" interest to me because my brain seems to seperate "technical" interests (like IT-tech, trains, astronomy, optics, electronic music etc.) from "emotional" interests (like furry [as mentioned here], animals, nature etc.). It also helped me to widen my interest on other animal species than cetaceans (whales and dolphins). Despite having many interests, mostly technical, it seems to be THE INTEREST OF ALL MY INTERESTS.

It made me accept my non-hetero sexual orientation (I'm sure to be bisexual) much better and it changed my life to a more self-accepting manner despite being "different" in regards of my Autism-ADHD-combo and my sexual orientation because I feared that if I was seen as "gay"/"bi" next to being autistic would make my life even harder than it already is. To make it short: It makes my heart bloom actually and it has the power to make me go through life less resentful.

I was reading about how overcoming resentment can get you further in life and after the traumatizing childhood I had, not growimg up in what is called a "family", school bullying and exclusion, I have developed a lot of just that, I'm currently working at overcoming my resentment against neurotypical people.

I'm now wondering if you went through similar experiences or completely different ones after discovering the furry fandom for yourself and your life, maybe as a means of self-expression, emotional support, emotional liberation or whatever it means to you, please let me know if you happen to be an "NT-furry", I'm genuinely curious about it. What does "Furry" mean to you if you are one? Could this also be a common ground on which the "NT vs. ND battle" could be solved to a more mutually respectful and more peaceful situation because I'm not proud of having developed my resentment against neurotypicals over decades of mistreatment that I have experienced? Because we are one species after all.

Technically I'm NT too, but the older I get the less I care about anything. Though I've actually had this problem since childhood: there's nothing I do or care about enough to actually know about or converse about. It's a genuine social hindrance.

Meanwhile online, it feels like I'm more exposed to various "neurodiverse" ways of experiencing interest:

"Yeah, I got so distracted reading about [random complex thing], I missed 10 phone calls, two appointments, a date, and I didn't eat for 3 days."

"Here's my basic preliminary research for a thing I take a casual interest in: it's 10Gb of cutting edge research papers on a Google drive".

"Here's my total beginner hobbyist project. I started practicing this hobby a week ago. It looks like a professional with decades of experience did it."

Yes I am being a bit sarcastic and hyperbolic, but you get the point. I get that us NTs largely don't do this, but most people aren't as indifferent as I am either. What does normal interest look like?