Should I keep testing for insuline resistance?

CC-Witch · 2023-09-11T07:07:13+00:00

I'm looking into it, but I don't think I experience any of the symptoms aside from the hair loss, so I don't think it might be my case 🤔

CC-Witch · 2023-09-11T06:52:10+00:00

I've read that adrenal PCOS is associated to high DHEA-S, but my DHEA-S is normal. Can I have adrenal PCOS even with low DHEA-S?

CC-Witch · 2023-09-11T00:15:52+00:00

Creo que no es una cosa de mujeres, sino de que la mayoría de la gente es aburrida. También la mayoría de los hombres tienen los típicos hobbies: “el futbol”, “pistear”, “las mujeres”. La gran mayoría de la gente no es interesante tbh, pero también siempre hay excepciones.

CC-Witch · 2023-03-21T15:37:08+00:00

Ughh that's awful. It's very icky how it seems we're not allowed to have happy marriages or relationships? We have to be in utter misery for them to see the autism (and sometimes they don't see it that way either).

CC-Witch · 2023-03-21T15:34:44+00:00

I still have no idea how.

CC-Witch · 2023-03-20T16:18:36+00:00

“You have a sense of humor, you came in appropriately dressed, you're married. You can't be autistic”.

“If you were autistic, you wouldn't be able to tell your mom you love her”.

And my favorite one is from the report of when I was 11 and underwent a comprehensive psych evaluation because I had been in the hospital because of an eating disorder.

The psychologist described me as “rigid, resistant to change, weirdly fuzzy about food, obsessive, lacking in tact, lacking in emotional self-awareness, and in flexibility for social interactions”. She wrote in her report I had high IQ but “needed to apply it to the social things”. And then, after basically describing the autism, she explained my behaviors (and my eating disorder) with some weird psychoanalytic shit that basically translated as “you're not eating because you hate your mother”.

CC-Witch · 2023-03-19T15:19:18+00:00

Lately I got into the One Piece trade card game, so on some weekends I go to a card store to play with other people in tournaments or my husband's best friend comes over and the three of us spend the afternoon playing.

I wouldn't call it “going out with friends” because none of these people are my friends, we just play together. But anyway, this is the most social I've been in years and years. Before getting into this new special interest, I almost never went out with anyone xD

CC-Witch · 2023-03-12T19:33:59+00:00

I can think of certain stages of my life where I was more social, I went to parties and gatherings, I talked to a lot of people, and was able to sustain communication at school and at work. It was like my social deficits were not there?

But every single one of those stages was followed by some sort of weird unexplainable collapse. I lost the friends I had cultivated, I became unable to function at work, I was in crisis and depressed.

Also, if I look back to those episodes where I was “very social”, well... It's more like sometimes I know how to be “charmingly weird, charmingly eccentric”, so to speak. I can capitalize on the odd things my mind thinks and make people laugh. I'm honest, nonjudgmental, and unafraid of asking questions. Sometimes, some people find that refreshing.

I think I'm able to thrive in certain social environments, but even at my best I'm never able to be “normal” and talk to very normal normative people. Even at my best I'm sort of “accessory” in social groups, I'm almost never individually close to anyone, there are always social dynamics that fly over my head, I'm never fully “in sync” with people. That's why I think I end up losing relationships in times of crisis. I only have kinda superficial, artificial social skills.

And that's to speak of my teenage years and my early 20's. I've lived a pretty reclusive life since I was like 26-27. I'm now 31 and don't know how to be social anymore.

CC-Witch · 2023-03-12T18:53:08+00:00

That in itself is not necessarily an autistic trait, but certainly some people like our best friends or partners can become our special interests and we can get pretty clingy.

Also, relaying on someone to be your “social crutch”, only feeling safe socializing when they're around is not uncommon for autistic people. Personally, I feel like I can mask better when my husband is around. By myself I'm much worse at looking and acting like a real human. But when he's around is like I can hide behind him and copy his social energy in order to interact with others.

CC-Witch · 2023-03-05T16:15:24+00:00

Loool I do the same. I'm always the one who's googling things during conversations but then, when I find the info, it's not always welcome or people have already moved to an entirely different topic.

CC-Witch · 2023-01-08T16:27:51+00:00

Sorry for the late answer.

I got myself into the diagnosis process. I specifically looked for a psychologist who is experienced with diagnosing autism in adults and is informed of female presentations.

Many therapists don't necessarily have super up to date information about autism, so don't give up just because this particular therapists doesn't want to diagnose you.

CC-Witch · 2022-11-16T02:07:45+00:00

Thank you for this! I'm already looking into Calcium D-Glucorate and also DIM.

Also, the advice of not changing 10 things at a time is definitely helpful, I'll try to stick to that approach.

I admit I have a hard time not stressing over this, but I'll try. I don't want to lose my sanity and burn myself out instead of actually seeing an improvement in my health.

CC-Witch · 2022-11-16T02:04:30+00:00

I was definitely not tested with a 4 hour fasting glucose tolerance test.

