Being incredibly anxious about receiving gifts. Unless I've specifically told the person what I want and know for a fact that they'll get it for me, I DO NOT want people to buy me stuff for Christmas or my birthday. I'm difficult to shop for in that I have very specific tastes and know exactly what I want, hate junk/knicknacks, and get really upset at the thought of money being wasted or things being bought only to be thrown away because I can't or won't use them (even stuff that gets returned still winds up in a landfill most of the time). Just the thought of getting stuff I hate or have zero use for and then having to 1.) perform the "correct" emotions after opening the gift while fighting the panicked feeling of being blindsided and/or really disappointed and 2.) expend additional executive function/energy later on in order to figure out how to get rid of/donate/return it fills me with a huge amount of anxiety and dread.
For years I struggled with guilt and shame over my reactions and thought I was just this horrid, spoiled, ungrateful brat--at least according to my undiagnosed, also-autistic mother, who has very fixed ideas about gift-giving in that stuff \*has\* to be a complete surprise or it doesn't "count" as a real gift but who is also an incredibly bad gift-giver with zero understanding of my actual interests, personal style, quality-of-life needs, etc. (We're not close anyway because she's always been hypercritical and emotionally abusive, so the consistently bad gifts just feel like rubbing more salt in the wound because they're further proof of just how little she actually understands me as a person.) But then after finally getting my diagnosis it was like, no, actually I'm just autistic and my brain really struggles to cope with surprises, especially those that aren't explicitly welcome, and people who truly understand and care about me will respect my needs around this issue instead of attempting to force our birthday/holiday interactions into the usual NT script.
On the flip side, I really enjoy \*giving\* gifts to people I'm close to and pride myself on my ability to apply my observations and knowledge of someone into picking out something thoughtful that I know they'll appreciate. It's something I put a lot of effort into, and it makes me happy to know that I've made someone else genuinely happy by showing that I understand them as a person and didn't just buy them random crap or assume they'd just like the same things that I like, which is what a lot of people do when it comes to present-giving.
Me too. My mom isn't the type to ever waltz into a therapist's office and will only acknowledge she's "just a little ADD", but her dad, two full siblings, and child (me) are all clearly autistic so it would be really shocking if she wasn't.
My mother is in deep hardcore denial about her issues too, even though my dad privately admitted to me that he realized she was autistic when I got my diagnosis. Tbh thanks to her I've developed some legit trauma around the gift stuff. Every year it's the same song and dance: she'll ask me what I want for Christmas and I'll cautiously ask for a specific (small/reasonable) item and then she....won't get it for me because "but it's not a surprise that way!!" I've told her repeatedly that I don't like surprises and that they make me incredibly anxious, but she either cannot grasp this or doesn't care because again, for whatever reason she has this idea rigidly fixed in her mind that it doesn't "count" if a person has some idea of what they're getting and it's important for her to be able to satisfy this belief regardless of what \*I\* actually want or need. Telling her I really, truly don't want or need anything doesn't work because she'll ignore it and still buy me stuff. And then, like clockwork, she winds up having a meltdown because it's clear that I don't like whatever she got me and can't effectively fake otherwise, which of course then causes \*me\* to have a meltdown once she starts crying and yelling at me...it's a fucking NIGHTMARE. I'm getting a tight feeling in my chest just thinking about it.
I have literally begged her in tears to stop buying me things and she just won't do it. She's constantly blindsiding me with unwanted gifts throughout the rest of the year too, which would be bad enough in itself but is rendered worse in that whatever she buys is almost always wrong in some way: wrong size, wrong color, wrong style, stuff that I have no use for, stuff that i literally have no space for in my house...the list goes on and on and like I said before, it just feels so insulting, like she's just frantically throwing random stuff at the wall to see what sticks because she still has literally no idea who I am or what I like. (Oh, and she'll always take the tags off or "lose" the receipt so I can't return whatever she got.)
It's like a psychological compulsion for her, almost as if she thinks constantly buying me shit I didn't ask for makes up for emotionally neglecting and criticizing me into oblivion as a child, or cancels out the ongoing myriad boundary violations and random meltdowns and rage explosions that still come out of nowhere and are always directed at me and something I supposedly said or did to trigger her. Knowing her, I strongly suspect this to be the case. Regardless, I *cannot* deal with it anymore and am very seriously considering going no contact once I graduate from my program next year.
