Not just what are your autistic traits, but what are some of the silly things or compulsive things you do that you feel is unique/possibly related to your autism?
I always keep a 12’ measuring tape on me which is kind of a new thing in the past year. I fuckin love measuring things, and it makes me feel good to have JUST in case.
Counting steps in 4s on same surfaces, keep even-evens (2 steps each foot, 4 total) on the same surface. Watch ahead to know I’ll need to adjust steps when surface is going to change to keep to the 4 steps counts. I don’t like stepping on those bumpy surfaces at crosswalks that are indicators for blind people. I step over those.
I get an atypical haircut because of my autistic hairlines. It involves shaving a hard part on the right side of my hair down the hairline, buzzing the right to that with a fade, growing my left top out, and then getting a fade down the left side. It’s asymmetrical, definitely sticks out, and I love it. I just wake up and go, yet still stylish.
Funny you mention measuring stuff, because a quirk I’ve always had which I think is associated with my autism is a very weak ability to estimate quantities and measures. Like if someone asks me how far away, how big, how heavy, etc. something is, I often give a guesstimate which is so far off of what they expect the correct measure to be that they look at me funny and ask “wow really?” which makes me recalibrate my guess and say “uh no actually probably not, if that was the reaction you had to it”
Hahaha, II love that you’re kinda faking them out even if you’re right or not lol. I used to work as a cashier, and I would always guess the weight of the vegetables/fruits before putting them on the scale/scanner thing because i love estimating that stuff too. I did it out loud once and got it almost exact and a couple customers jeard and wete impressed. So I tried a few times and the customers in line and I made a game of it and cheered or "awww"ed when I got it wrong. So fun.
I also like trying to guess the amount of something i need for recipes. Like, a recipe calls for a cup of onions, I look at the whole onions in store and based on size I imagine what it would look like diced in a measuring cup, I usually get close and its so satisfying
Tossing objects a tiny bit up in the air with one hand (or two if big), trying to have them spin as fast as possible and then catching them again. Screwdrivers, mugs, knives, bottles, plates, bags, balls, hammers, phone, tins…
With knives and other oblong objects, I try for rotating them in two directions at once.
There is a trick to catching wildly spinning knives safety almost all the time. I have mastered it. I have no idea what it is or how it works.
At first I read hamsters there instead of hammers :-) glad I misread that. I like tossing stuff as well, and have the same experience catching knives or other dangerous objects, it’s weird how you can catch them pretty reliably.
I usually climb stairs 2 by 2, so everywhere I go regularly I end up memorizing if a flight of stairs has an even or odd number of steps, so that I start by 1 or 2 and always end up even at the top.
Oh man this is kinda similar to a quirk I had as a kid. It’s kinda hard to explain, but in my old neighborhood we had sidewalks like these. So if you look at the first five rows of squares starring from the bottom of the picture, you’ll see that the color of the cement changes on the next row. Well the sidewalks I walked on, there would be like, 3 or 4 rows of blocks with a thicker kinda borderline between eachother. So when I would walk I would step one foot in front of the other in each block and count “one two three four, one two, one two three, one two three” etc, starting the count over every time I crossed the break or change in the cement.
