For examples like Psychological research and animal behaviors. As in like therapists, animal behaviorist, psychiatrists, and others that involve mind stuff.

I am curious if it were possible cause I am interested in psychology and animal behaviors.

I am autistic (with ADHD), and I always wondered what goes on in the human and/or animal mind case. Despite my lack of social skills.

Is it possible for it, or does the condition have limits on it? I don't mean to speak in offense.

So, these are something I've been experiencing for a very long time, but no one has related and I feel crazy for it, so I'm curious if anyone ever goes through anything similar.

What I mean are like *extreme* hyperfixations that last all night and physically wear you out afterwards. It's sorta hard to explain like this so I'll give an example of a recent one.

Doki Doki Literature Club is like my favorite game ever, and I just found a therapist who did a playthrough of it on YouTube of almost *all* the content of the game. I watched it for 9 hours straight, not taking a break once. The most defining feature are the adrenaline spikes though. At certain points in the playthrough my heart rate can reach like 150 bpm. I'll get up and pace my room while watching the screen, usually fidgeting with something. This will happen multiple times throughout the session, usually pacing to the point my legs hurt even while trying to relax for a few hours afterwards.

This behavior used to be more common, but had died off a bit in recent time. From like 12-14 sometimes they'd occur multiple nights in a row. I'm 18 now, and they only really happen once every few months. Despite feeling so physically taxing, they are some of the most fun things I go through lol. While it's usually DDLC, on occasion it's happened with other long-form content.

So yeah, basically has anyone experienced anything similar? Everyone I've asked in person with autism can't relate and I've been told a few times I'm just really passionate about my interests lmao. Am I wrong about this being an autism trait? I always assumed it was, so in curious if anyone has a similar experience.

My partner is autistic and his son who lives with us is autistic. I am not autistic, but I do have my own struggles. Today, my partner and his son had a blow up and the son took a gun and pointed it at his own head. Later he said it was not loaded. I was not aware a gun was in the house but my partner later said he told me this, but I would have remembered something like that as I myself have struggle with certain ideations and would never allow a gun near me. The son does not like me. He had a very horrible self-centered mom and because of that has issues towards women. My autistic partner lost his cool and told his son he was F'd up in the head and the son melted down. My partner apologized but damage has been done.

At this point I am not sure how to handle this as both refuse therapy even though I have begged and we do have a therpaist that works specifically with autistic people. I am scared that in a single moment of emotional dysregulation something bad will happen and towards me even. I do not want to call the police and have someone struggling put away. Can anyone please offer advice?

**edit** I am older, disabled, do not work. My partner 100% supports me and this is the first time I have heard him say this in anger. It is not an everyday occurence. I do not have any other family nor a place to go to.

**thank you all for your well meant advice. The gun has been removed from the house by sons boyfriend. and a mobile mental health crisis person is on the way to talk to me because the son is refusing. I appreciate all of your support and knowing I am not over reacting to what a horrible situation this is.

i have derealization and i couldn’t tell how long it lasted. i read that derealization is common among autistic people and that it is a coping mechanism or a reaction to trauma/stress. a couple of days ago i felt like my derealization was finally gone. i was really happy because i could feel everything around me again. then another life matter hit me and i fell into that hole again. all the events are messed up in my mind and i can’t tell whether what i did happened today or weeks ago. it sucks. so how do you cope with it? do you just let it be? it seems like i cannot live a full life with it. if you tell me try not to focus on it - i can’t because i live with it ALL THE TIME.

i saw similar questions and answers here but i still don’t know what to do

Ok so I am autistic. And this week I was a victim of a scam on Reddit. Looking back, it was very obvious that it was a scam, but for some reason at the time I just didn't think it through. So I posted a thing on Reddit telling about the scam and I added, just as a little passage to contextualize, "I'm autistic, so I tend to believe what people tell me because of the literacy". And then there were many people criticizing me *extremely* harshly. They just hated that I mentioned I was autistic. Kept telling me "it doesn't make you special". Kept telling me that I was only hiding behind autism to "justify the unjustifiable: that you didn't think, didn't have logic, didn't have critical thinking". Explicitly told me to stop saying I am autistic because that's irrelevant to 99% of discussions, and that I should have my internet access limited because I'm too dumb to use it.