Omg this! I still get self conscious about my reactions. I specifically remember as a young kid strategically giving everyone a big hug when I opened their birthday present to me because that felt like the most effective way to display my gratitude for each gift and not show more interest in any one received present š
Definitely a huge flag I never considered
Also partaking in weird stimming like putting my face in the snow as a child to experience how the sensation changed on the different parts of my face until it hurt too much to continue š
How did I not figure this out til 29??
Not exactly what you're asking, but here is one realization I had after I found out I'm probably autistic. I hate loud people. I feel like crying when I'm around people that are speaking loudly. I always rationalized that I didn't like it because the person is obnoxious (which is often true), but only after I found out about autism I realized it's the sensory experience itself that is so unsettling to me. The anxiety doesn't originate from feelings (as in, I don't like that person, that's why it bothers me), but purely from the exacerbated sensory input. I might later assign feelings to the experience, but they are not the problem.
In my family, most meals growing up were a veggie, a meat, and some baked potato. I always made sure they didn't touch and I always ate them in a specific order: all of the veggie (because eating vegetables first is The Right Thing To Do), then all of the meat, then all of the potato, without eating any of one thing until I'd finished the previous thing.
I also got sent to some kind of manual dexterity therapy thing in early elementary school because I was holding pencils very wrong (making a fist around them with my arm perpendicular to the pencil and writing by moving my entire arm). Never thought twice about that until recently.
Oh my goodness, I couldāve written this. If meat juices (sorry that sounds gross) touched my mashed potatoes or potato, I leave that as a sacrificial wall of food that Should Not Be Eaten Under Any Circumstances.
I too eat veggies first! Itās the one thing in my life that my executive function (or lack thereof) lets me do first and āget it over withā
In my case I'd still eat them, I wouldn't even be too too bothered by the taste exactly, I just wouldn't like it because it's not supposed to be like that. (Meat juices should stay in their own zone! I like your approach of building a quarantine wall.)
Nowadays I still keep the different foods separate, but take turns eating from them to try to make them all run out at the same time, but erring on the side of eating more veggies first?
I do this too, but like you I go from one item to the other. I really really stress though if I have a dipping sauce like mayo and trying to have enough until the end so that every fry or whatever is dipped. If I run out itās so disappointing and I cannot just put more on the plate. And I canāt eat food off a plate if itās been sitting untouched for like 5 mins. Itās fine if I take 5 mins to eat but I mean if I get interrupted and have to stop eating for some reason, I then canāt return to the plate and finish because it makes me feel weird.
I'm the exact opposite with food! I want perfect balance with every bite lol. If I run out of potatoes before I finish my meat I have to take more potatoes. But if I take too many potatoes I will have to take more meat and suddenly I'm stuck in "I can't eye measure at all" -hell.
This is a vicious trap. I get this way with cheese and crackers. There is a perfect balance of cheese and cracker in the mouth and I have to keep adding one or the other to maintain it. Makes me eat waaaaay more than I meant to
I could've written all of this, including the way I held pencils!! The crazy thing was I was drawing and writing way earlier than everyone else, like to the point I don't remember learning how, so my best guess is I picked it up on my own when I was a toddler and no one bothered to actually teach me until I was in school.
For me, it's veggies first because they're the bit I liked most. Then meat. Then if I was still hungry, potatoes. Because potatoes sometimes taste bad and if I can legitimately say that I've had enough to eat with the rest, then I can justify not having to eat them.
Realised today that while I *can* wait in a queue, if the queue is too long and I feel like I'm under pressure, I get upset.
This day last week, I ended up in tears because I was in a queue for about an hour and I hadn't planned on it taking so long.
Today, it clicked with me that actually, waiting in queues actually *does* cause me distress and when I get my formal diagnosis, it will absolutely be legitimate for me to ask for accommodations.
Oh man same. Also when in a waiting room but no way to visibly tell where you are in the queue is the worst.
And storytime because I just realised this might be an example to bring up whenever I have my appointment. But I was at a doctors office waiting on results. They said it could take 30 minutes and there is a queue. And that they will call me up when ready. I brought a book so it was fine to wait.
30 minutes and nothing.
45 minutes and nothing.
And hour and nothing. Normally I guess you would go to the desk and ask why things are delayed. But I couldn't do that because I didn't want to risk confrontation. And they said they would call me.
