- toe walking: +5 balance
- flappy hands: +5 happiness, -2 stealth
- jumping: +1 athleticism, -4 stealth
- pacing: +7 athleticism
- spinning: -60% from usual hp drain while dizzy
- echolalia: +5 happy, +7 neurotypical patronization
- sensory processing disorder: -30 total hp, +100 hp healed per 5 seconds in sensory heaven
- need to chew: +30 jaw strength, +30 drool strength
- the autistic artist: +50 self-expression, -200 self esteem
- picky eater: -50 total hp, -80% hp healed from bad foods, +80% hp healed on favorite foods
- special interests: -10 focus
- sarcasm detection machine broke: -100 stealth, +10 neurotypical patronization
- eye contact machine broke: -70 stealth, +100 eyebrow staring capacity
- nonverbal: -200 stealth, +20 neurotypical patronization
- stim toy collection: +50 happiness, -40% wallet
I love this. Nothing else has ever been as perfect.
Tag: sensory processing problems
People with sensory processing disorders like fibromyalgia and other chronic pain diseases have the same experience. Until I started talking to people with ADHD, I didn’t realize it wasn’t normal to spend every waking minute feeling your clothes against your skin or cataloging the changes in sound and light and smell. It wasn’t until I watched Elementary and saw the characters around Sherlock not noticing sensory details around them that he picks up that I realized it’s not normal for brains to do this.
Unlike folk with ADHD, though, I never had this experience full blown until I was in my twenties. It build gradually over about a decade, and I thought I’m just getting older. I didn’t have these issues as a young child, so my lack of focus in my mid-20s had to be age-related, not ADHD, right?
And that’s how you trick yourself into thinking you’re normal for years. It’s easier than admitting difference, even as you carefully pick out only silk and pure cotton clothes, wash everything (including yourself) in unscented soap, and eat only a handful of foods (mostly sugar, because it’s boring and you don’t have to think about it much).
Spoonies, pay attention: if you can’t focus, it may not just be the pain. What else is your brain, primed for pain signals, now also processing without end?
knitting in the dark 