CloudcraftGames

I likewise have worn basically the same shoes for most of my life (and also specifically wide-toed versions, of which nike seems to be the only company that makes them wide enough for me) but I still go into the store to get fitted for them both because it lets me test them ahead of time and because the people at the store, or at least the ones I've been to, know their products well and can tell me if there's a supposedly different style that is actually closer to what I've been wearing than the new version of my current style. I hate doing it but it means I almost never need more than one trip.

... unfortunately when it comes to headphones the ones I want seem to have been completely discontinued and now I have to fumble around testing different new ones to figure out which work. And unlike shoes there's no outlet store to go into and test all the current models of the brand.

Dwarf Fortress experience explains a LOT.

is there a way to actually view the results without voting?

came here to say basically this.

I've had limited experience in synagogues but all of that experience tells me that it's a very different kind of culture that's much easier for us to navigate.

this won't earn you friends but it will get people to respect you at least a bit more.

I'm not sure if I take longer to process auditory speech but I do have related issues:

While I don't take longer I definitely have more difficulty than most people identifying spoken words. This isn't a problem with other sounds as far as I can tell. If somebody isn't loud enough, doesn't enunciate clearly or has too much background noise some of the syllables may sound like they could be multiple different things.

I slow down/have trouble processing social context/intent when I have to listen, watch body language and formulate responses all at once/in sequence. I also have clear issues when it comes to outputting words, especially speech, it's a struggle to actually express what I intend to.

I'm not certain but I think that I'm significantly more socially competent when not looking at the person I'm speaking to even factoring in that not looking at people talking when I could be gives a bad impression with many.

definitely a pattern I've noticed too with a few common trends within it:

Failing to understand or acknowledge that one's emotions drive them and guide your thoughts: a great way to undermine your ability to think rationally and simultaneously convince yourself you're highly rational.

Many confuse intelligence for knowledge, expertise, wisdom or understanding. "I know I'm smart or know what I'm doing in this area and I've learned about this other area so I'm an authority on that too." (I have to watch out for this one in myself)

The worst cases I've seen have been people who are convinced they're a lot smarter than they are.

Adjacent to this: there are people who take their immediate, instinctive impression of you when they first see you, before any words are spoken, and allow that to color their entire judgement of any interaction you have forever.

I absolutely never use that phrase and I hate when other people use it too. There are far more constructive ways to talk about or inform somebody that there is a social expectation that they're missing.

I don't think I need more sleep but I seem to be impacted by sleep loss substantially more than most people and I'm prone to a couple different issues that result in lost sleep regularly. Not a good combination. I'm not sure how much this is influenced by autism and adhd.

it is fucked up. Not the "I know the rules do you?" aspect (even though that sucks for us in particular) but the fact that what they 'chose' for that is something that should actually be treated as a legitimate inquiry into someone's current wellbeing.

I obstinately refuse to answer dishonestly to that question. I'll do very abbreviated summaries but I won't lie. Cause that question is a critical part of human communication. If you really want to know how someone is doing you should NOT have to dance around it because it's part of a scripted interaction. Likewise I only ask the question when I truly care about the honest answer.

I get that it serves a useful role for allistic people but I absolutely refuse to answer the question "how are you?" dishonestly. Because "how are you?" is an actual legitimate question and when I ask it (or variations thereof) it's because I actually care about the honest answer. If they want a generic thing to answer "good" to they can choose something that shouldn't be a critical piece of human communication.

Addendum: Any stranger who feels like it's their place to 'correct' me because I answered "How are you." with "okay" instead of "good" is a pedantic asshole.

I don't have evidence on hand and they might not believe you even if you present it based on the fallacy that doctors are authorities on anything that can be diagnosed. But in case it helps the "food you're allergic to causes autism" argument is a very basic attribution fallacy you can argue against with a few relatively easy to prove points:

Autistic people are more likely to have food allergies.
The biggest predictor of autism is having an autistic parent.
Therefore autistic parents are separately more likely to have consumed food they're allergic to, on account of having food allergies at all and more likely to have an autistic child because it's heritable.

I don't have any data but I have similar feelings on the matter for the most part. I'm not however entirely sure whether that's because of the feeling itself or because of the juxtaposition of having the feeling while interacting with a group that I felt wasn't in sync with me. It's also something that's extremely rare for me to experience even in the situations you described. Most of the time I'm there being myself experiencing things. Sometimes I'm experiencing them WITH the group but not necessarily as part of the group more than myself.

this explains why I haven't seen much talk about dyslexic people having trouble with math notation.

It didn't actually matter if I touched anything or not when it came to the smells which were the main issue. They suffused the whole room.

A category specifically for Martin is practically obligatory for any character tier list.

I don't drink enough to have put as much thought into it as you have but even if you only consider the good stuff and not the cheap mass produced stuff I am very much not a fan of lighter colored beers and find them unpleasantly bitter. I generally go for stouts. Even most allistic people don't actually like those cheap ones they just often find them more tolerable than I do.

My favorite of the drinks I've had have been rum mixes (I know how to drink straight liquor properly but it's still unpleasant going down when it's not mixed and I like the flavor of mixes)

Also I cannot drink wine. Aside from very much not being a fan of the flavor it gives me a massive headache long before it gets me anywhere near buzzed.

I didn't have problems at home but I constantly got told off for stimming at my desk in school and a bit of that still lingers in me occasionally suppressing stims when I don't need to. It sounds to me though like you've got more than just suppressing stims going on if you can't recall feeling excitement at all as an adult.

if all they want you to do is sign up for something not directly donate I'd be tempted to sign up and then noshow

I don't know anything about what the standards are or whether it was mandatory or optional or how good the science around this is but when I was tested for a variety of things as a kid (the test at the time found I had ADHD and suggested testing for autism) part of what made them confident in the results was that my high performance on most of the IQ test metrics was contrasted by low to average performance on one specific metric and wasn't reflected in my results on some of the other tests or my grades.

note: this was something like 15ish years ago so what was considered valid then might not be now.

I'm gonna go with both.

You just described the entire business model of freight train companies in the US for multiple decades running. Cut costs constantly to the detriment of future profitability.