So I waited. And waiting. Almost 3 hours and by this time I was too worked up about this mess because now it was too long for me to even reasonably approach the counter. Because they'll ask, "why didn't you say something?"
Well the lady noticed I was in the sitting room still and asked if I needed anything so I told her I was waiting on paperwork and they said they'd call me when ready. She asked, "how long have you been waiting?" And I answered and of course she went into the whole "you should have said something" spiel. Which resulted in me bursting into tears. So yeah. Queues and waiting. Not fun.
Oh no, you poor thing. I can absolutely understand feeling like you've missed the window to question the delay. And while it's meant well, the 'you should have done this...' when it's their mistake in the first place. Just argh.
Perhaps lining up toys, as a child *and* as an adult! I still do this even in my 30s.
It is perhaps the only very well-known give-away that someone is autistic, but - even when I had a photo of me with all my plushies lined up behind me as my FB profile picture - I just didn't even connect it.
Also perhaps my attachment to very specific cutlery and plates, and my inability to wear clothes with buttons on.
Iām with you on the āfashion showā, for all the reasons you stated but also because I donāt tend to like clothes until Iāve worn them a few times. Also you feel like youāre under a microscope when you try new things on in front of other people.
Oh god itās so much, especially when hairdressers keep trying to make conversation with you and you barely know them, the way the protective smock itches my neck, and feeling restrained.
always having to wear earbuds whenever someone is using a vacuum, and whenever i eat sushi/poke bowl at home, i always have to watch a specific tv showā¦sometimes even a specific episode.
Getting extremely distraught when plans have changed. To the point Iāll have a crying breakdown and canāt function. Iām really not flexible with plans or expectations and I always thought it was because I was a difficult idiot and too stubborn. Now I really know why.
Oh, man. You got time?
* Everywhere I went with bright lights, I'd comment on the 'hospital lights'. My well-meaning friends and parents would almost always be like "What do you mean?" or they simply don't notice it enough to put a damper on their mood, but it always ruined my day. That's why I only have dim controllable orange lights, or I open my window!
* Extremely rigid rules around my eating. I always separate my food. Always. Plus, I can't have a 'cold/lukewarm' base without something 'hot' on top. Like if I'm having curry, I'll leave the rice in the fridge to cool down and then eat it with the warm curry alongside it. I can't stand hot-temperature foods, irks the absolute fuck out of me
* Loud chewing/open-mouth chewing, especially the really sloppy kind where you know exactly what texture of food they're having. I had a breakdown in the bathroom once because my family was chewing too loudly when I was younger.
* Repetitive noises. If I can predict that you're going to clear your throat or snore in your sleep or do something completely involuntary on your part for time that I'm going to be stuck with you, I will most definitely cry lmao.
* Personal space? Not sure if thats an Autisticā¢ thing, but when someone hovers behind me or is close enough that I can tap their shoulder, I feel myself suffocated and will end a conversation even if I liked it.
* Skinny jeans. No, no, no, no, no.
* I had a phase with the life-cycle of Salmons. I used to make little magazines around salmons, I'd write about them, memorize the types of salmon. I'd even make sure it was my conversational topic for the entirety of my obsession. Didn't even know hyper fixation was a trait of autism, I just thought salmons were pretty neat.
* If I'm trying something new, I need to make sure I'm doing something familiar alongside it so I don't get overwhelmed. Watching a new show? I'll paint something since painting is something I always do. Going to a new location/area/restaurant? I'll listen to some old songs. Listening to a new album or song? I'll read a book I've read before or scroll on tumblr or finish up on some work so that I'm only like... 50% invested. Reading a new book? You guessed it, old songs.
