I avoid sooo many topics out of fear that people will not only misunderstand me, but then make permanent judgements of my character and even punish me. Like, I'm not allowed to say that sometimes my dog drives me so insane that I wish I never got her in the moment because that would make me a terrible dog owner and a horrible person. Yeah right! All I'm saying is that I have thought that at times. I haven't beaten or neglected her. I'm not planning on dropping her off at the dog pound. I'm just being honest with a thought I had. A lot of people have even thought that about their own human kids.
When it comes to cis-women, I hold back a lot because they often think I'm trying to hit on them. Apparently, sharing an interest or wanting to hear them talk about their interest is considered flirting to NTs. Meanwhile, I'm just treating them the same way I would like to be treated. It would make my day if someone, regardless of gender, wanted to hear me talk about the Golden Age of Piracy. I would not think they're trying to get in my pants because that's not a romantic or sexy topic, just like hearing about your unhealthy eating habits isn't romantic or sexy, Karen! And asking if you're okay when you're clearly distraught doesn't mean I want to sleep with you either. I'm only trying to be nice.
I sought a (re)diagnosis of, or at least assessment for: ASD, ADHD, OCD, GAD, and MDD. I ended up with four out of the five minus OCD but it took half a dozen hour-long sessions with clinical psychologist for him to get the subtleties of the differential worked out. I did most of it over Zoom from my own couch and was still exhausted before the end of the second day.
Edit: still aced that puzzle shit on the last day tho
I dont yet but I will probably use a locally hosted, open source AI to do this at some point. I‘m self employed and need to remove barriers that arent fixed (moral code for example is fixed for me).
I was telling an ex about smelling my coworker’s fear all day. He had a crush on me (it was a call center, so not an especially professional environment), and we had to share my cubicle for training, and he was just pouring out anxiety sweat. My ex had no idea what the fuck I was talking about and I’ve never met someone else who can identify the emotions that a person has by their sweat.
Saying someone “can smell fear” is a normal thing that comes up a lot in media, so I assumed it was also normal to notice. Apparently not. I’ll take all of the help my autistic ass can get in iding others’ emotions though
I always thought when people talked about "smelling fear" it was just a poetic way of saying it was obvious that someone was afraid. I've certainly never been aware of picking up on a person's emotions via scent or heard someone say that they've done that.
Can you smell it on yourself? Like, do you find that your sweaty clothes smell the same after a run and, say, a presentation (or something else that gives you anxiety/scares you)? I think it’s most noticeable with my own sweat, but fear/anxiety sweat smells bad to me in a way that normal body odor or exercise sweat don’t.
Sex sweat also smells very different, but that’s normally more pleasant to me than the others. I haven’t noticed a specific smell of aggression or any other kind of sweat though.
Edit: I think you’re right that “smelling fear” is metaphoric, but I did not realize that until I started talking about it.
I'm actually still coping with the fact that I can use AI for work. I hate it. It feels like cheating and I learn little from using it vs. figuring the thing out myself, but this is a smart use.
I didn't have to do any tests when I was assessed for autism. For my ADHD assessment yes, there were lots of skill tests. But the whole point is that you flounder in a very specific way so they can tell if you have the thing they are testing for.
It isn't too late. I was born in the early 70's and my parents had resources but refused to get me help due to the shame it would bring them. I didn't start to understand who I was until I was in my forties. In the last decade I've made huge leaps in understanding why I'm the way I am and what I can do to compensate for it. Will I every be as natural in social situations as I could have been? No. I can however keep trying.
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