lmao this is why i dont interact with people on this sitetldr: sorry im such a dickhead i dont mean to be
lmao this is why i dont interact with people on this sitetldr: sorry im such a dickhead i dont mean to be
Believe me it's not a much better feeling if your parents didn't have a clue. In either case we struggled needlessly for a good ~20 years - I still don't have a very easy time forgiving my parents but that's the only way forward really, and at least we're on the other side of it now.(Apologies if the main topic of this ventssay has been covered in this thread already; I only found it recently and haven't found the time to go through the post history.)
A year or two ago, I was "peer diagnosed" (lol) by some friends as autistic, especially one who was an older sister figure for me. This summer, I finally talked to my counselor about it, and while I still haven't been given the official official diagnosis, I passed the screening tests with flying colors to the point where we are comfortable saying I am autistic. It's been very helpful for me to figure some stuff out, and I've even helped some friends along the same path. I've known for a few years now I have ADHD, which is what I was originally seeing my counselor for, but frankly the autism stuff has been the main benefit I've taken away.
Despite this, there's a part of me that just feels hollow and bitter over the full experience. When I was talking to my parents about it, informing them I was going to take the screening tests (I'm a college-aged adult who still lives with them part-time and is still mostly financially dependent on them), and my mom had the gall to put on me (paraphrased) "oh yeah we kinda figured you were autistic since you were little!" Great! That's awesome. I was able to mask my way out of the worst of my symptoms through high school and was able to avoid a lot of the social problems it causes; but the effort I was expending to do so, plus school work, plus activities, left me so horribly depressed, but goddamn did I hide it well! Are you telling me that if I knew, if I had the support, it could have gone differently? I could've been happy and not constantly masking being the wholesome but funny friend who cried herself to sleep at night because I couldn't figure out what the hell I was doing wrong?
Things have been better since coming to college in that regard (my ADHD symptoms have been, like, 10x worse though whoops!) but now I'm struggling to "take off the mask", as you will. I think I've established who I am... okay, at least, in online spaces; but it's like the moment I go out in public, I feel like a different person, and I hate it. I relate heavily to the meme of "using the wrong personality with the wrong friend group". And things like this fucking suck to talk about because it's like admitting you've been lying to someone your whole friendship. It's really not, but it feels like it, y'know? I know "real friends" will understand and emphasize, but it's still awful to talk about. That's why I'm shouting to the void in this thread. The worst part too is I have no idea if my feelings on this are actually real--I could be totally consistent and have no idea because my self-image is shattered (I blame the undiagnosed autism + being trainsgendur in a not the best situation for that, but there's almost certainly more stuff going on in my head noodle too). I'm not totally consistent, I have a couple distinct moments where I knew I was acting differently than the "me" someone reading this would know me as would; but the occassional instance can be chalked up to a bad day, right? It could just be that. I have no clue.
I don't even know if the allegedly de-masked "me" I am online or in private is really me, either--what if it's just another facade? What am I really like? Is there really a "real" me? Is it masks all the way down?
It's been a long week (it's only Wednesday haha shoot me) and I needed a break from things so I spent some time to write this. I've been feeling a lot of this for a while but it's nice to get it on paper (or screen, rather). Can anyone relate to any of this? Any advice for sorting this all out? Hell, even just some good vibes would be nice. Cheers, and thanks for reading this.![]()
can relate, I cant force myself into doing what I am supposed to do either, otherwise I would be doing sth else instead of writing on a forum about my biggest hyperfixation, rip.for the longest time I thought two things:
ADHD = oooh jingling keys haha I can’t sit still ever
i = am a lazy pos
turns out i have the most severe ADHD my doctor has ever seen, among a few other things that often go hand in hand with it. so many things make sense to me now and i really hate how ADHD is portrayed in media. this illness is crippling. it feels like a unique flavor of depression where i often physically cannot make myself do basic things like go to work or eating at least once a day.
i also have asperger’s or whatever it’s called now, making me pretty socially inept which has gotten me into quite a bit of trouble on here lol. even to this day i still feel quite the cold shoulder from a majority of staff on this site but i guess i did it to myself.
going off that last sentence i also have mild paranoia schizophrenia, which also gives me incredibly lucid dreams that are often hard to differ from reality. i end up believing a lot of what is just made up in my head which makes me feel predisposed notions about people / events that haven’t happen to me yet.
there’s the other basic mental illnesses (depression, being trans xdddd) but who doesn’t have those in 2024..