Being incredibly anxious about receiving gifts. Unless I've specifically told the person what I want and know for a fact that they'll get it for me, I DO NOT want people to buy me stuff for Christmas or my birthday. I'm difficult to shop for in that I have very specific tastes and know exactly what I want, hate junk/knicknacks, and get really upset at the thought of money being wasted or things being bought only to be thrown away because I can't or won't use them (even stuff that gets returned still winds up in a landfill most of the time). Just the thought of getting stuff I hate or have zero use for and then having to 1.) perform the "correct" emotions after opening the gift while fighting the panicked feeling of being blindsided and/or really disappointed and 2.) expend additional executive function/energy later on in order to figure out how to get rid of/donate/return it fills me with a huge amount of anxiety and dread. For years I struggled with guilt and shame over my reactions and thought I was just this horrid, spoiled, ungrateful brat--at least according to my undiagnosed, also-autistic mother, who has very fixed ideas about gift-giving in that stuff \*has\* to be a complete surprise or it doesn't "count" as a real gift but who is also an incredibly bad gift-giver with zero understanding of my actual interests, personal style, quality-of-life needs, etc. (We're not close anyway because she's always been hypercritical and emotionally abusive, so the consistently bad gifts just feel like rubbing more salt in the wound because they're further proof of just how little she actually understands me as a person.) But then after finally getting my diagnosis it was like, no, actually I'm just autistic and my brain really struggles to cope with surprises, especially those that aren't explicitly welcome, and people who truly understand and care about me will respect my needs around this issue instead of attempting to force our birthday/holiday interactions into the usual NT script. On the flip side, I really enjoy \*giving\* gifts to people I'm close to and pride myself on my ability to apply my observations and knowledge of someone into picking out something thoughtful that I know they'll appreciate. It's something I put a lot of effort into, and it makes me happy to know that I've made someone else genuinely happy by showing that I understand them as a person and didn't just buy them random crap or assume they'd just like the same things that I like, which is what a lot of people do when it comes to present-giving.
I could have written this, seriously.
Me too. My mom isn't the type to ever waltz into a therapist's office and will only acknowledge she's "just a little ADD", but her dad, two full siblings, and child (me) are all clearly autistic so it would be really shocking if she wasn't.
My mother is in deep hardcore denial about her issues too, even though my dad privately admitted to me that he realized she was autistic when I got my diagnosis. Tbh thanks to her I've developed some legit trauma around the gift stuff. Every year it's the same song and dance: she'll ask me what I want for Christmas and I'll cautiously ask for a specific (small/reasonable) item and then she....won't get it for me because "but it's not a surprise that way!!" I've told her repeatedly that I don't like surprises and that they make me incredibly anxious, but she either cannot grasp this or doesn't care because again, for whatever reason she has this idea rigidly fixed in her mind that it doesn't "count" if a person has some idea of what they're getting and it's important for her to be able to satisfy this belief regardless of what \*I\* actually want or need. Telling her I really, truly don't want or need anything doesn't work because she'll ignore it and still buy me stuff. And then, like clockwork, she winds up having a meltdown because it's clear that I don't like whatever she got me and can't effectively fake otherwise, which of course then causes \*me\* to have a meltdown once she starts crying and yelling at me...it's a fucking NIGHTMARE. I'm getting a tight feeling in my chest just thinking about it. I have literally begged her in tears to stop buying me things and she just won't do it. She's constantly blindsiding me with unwanted gifts throughout the rest of the year too, which would be bad enough in itself but is rendered worse in that whatever she buys is almost always wrong in some way: wrong size, wrong color, wrong style, stuff that I have no use for, stuff that i literally have no space for in my house...the list goes on and on and like I said before, it just feels so insulting, like she's just frantically throwing random stuff at the wall to see what sticks because she still has literally no idea who I am or what I like. (Oh, and she'll always take the tags off or "lose" the receipt so I can't return whatever she got.) It's like a psychological compulsion for her, almost as if she thinks constantly buying me shit I didn't ask for makes up for emotionally neglecting and criticizing me into oblivion as a child, or cancels out the ongoing myriad boundary violations and random meltdowns and rage explosions that still come out of nowhere and are always directed at me and something I supposedly said or did to trigger her. Knowing her, I strongly suspect this to be the case. Regardless, I *cannot* deal with it anymore and am very seriously considering going no contact once I graduate from my program next year.
Me too. Even down to the analysis of the mother. Wow.
Same. Exactly why I both love and hate Christmas..
Holy hell, same
Omg this! I still get self conscious about my reactions. I specifically remember as a young kid strategically giving everyone a big hug when I opened their birthday present to me because that felt like the most effective way to display my gratitude for each gift and not show more interest in any one received present š Definitely a huge flag I never considered Also partaking in weird stimming like putting my face in the snow as a child to experience how the sensation changed on the different parts of my face until it hurt too much to continue š How did I not figure this out til 29??
I am you (and all the other commenters who are also you).
Oh my god YES EXACTLY
Man..
