‘Hold on to that thought!’ ADHD me a minute later: it’s gone.

When someone asks me to tell another person they said hi, my autistic brain registers this as a task to be completed asap. Just knowing that if I forgot I could break a chain of communication and be the reason someone doesn’t learn they had been thought of is a lot of pressure.

When people compliment you for thinking outside the box, assuming that was your goal and it required a lot of time and effort, not realising that you’re neurodivergent and had simply thought the thoughts and taken the steps that came instinctively to and made sense to your brain.

The autistic urge to make and keep many lists. Some of these lists may relate to important things you need to remember and things you need to do, but others might be more lighthearted - for example, lists of: songs, books, movies and TV shows you want to enjoy when you have time.

The autistic talent of packing bags with superb efficiency, making use of every available space, so you can take lots of necessities and ‘just in case’ items when you go out, because just the thought of potentially needing something and not having it in the moment is unsettling.

The autistic urge to have spares of your spares, because you’re terrified of running out of something that you may need or rely on.

My autistic love for accuracy means that I love to know the correct lyrics to songs that get stuck in my head. If a song gets stuck in my head and I don’t know its lyrics already, I often feel a strong desire to google and memorise its lyrics.

The autistic urge to share a fact you know or a personal anecdote you remember when a conversation lands on a subject that you have a relevant fact or anecdote for.

The autistic urge to play a song on repeat for a few weeks/months, then one day stop listening to it for months/years, then sometime in the future start playing it on repeat once again.

Just updated my profile picture! 😁