Just a gentle reminder

 

I sometimes get the feeling that I have to remind people that I am an Aspie. And it's usually my parents that I have to remind. I don't know why I have to do this, but maybe it's because they spend so much time with me that they "forget" I am on the spectrum. That, or they are trying to "Normalise" me. This reminds me of a quote by Dorian Pavus from Dragon Age: Inquisition,

"Selfish, I suppose. Not to want to spend my entire life screaming on the inside."

I have a few ways of reminding people that I am on the spectrum. I usually do these by accident, but sometimes I "ramp them up" when I feel the situation requires it. These include:

• Delibreately taking something literally,
• Make a huge fuss when my routine is disrupted,
• Not wanting to be around groups of people and
• Correcting people

The whole "Make a huge fuss when my routine is disrupted" is a response to something that kept on happening. A certain family member kept on disrupting it on purpose. She said it was "to try and get you used to small amounts of change." I "reminded" her that I am an Aspie and I also get migraines. I told her that migraines can be triggered by stress and constantly changing my routine is very, very stressful for me.

After a while, she eventually stopped. But when I do this (correcting people) with another certain family member, I get a very different result. I get told things like "For the sake of conversation." Or "One day people are going to stop talking to you." Then I think, or maybe even say, usually "Good!" I am just trying to keep things accurate so that I don't have to fix it later.