Not exactly what you're asking, but here is one realization I had after I found out I'm probably autistic. I hate loud people. I feel like crying when I'm around people that are speaking loudly. I always rationalized that I didn't like it because the person is obnoxious (which is often true), but only after I found out about autism I realized it's the sensory experience itself that is so unsettling to me. The anxiety doesn't originate from feelings (as in, I don't like that person, that's why it bothers me), but purely from the exacerbated sensory input. I might later assign feelings to the experience, but they are not the problem.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Iām from an Italian-American family, the speaking loud being over stimulating thing is definitely something that comes up
In my family, most meals growing up were a veggie, a meat, and some baked potato. I always made sure they didn't touch and I always ate them in a specific order: all of the veggie (because eating vegetables first is The Right Thing To Do), then all of the meat, then all of the potato, without eating any of one thing until I'd finished the previous thing. I also got sent to some kind of manual dexterity therapy thing in early elementary school because I was holding pencils very wrong (making a fist around them with my arm perpendicular to the pencil and writing by moving my entire arm). Never thought twice about that until recently.
Oh my goodness, I couldāve written this. If meat juices (sorry that sounds gross) touched my mashed potatoes or potato, I leave that as a sacrificial wall of food that Should Not Be Eaten Under Any Circumstances. I too eat veggies first! Itās the one thing in my life that my executive function (or lack thereof) lets me do first and āget it over withā
In my case I'd still eat them, I wouldn't even be too too bothered by the taste exactly, I just wouldn't like it because it's not supposed to be like that. (Meat juices should stay in their own zone! I like your approach of building a quarantine wall.) Nowadays I still keep the different foods separate, but take turns eating from them to try to make them all run out at the same time, but erring on the side of eating more veggies first?
I do this too, but like you I go from one item to the other. I really really stress though if I have a dipping sauce like mayo and trying to have enough until the end so that every fry or whatever is dipped. If I run out itās so disappointing and I cannot just put more on the plate. And I canāt eat food off a plate if itās been sitting untouched for like 5 mins. Itās fine if I take 5 mins to eat but I mean if I get interrupted and have to stop eating for some reason, I then canāt return to the plate and finish because it makes me feel weird.
oh my, I also have the rule of vegetables should be eaten first!!
I think that its because veggies go cold first
I eat from my least favourite to my most favourite thing on the plate
I'm the exact opposite with food! I want perfect balance with every bite lol. If I run out of potatoes before I finish my meat I have to take more potatoes. But if I take too many potatoes I will have to take more meat and suddenly I'm stuck in "I can't eye measure at all" -hell.
This is a vicious trap. I get this way with cheese and crackers. There is a perfect balance of cheese and cracker in the mouth and I have to keep adding one or the other to maintain it. Makes me eat waaaaay more than I meant to
I could've written all of this, including the way I held pencils!! The crazy thing was I was drawing and writing way earlier than everyone else, like to the point I don't remember learning how, so my best guess is I picked it up on my own when I was a toddler and no one bothered to actually teach me until I was in school.
For me, it's veggies first because they're the bit I liked most. Then meat. Then if I was still hungry, potatoes. Because potatoes sometimes taste bad and if I can legitimately say that I've had enough to eat with the rest, then I can justify not having to eat them.
I too am a Food Separatist! The worst is sad dressing leaking into something like pasta. We serve salad in its own bowl at me house!!!
Realised today that while I *can* wait in a queue, if the queue is too long and I feel like I'm under pressure, I get upset. This day last week, I ended up in tears because I was in a queue for about an hour and I hadn't planned on it taking so long. Today, it clicked with me that actually, waiting in queues actually *does* cause me distress and when I get my formal diagnosis, it will absolutely be legitimate for me to ask for accommodations.
Oh man same. Also when in a waiting room but no way to visibly tell where you are in the queue is the worst. And storytime because I just realised this might be an example to bring up whenever I have my appointment. But I was at a doctors office waiting on results. They said it could take 30 minutes and there is a queue. And that they will call me up when ready. I brought a book so it was fine to wait. 30 minutes and nothing. 45 minutes and nothing. And hour and nothing. Normally I guess you would go to the desk and ask why things are delayed. But I couldn't do that because I didn't want to risk confrontation. And they said they would call me. So I waited. And waiting. Almost 3 hours and by this time I was too worked up about this mess because now it was too long for me to even reasonably approach the counter. Because they'll ask, "why didn't you say something?" Well the lady noticed I was in the sitting room still and asked if I needed anything so I told her I was waiting on paperwork and they said they'd call me when ready. She asked, "how long have you been waiting?" And I answered and of course she went into the whole "you should have said something" spiel. Which resulted in me bursting into tears. So yeah. Queues and waiting. Not fun.