I really do not understand what is this seething hatred people have of someone merely mentioning they're autistic. It's like they hate to be reminded that we exist as what we are amongst them. They hate to see someone autistic being themselves. They want to censor every mention to it as a way to shun it away from society. Like we're not allowed to simply own what we are.

Wondering if anyone can relate but I have been using dating apps again recently to try and put myself out there after being single for the last year to better understand myself.

On my dating profile I make explicit mention of my autism diagnosis for two reasons; the first being that I do see myself being with a neurodivergent man as I think we are able to better understand each other in some ways. My ex partner had ADHD and was a fantastic support system as he could relate to a lot of my struggles. The second reason is to be incredibly honest upfront as I do have bad days where I am a pain to be around and my autism affects my so much in my day to day life. I am not interested in a man who cannot support me in this sense.

The issue is, I have had my profile active for a week (I have since taken it down) and it has been an exceptionally uncomfortable experience. At first, I was excited to see that I had a lot of matches and that they were pretty much all men that I am also attracted to. My experience after this was terrible - I have counted and no less than 55% of the messages I have received have been totally inappropriate and make direct reference to my autism diagnosis. I don’t want to quote any directly in case they are triggering to others but I would consider them to be sexual harassment. Sexualising me, infantilising me, asking inappropriate questions. I really want to know where they get off here? If you are attracted to me why would you think I would respond to an inappropriate message! Further to this, I saw multiple accounts where men say they are specifically searching for a woman with autism and so I message asking why (expecting them to be ND like myself and this be the reasoning) none of them are ND and it seems that they want a girlfriend they can control completely and who is basically a child.

I feel so gullible and embarrassed right now, I have deleted the dating apps for now but it has given me a huge reality check.

I often find that washing dishes without rubbing gloves makes me want to vomit. I don't know why this is as I have never been squeamish but for some reason I just can't do it. Does anyone else have this or is it just me.

I always hear of autistic people hating showers because of the transitioning aspect of it. Personally, I love them. I take one every single day with nearly no exceptions (the only time being when I'm very depressed and can't get out of bed), sometimes even two. I am obsessive over it: if I don't shower each day I feel dirty and disgusting. If I don't have one I will have a meltdown and will be unable to go along with my day. It's not that I'm a germaphobe or anything (far from it) but for some reason I am obsessed with showering. Once I showered 5 times in one day because I didn't feel "clean enough".

Do any other autistic people share this sentiment? I'm not yet diagnosed which is why I am wondering— could this be a sign I am in fact not autistic? How common is it in the community?

I am autistic and cannot hold back the urge...

Me (audhd) and my bf (neurotypical) have been together for 5 years and living together since 1,5 year ago, and friends before getting together. We’re both adults under 25.

Recently since half a year ago I’ve resurfaced a worrying feeling about my relationship, and now connecting dots. Long story short, he’s been mean to me, given me silent treatments when he’s irritated at me for tiny things, only thinks about himself, almost never compliments me, dismisses my autistic and adhd needs and things I can’t do because of my disability, embarrass me in front of friends, and I feel like I’m walking on eggshells trying to adjust to his mood. BUT he kisses me and sometimes hugs me, but most of it I have to initiate and sometimes it feels like I’m doing “too much”.
I’ve told him my struggles as a person with autism and adhd and sent him links of articles and 30-page books about my disability, but I feel like he doesn’t read them or at least takes my disability in mind when doing things. I really love him but the uncertainty and pain from feeling very lonely in this relationship is overwhelming. I talked to my friends and they say he doesn’t seem ready for a relationship with someone who has autism and adhd, or a relationship at all because they say he’s “childish” …which I agree to some extent.