tldr: sorry im such a dickhead i dont mean to be
I have definitely made this same theory before both about Smogon and other online communities I've been apart of. There is level of passion and interest needed to even come across this site, let alone interact regularly, make content for it, etc. It seems natural that a group of superfans (I don't even like the Pokemon games anymore, but spending several hours a week on this site qualifies lol) would have a higher percentage of people who are neurologically wired to care about their interests more passionately.the reason for this I believe is that people on the spectrum like me generally have hyperfixations, and people with shared passions generally try to find others with the same interests, after all, who doesnt wanna be around others who love the same things?
boosted shiny oddsI have definitely made this same theory before both about Smogon and other online communities I've been apart of. There is level of passion and interest needed to even come across this site, let alone interact regularly, make content for it, etc. It seems natural that a group of superfans (I don't even like the Pokemon games anymore, but spending several hours a week on this site qualifies lol) would have a higher percentage of people who are neurologically wired to care about their interests more passionately.
Not to say neurotypical people can't be here--there definitely are a lot NTs who feel passionately about their interests! But I feel like people on the spectrum are going to be more likely than the population to be invested to the point of being a regular on Smogon.
At the end of the day, my true self wants to walk away from every standard hiring process because I don't condone its use. Every aspect feels biased towards the company, an arbitrary construct, rather than helping people. The system deserves to be filled with the generic slop AI produces because that is what it attempts to reduce people to. That is what my talent for picking through the details, the reason I hold a Masters degree in physics, tells me. And so I don't think I can leverage that talent within a hiring context because the first thing it wants to do is enumerate the faults in the context itself. From the perspective of not wanting to enable systems that I think are immoral, this is at some level suggesting making my true self a worse person to avoid making my masked self a worse person.As somebody with the tism who is pretty successful in the professional world so far, to maximize, I think you gotta figure out a way to lower the mask. However, luckily, lowering the mask isn't a binary on/off. (It isn't for NTs either, I will note, and they partial-mask quite often.) Approach the (letter, interview, etc.) not as a choice to mask on or mask off, but as something you have the chance to make your own. I don't want to write the full-mask job app, and the no-mask job app is a bad idea, so what do I do? I insert a dimension of unique Me Power in the situation that also helps my goal of getting hired. I "mask" by focusing on a specific amenable angle of me, not just doing whatever it is I please entirely, but once I find that angle, I "unmask" by just letting it rip in that new context. As much of a win win as I can manage. A dimension of Me Power is building finely-tuned arguments, I just like that. So I meticulously catalogue every advantage and evidence point in my favor. I naturally like to be helpful and sweet, and I'm naturally flexible, so I lean into that in interviews, (truthfully) presenting myself as eager to help and eager to learn What Y'Alls Deal is.
My recommendation is you start finding Ironmage angles that both represent your true self (as narrowly or broadly, as specifically or vaguely, as you like) and help your goal of being hired. Instead of presenting fake enthusiasm for the entire process, as outsiders frame that process to you, present real enthusiasm for something within the process. Everyone knows even good jobs are a mix of "things you genuinely enjoy" and "things you muscle through and bear". They're not expecting you to love and excel at every single part – if they are reasonable, anyway. They want to know you'll be okay i guess, adequate, not a huge liability at your weak points, but above the pack in some specific strengths that you have. Telling them and demonstrating those strengths helps.
If that trait is not helpful for this goal of getting a job through the standard process, try picking another one.And so I don't think I can leverage that talent within a hiring context because the first thing it wants to do is enumerate the faults in the context itself.
Speaking from personal experience, it sounds like you need some sort of reassurance you are not getting from your peers or you aren’t getting some sort of attention from your peers that you want.I’m on the spectrum and also have severe anxiety, depression and adhd. It really makes doing stuff difficult sometimes. You can pretty much count on me having a mental break at least once a year and cutting off contact with everything for like a day or 2 and then I have to come back and sheepishly ask for my roles and stuff to be reinstated and it’s really embarrassing. I’ve tried pretty much every method under the sun of trying to reign in my symptoms because medication alone just doesn’t cut it but so far nothing has worked. Anxiety in particular is a big issue since it infects everything I try to do, sometimes I wonder where I’d be if I wasn’t so bogged down by these kinds of things
I have Bs and As and adhd and possibly autism so…I don't have any friends I've been able to tell this, but I'm finally getting diagnosed with ADHD and Autism. I've always felt out of place with others and had unexplained sensory issues but didn't really question if I was Autistic because a therapist told me I had social anxiety when I was younger and I thought that was true. I suspected I had ADHD when I was younger but because I was still getting acceptable grades (B average) and because my ADHD brother had poor reactions to stimulants (made him go from hyperactive to zombie), I didn't bother getting assessed.
Anyways, after a 2 year long burnout and a supportive therapist helping me find out why I'm so me, I decided to get professionally assessed instead of just being peer-reviewed. Thanks for reading!