The relief/realization that my wife and I weren’t gaslighting each other and that we each had truly valid, very different experiences from the same inputs.

A selection:

• No food could touch. I would eat the hot dog and bun separately and eat the ketchup with a spoon. Pizza was the same: pile the pineapples, ham, cheese, spoon the sauce, and have the dough on the side. Of course all of them to be eaten in a certain order. The only reason why I have stopped now is due to the time it takes plus the odd looks.

• As others have said, innate sense of justice and fairness with an attachment to rules.

• Asking my mom how kids can play with each other on the playground. She gave me a script to use to introduce myself to other kids and ask to play with them. I was almost a teen when I stopped using this and it was only because it was the first time the script didn’t work and I was devastated.

• Similarly, asking my mom how to “wave arms while walking”. Is it 45° angles back and forth? Same or opposite the legs? Elbows first for a sway or stiff arms?

• Obsessively stacking and organizing objects as “play”. Creamers in the basket at a diner, toys in a circle around me, trinkets in a row.

• New media meant new characters to copy into my personality. From mannerisms to straight up copying the dialogue from the movie; I was a chameleon.

• Pattern recognition is unparalleled to other in my grades. Still to this day, it’s one of the traits that puts me ahead.

• Flip flopping between “a joy to have in my class; my favourite student” for one teacher to “lacking in (basic neurotipical trait here), has a long way to go” for another teacher.

You’re supposed to get diagnosed to be an adult?!

Edit: just read what community this is and the actual post. My bad