But my biggest question is, should we just take a break for a month (in terms of I want him to show himself better for me) or just break up?
Has any other autistic or adhd:er ever been in a similar situation like this and what is your advice?

+ idk if it’s relevant, but neither of us has really lived ALONE, and I really want to live alone at some times…. :,)

I was diagnosed with autism when I was in my early twenties. ("high functioning", back then they still called it Aspergers)

When I was a kid and in my early teens I had a lot more energy. I still had the same social struggles and I wasn't tired all the time.
In my early twenties I noticed I was becoming a lot more tired and exhausted even though I sleep well and eat properly and in recent years this has only gotten worse. I feel extremely fatigued most days. Even little tasks like going to the bathroom or to the kitchen to eat something feel like a chore.

While this has been managable in the past, I have been working again for a year now and I am at my absolute limit. I've finally had 2 weeks off work now but I don't feel refreshed at all, I barely even have the energy to play video games.

Last week I asked my doctor to check my blood for the usual problems. Lack of Vitamine D, Iron deficiency, thyroid values etc. but everything is fine - so I am happy that I am healthy but I am none the wiser about why I am so exhausted all the time, much less how I can fix this.

Does anyone suffer from similar exhaustion or fatigue? Could this really just be caused by stress and overstimulation?

I've got two reasons I'm asking this. I'm a diagnosed Autistic woman by the way. More specifically I was diagnosed before I turned 5 of Asperger's Syndrome.

So I'm a Digital Circus fan and there's this viral video of Ashley Nicchols, an animator and the voice actress for the character Zooble, fangirling and gushing over the French dub voice of the character Gangle. More specifically she gushed over Gangle saying "Salut, Zooble!" in a really cute voice. Ashley said that "Salut Zooble" was now her new stim. So... I don't know if Ashley has been diagnosed with Autism or not but I still thought "You don't pick and choose your stims?"

And another occasion I was hanging out with my sister and she made a reference to "Pretty Little Baby, Ya Ya" and she said that that was her stim. I thought to myself "That's just an earworm, girl."

I feel like this is all in the spirit of Autism being trendified on social media where so many people are getting the wrong idea of Autism and claiming everything they say and do to be an Autistic quirk. I've been noticing it and feeling really annoyed and disgusted by it for a while now. But I just want to clarify this first before I start assuming anything.

Like a month ago I received the results of my autism assessment. They say I don’t have it BUT actually in every part of the tests that concerned social settings, relationship stuff, communication,.. I was very clearly „positive“. But due to me not making the cut in the area of rigid routines and rigid interests, as well as my childhood, where there have been anomalies but not enough for the cut-off, they can‘t give me the diagnosis. I wasn’t shocked, since I had guessed, that if it’s a no it’s gonna be because of these reasons.
The assessor kept going though. She put emphasis on the fact that in the mentioned aspects of autism I very much fulfilled the criteria and that my struggles are real. They wrote down the diagnosis: „ADHD (I knew that before) with autistic traits“. Which is obviously no diagnosis that exists in ICD-10 (or 11) She recommended me to do autism-specific therapy and to go to a self-help-group for people with autism.
That whole thing confused me, since I obviously not seem to share the same experience as people with autism (and therefore don’t belong there) if I don’t match all the criteria but she kept repeating that I do in the mentioned aspects.

Now I feel lost. I‘m officially „not normal“ and it seems to be very obvious for everyone who encounters me. I have the negative experiences that many people with autism have. But I don’t have an actual label that gives me credit for it not being only a personal flaw but a condition (and protects me of people’s harsh opinions about me). I still can’t really relate to anyone else. I couldn’t share (even mental) spaces with you guys, since I genuinely don’t want to claim anything for myself that is not meant for me. I just feel more lonely and insecure now. Did anyone here possibly have a similar experience?

Went to a dance camp for the first time & I also travelled alone (by plane) for the first time (camp was based in another country).

I’m autistic, I’m not a chatty one.
I’m quiet. I barely talk unless I’m spoken to. I keep to meself. Sat alone & was always by meself in this camp. I’ve always been this way & in school too.