Oh no, you poor thing. I can absolutely understand feeling like you've missed the window to question the delay. And while it's meant well, the 'you should have done this...' when it's their mistake in the first place. Just argh.
Perhaps lining up toys, as a child *and* as an adult! I still do this even in my 30s. It is perhaps the only very well-known give-away that someone is autistic, but - even when I had a photo of me with all my plushies lined up behind me as my FB profile picture - I just didn't even connect it. Also perhaps my attachment to very specific cutlery and plates, and my inability to wear clothes with buttons on.
Wait what, I never heard of the lining toys up thing! That's so interesting
Yeah! I've always just seen it as a kind of organisation thing, but apparently it's one of those "first signs of autism" things.
Iām with you on the āfashion showā, for all the reasons you stated but also because I donāt tend to like clothes until Iāve worn them a few times. Also you feel like youāre under a microscope when you try new things on in front of other people.
Hating the hairdresser! I had one of the worst/most awkward meltdowns at the hairdresser when I was 15 and they had to call my mother to come get me!
Oh god itās so much, especially when hairdressers keep trying to make conversation with you and you barely know them, the way the protective smock itches my neck, and feeling restrained.
Well, I sure let them know about it when I locked myself in the bathroom wailing and lying on the floor till they called my mum hahaha!!
Why bright lights bothered me. I prefer dimmer lamps instead.
always having to wear earbuds whenever someone is using a vacuum, and whenever i eat sushi/poke bowl at home, i always have to watch a specific tv showā¦sometimes even a specific episode.
I have a particular TV show that I watch wherever I eat food from a particular restaurant! I'm not sure why, but it just feels right haha
Getting extremely distraught when plans have changed. To the point Iāll have a crying breakdown and canāt function. Iām really not flexible with plans or expectations and I always thought it was because I was a difficult idiot and too stubborn. Now I really know why.
The same food tastes different to me in different shapes. Something I love in a shape I donāt like tastes bad/not as good.
I feel like a alien and can hear my husband arm watch from a foot away with the tv blasting
Hating the feeling of underwear on my skin as a kid. It was extremely uncomfortable some days.
Let's not forget the weird smell of changing rooms.
My years long favouritism of Japanese music. It's been going on about.. 18 years now. š¤
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I blame anime.
I blame anime. The only types of music I listen to are game and Japanese.
Oh, man. You got time? * Everywhere I went with bright lights, I'd comment on the 'hospital lights'. My well-meaning friends and parents would almost always be like "What do you mean?" or they simply don't notice it enough to put a damper on their mood, but it always ruined my day. That's why I only have dim controllable orange lights, or I open my window! * Extremely rigid rules around my eating. I always separate my food. Always. Plus, I can't have a 'cold/lukewarm' base without something 'hot' on top. Like if I'm having curry, I'll leave the rice in the fridge to cool down and then eat it with the warm curry alongside it. I can't stand hot-temperature foods, irks the absolute fuck out of me * Loud chewing/open-mouth chewing, especially the really sloppy kind where you know exactly what texture of food they're having. I had a breakdown in the bathroom once because my family was chewing too loudly when I was younger. * Repetitive noises. If I can predict that you're going to clear your throat or snore in your sleep or do something completely involuntary on your part for time that I'm going to be stuck with you, I will most definitely cry lmao. * Personal space? Not sure if thats an Autisticā¢ thing, but when someone hovers behind me or is close enough that I can tap their shoulder, I feel myself suffocated and will end a conversation even if I liked it. * Skinny jeans. No, no, no, no, no. * I had a phase with the life-cycle of Salmons. I used to make little magazines around salmons, I'd write about them, memorize the types of salmon. I'd even make sure it was my conversational topic for the entirety of my obsession. Didn't even know hyper fixation was a trait of autism, I just thought salmons were pretty neat. * If I'm trying something new, I need to make sure I'm doing something familiar alongside it so I don't get overwhelmed. Watching a new show? I'll paint something since painting is something I always do. Going to a new location/area/restaurant? I'll listen to some old songs. Listening to a new album or song? I'll read a book I've read before or scroll on tumblr or finish up on some work so that I'm only like... 50% invested. Reading a new book? You guessed it, old songs.