re: Is Autism some sort of new badge of honor?

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Any ideas on best ways family could have helped you more or recommendations for kids around 12-13 who are on the spectrum or would have been labeled Asperger’s years ago?

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Social cues! For autistic people, they straight up don’t understand them…like AT ALL! This isn’t such a big deal when you’re a little kid because kids are allowed to be a little weird without too many consequences. However, once you get to br a teen, it’s a massive social barrier. I literally had to teach myself how to interact with people by copying the mannerisms of characters on tv. I had to interpret people’s words and actions as I would watch a sitcom because that was the only way I had to make sense of it. It only kinda worked.

The other thing is task sequencing. Often times, I get stuck in these weird logic loops like a computer program that is malfunctioning. A common example:
A. I want food. I don’t have any fresh food in the house. I have to leave the house for food.
B. Before you can leave the house, you have to shower.
C. You need to have clean clothes to change into before you can shower.
D. Clean clothes are In laundry room outside.
E. Outside is anywhere other people can see you. Your neighbors can see you in your backyard or carport going to the laundry room.
E. You cannot leave house without shower.

Then, my brain like shuts down with the human equivalent pf a 404 File not found error. I can be trapped in a loop like that for literally hours until I finally figure out how to make some food out of what’s available or figure out some kind of way to “override” the program and get my clothes out of the laundry room. It’s not laziness, it’s an issue with how my brain sequences tasks.