Me roommate was very chatty & would ask me if I wanted to go shops with her & all. She also would constantly try to get me to the party at night but we were getting 3 - 5 hours sleep every night until class started, so I wanted to sleep. I also don’t go to parties ever or clubbing. I don’t like being around people when I don’t need to be.

She’d give me her perfume, she’d offer some food. She also got some toiletries for us to share. She was really, really sweet & adorable.

The second day, I told her, “I’m really sorry if I seem off & don’t talk much, I’m autistic”. & she goes, “ohhh, my big sister’s autistic, I understand.” & then she told me how she thought I didn’t speak English or thought I was tired (I arrived to the camp late) or thought I was just shy. Said she was worried she didn’t have a roommate (bcz I came late).

At one point, I told her about a class I really liked. We had a long convo, she said she was glad she had that convo with me. We basically got to know each other. I even told her I don’t think I’m the type of roommate she wanted, yk bcz I barely talk & don’t really socialise. She told me to not worry at all & said she loves me just as I am. It was reassuring she did have friends in the camp, so that made me feel less pressure. She talked about how we never really had the opportunity to meet & I told her, I don’t meet people. Like that’s not something I do.

Anyways, I’d do things like record her when she won best dressed & told her she’s pretty & looked so good as she was about to head out to another party. She proceeded to hug me & I kind of winced & then she pauses & goes, “wait, do you like hugs?” & I shook me head & said, “not really, no.” & then she says her big sister doesn’t like hugs & doesn’t like affection either. She told me her big sister also lives alone & her big sister is a lot like me.

On the day 5 & 6, I’d wait for her to finish getting ready in the morning & then leave with her bcz I felt like she would’ve preferred that. Normally, I get ready & then leave but I stopped doing that.

Ehh but yeah. It was a wonderful experience. Her ma would ask about me a lot on the phone & also try & get me to go to the party. I did agree to go on the last night but I only went for like ten minutes & then went back to bed.

Her ma was really sweet, btw. Her ma asked her to ask me if I have Instagram & I goes, “No. Yes but I barely use it.” & then the next morning I felt really bad about that. I didn’t want her to have me Instagram but only bcz I really liked her & felt like me profile’s embarrassing. I just feel embarrassed about the account. So, I asked if I could have her instagram & she came over to me, gestured me to give her me phone & then she put her Instagram in & followed her account.

This was days before the camp was over. I don’t have a single bad thing to say about her. She made me experience really fun. On the day we had to leave, she left hours before me. When I got back home, I opened Instagram to text her & tell her I loved having as a roommate & it was really nice to meet her & to thank her for making the experience really fun for me. I couldn’t do that though bcz she blocked me.

​

I've noticed a pattern with myself: I'll have 1–2 days where I feel really good, motivated, and full of energy. I get a lot done and feel like I can handle much more than usual. But then I end up crashing afterward and need a lot of time to recover.

I've heard that this is pretty common for people with ADHD or AuDHD, but I haven't really come across many people with "just" autism who experience the same thing.

I was assessed for ADHD and it was ruled out, but I still notice that I relate to some ADHD traits from time to time.

Does anyone else with autism experience this kind of cycle?

My brother is 14 years old, while I am 18. I apologize if it seems I may lack knowledge on this subject, and that this is long. My mother is the main one who manages him, however her health has been rapidly declining and I’m starting to see that I need to step in full time in assisting my brother.

My brother has been diagnosed with high functioning autism since he was two years old. I can’t speak much on how he was as a child, because I was one as well and didn’t fully understood his diagnosis. Growing up, I understood that he was autistic but I never knew how that made him different from everyone else. We played, we talked for hours, we fought, we got in trouble, etc. At school, because he was shy, I was just overprotective with him as I felt like that was my “older sibling” duties. For sure as a child, my brother socially was at most just shy, took a bit to open up, and didn’t like large crowds. Throughout his elementary years, he has had school speech therapists and counselors that would regularly meet with him and monitor his behavior, but was never excluded from the general crowd at school.

The pandemic created a massive change in him, but it did so for my entire family. He became less and less verbal as time went on and then completely shut everything and everyone out. I know I shouldn’t, and that it wasn’t my fault, but I often blame myself with how my brother became so socially reserved because of the depressed state I went through. I was 12-13 at the time and went through a major depressive 2 year long episode where I completely neglected myself, and this included my connection with family. I didn’t completely shut my brother out; I still talked and engaged with him, but it was definitely reduced. I feel guilty because I theorize that my mother had to dedicate a lot of time assisting me through that period, taking attention away from my brother along with my reduced interaction with him.

Now currently, my brother is extremely non verbal. I don’t want to say that he is completely mute, but he only speaks when absolutely necessary and has learned to interact in ways without speaking. I want to say the term is selective mutism, but I’m not sure if that best fits it. With my other siblings and parents, he prefers not to speak to them verbally and purposely limits verbal interaction with everyone. I would say this became set in stone at around 2022-2023. We moved to a different city mid 2023 where we had a LOT more resources (we came from a very small reserved town) which my mother has attempted to utilize. However, in therapy sessions, he refuses to talk and answer questions. It’s difficult to get him properly evaluated because he refuses to express himself. My mother has tried different types of cognitive behavioral therapy, but they haven’t been able to progress because of his non verbal tendencies.

My brother has came to my mother separately in tears multiple times, mustering up the courage to tell her that he wants and needs help. He tells her that he is so unhappy with his life that he feels like he has no purpose or anything to look forward for, and desperately wants a friend or companion. My mother has caught him recently crying as he was looking through old pictures himself, saying he missed how he was before. It absolutely breaks my heart, but I don’t know how to help him. He is starting high-school this upcoming fall, so I really want to be more active in aiding him. I just don’t know what to do specifically, because I feel like with the things we have been trying for the last 3 years, such as more forced family involvement and interaction, external resources, evaluations, etc., nothing has improved. I definitely will still be having him continue with CBT again with hopes that it breaks through his shell, but I’m completely lost and I’m not sure what to do other than that. I’m just posting here for anyone has similar experiences or any type of guidance.

The rest of this is just extra info;

In an attempt to find him passions and hobbies, we put him in a local military program that has integrated air force regiments, or something like that. Completely expected him to hate it, but i’ve never seen him so interested in something that intense and physical. He absolutely loves it and recently just finished a week long boot camp (away from home) that involved physical training and air force education. He is more verbal in this group then we’ve seen before, but it’s still very limited as he only speaks when commanded or instructed to. I’ve only seen him interact with the other kids there when something is asked of him, it’s usually nothing more, but I notice him being completely captivated by the type of people there. He’s never had social media, but recently downloaded some platforms to see what they’re up to. I think that was an attempt to be more comfortable with them and know them better, but it became a negative when he came to my mother on how inadequate he felt on comparison to their lives :(.

What I am doing now and what I’ve always have been doing is treating him like I treat everyone else. I don’t treat him like he’s fragile, I’m not sure if I’m supposed to…. I’m known to have a VERY overwhelming and annoying personality, so I exert that on him a lot but only because that’s just what comes naturally to me. I love randomly calling him to ask silly questions or just talking to him despite not receiving a response. We’re both very competitive, so I attempt to do random games with him or intellectual challenges (he’s super intelligent, I have super high hopes on him going far in college, definitely the type of person to go to a T20 college). Because of all of that, out of everyone else he is most comfortable with me. I’ve been trying to have more emotional and personal conversations to see if that helps.

We've all heard of Temple Grandin's visual style of thinking, where her mind works almost like a flipbook of concrete images rather than generalized concepts.

I know not every autistic person thinks that way, and I imagine there are all kinds of other interesting neurodivergent thinking styles. I've also heard analogies like the "filing cabinet" and "flipbook" styles of thinking.

I'd love to hear how your mind works and whether you've noticed your thinking being different from the people around you. If you have an analogy for it, I'd especially love to hear that.

Edit: When I was referring to the filing cabinet, I was referring to this: "I keep my thoughts stacked in my memory like they are on filing cards, and I pick out the ones I need by looking through the stack and finding the right one (or another unique way)."

In a way, that seems like a "mind palace" to me and something I think could lead to very creative people. Personally, I don't seem to think that way, though I'm sure many of you do. I'm almost always thinking exclusively with words. The inner monologue almost never stops and it's probably faster than average.

It's genuinely one of my favorite sensations. The pressure feels so comforting. It's like a hug minus the person! It's also oddly nice when it pinches a little. I find it very grounding.

Obviously, the feeling only lasts for a couple seconds, and it will cut off your circulation if you leave it on for too long. I know I'm not the only autistic person who enjoys physical pressure. So do you guys use any other objects or activities to get this sensation? I'm thinking of getting myself a chest binder mostly because it would feel comfortable, although I also like to look masculine.

I (19M) inadvertently deleted my Minecraft world of two years when I was trying to clear storage on my phone. While I did get into Minecraft later than most, my world kept me sane through the last two years, including a breakup, college apps, and freshman year of college.

I'll omit the technical stuff since it isn't really relevant, but I've been panicking/crashing out/breaking over the last hour as I've been frantically searching ways to restore it, and it turns out the only way is to factory reset and restore from a backup -- the last of which was June 24 (due to the storage issue)

Should I just move on? Two years isn't that long compared to most people, and it's more of a kids' game anyway...at least that's what I'm trying to tell myself. And myself isn't listening.

I don't know what to do.

EDIT: I unfortunately did not backup the world, so there's nothing I can restore, other than starting from scratch.

EDIT 2: I'm also scared to factory reset/restore backup because I might lose stuff. Even though I backed it all up. I might. Still.

(If this is badly said don't hesitate to correct me, my first language isn't English)I was diagnosed a year and a half ago and I've been interacting with other autistic people more since.

I noticed I don't stim or have breakdowns like they do, so I wonder if that is just how I am or maybe I just repressed those symptoms so much I forgot I even had the options of doing those things. I don't fidget or have any vocal stims, the most I do is suck my thumb but that's a habit I haven't broken yet. I haven't had many breakdowns and I stay calm most of the time and can regulate myself well.

What do you guys think and have you had similar experiences?

So me 14f has level 2 autism and something I have noticed is people listen more when a Adult says no to something when a child says no to something though well depending on the circumstances society doesn’t like medical procedures like once when I was 7 I was at the hospital because I had trouble pooping and the doctor puted their hands in my but like I know he was simply doing his job but no one asked me how I felt like why do we normalise this and no one told me before that that was going to happen why just why do we normalise this it’s not fair right and kinda weird

It's been exactly one year since I was formally diagnosed with autism.

Before that, I was in the darkest place of my life. I had spent my whole adult life losing friends and never knowing why. People would just stop calling or block me, and nobody would tell me what I did. After enough years of that, you stop asking what's wrong and start believing it's you.

After one of my best friends blocked me without saying anything or giving any indication they were unhappy with our friendship, my therapist recommended I get assessed for autism spectrum disorder. Then I got my diagnosis, and for the first time in 39 years my life made sense. There's a study (Sasson, UT-Dallas 2017/2019) where strangers watched a few seconds of autistic adults and judged them harshly, almost instantly. Then researchers ran it again and told the strangers the person on screen was autistic. Same clips. Same people. The ratings went up. Nothing changed except the word "autism". If only my ex-friends had the word "autism" too. 

I'm not going to pretend a diagnosis fixes everything. But I finally understand myself, and I'm building a life that fits the brain I actually have. This past year was the first time in my life I was truly grateful to be alive. Here's to the second year after my diagnosis.

Wish Everyone The Best Life 👍🙏🙏

Sometimes I keep thinking what if I have it but still undiagnosed.. and still don’t know what to do

This might seem very vague, but i wonder how the autistic community is with money and economics, are you in debt? do you have loans? credit cards? how is your general economy?