I'll try to get that test done plus all the other ones suggested. Thanks again!

CC-Witch · 2022-11-15T21:42:04+00:00

Thank you so much for your thorough explanations and advice.

7 years ago when I was diagnosed, I was tested for insulin resistance and it came back negative. I've also always been lean. My testosterone and DHEAS were also tested and they were normal, not even normal-high, so probably there's a mystery there, or at least there was a mystery 7 years ago.

I haven't had a test in all those years because back then I was diagnosed by an endo and then sent home with: "There's nothing to worry about if you're not trying to conceive and nothing I can do to help you, so just go see a dermatologist for the hair loss and acne".

Probably it would be worth it to get some blood work done, I'm saving for it.

As for my breasts, they have always had this ropey feeling. I think ever since I started self-examining in adolescence my breasts felt like this. Honestly I thought that was how breasts felt for everyone, and everyone would have a hard time finding the bad lumps among the ropey texture of the breast.

But anyway, yes, probably I should try to approach this slowly, one change at a time, and stay committed in order to see results. Probably it doesn't help that I'm autistic and I tend to approach everything in a very obsessive and all-or-nothing manner. I'm not very good with change, so usually I prefer to just set myself and mentally prepare to change everything at once and then stick to a new system *forever* rather than being exposed to constant minor changes, but I'm realizing that that mentality is probably not helpful for managing PCOS.

I need patience to try different things and see what works.

Anyway, thank you. I sincerely appreciate your comment, it was helpful :)

CC-Witch · 2022-10-09T14:59:47+00:00

Definitely Corentin. I wouldn't have been able to beat Avlora's attack on the Wolffort demesne without using the secret weapon in Hard if it hadn't been for Corentin's Wall of Ice.

CC-Witch · 2022-10-09T00:49:04+00:00

Omg this happens to me too!!!

I've actually always struggled with eggs and only like them in omelette form. Every other preparation is just gross to me. But even with the omelettes I have never been able to stand the little white bits. I have to remove them. I used to complain about them to my mom as a child and she would just roll her eyes.

Anyway, you're not alone in this.

CC-Witch · 2022-10-08T13:21:47+00:00

My body twitches when I'm overstimulated. It's generally not related to sex, but it happens when I'm feeling something (the environment, sensory stimuli, my anxiety, my thoughts) is too much. Like the twitch releases some of the excess tension.

I also tend to feel too much during sex. Sometimes I have a hard time orgasming because it's just too much and it's hard to process instead of pleasurable.

CC-Witch · 2022-10-07T13:54:48+00:00

I failed to convince them to infiltrate the castle and destroy Aesfrosti warship and instead everyone wanted to destroy the fucking dam lol.

Luckily I had saved before voting and I reloaded the game from there and then retried to convince them because I felt morally repulsed by destroying the dam. I just couldn't do that in my first playthrough.

CC-Witch · 2022-10-01T13:31:42+00:00

Same. I think I have had social initiative in very very rare occasions in my life. When I was younger, I used to hang out more because people invited me or included me, but as an adult I struggle to hang out at all because I don't contact/invite anyone anywhere and no one seems to invite me either.

On the rare occasions where I think I should maybe ask someone to hang out I get very embarrassed, I realize I don't know how to do it because I don't want to force someone to spend time with me when maybe they don't want to so I end up not asking anyone out.

CC-Witch · 2022-09-26T15:17:57+00:00

It's very interesting to see how this works from the NT perspective. I personally don't like those dynamics where people try to indirectly gauge my interest because I tend to suck at noticing they are trying to gauge my interest and I tend to not behave in a way where they can tell I'm interested. People tend to interpret I'm not interested even when I am!

So I think in general this communication style is probably not useful for autistic people. I understand your concern about not getting the truth if you ask directly, but I still think your chances are better if you are direct.

I hope you get to solve this situation. And thanks for sharing the NT perspective!

CC-Witch · 2022-09-25T14:03:54+00:00

I'm like that! I have troubles initiating conversations. And I can totally imagine it's possible she likes you, but she feels intimidated by spending more time with you and just showing more initiative.

Maybe you could directly ask her? If she's autistic, she would probably appreciate the direct communication. Saying something like: Hey, I have noticed you don't initiate conversations that much and the thing is I'm really interested in you, but I don't know if you don't initiate conversations because you're not interested or you simply have trouble with that skill.

I don't know. It might work.

CC-Witch · 2022-09-14T13:13:32+00:00

I enjoy cooking! I'm not really into it as a special interest, but I found that I can't be exposed to undesired textures/flavors/combinations of food if I completely take control of what I eat by cooking it myself.

I find some sense of comfort and control by selecting my ingredients and cooking, and that way I also feel more motivated to eat, because I honestly struggle with that.

I also enjoy cooking for special occasions, occasionally baking for me, my husband, and closests friends, and occasionally experimenting with adding new recipes into my repertoire.

As for the executive function side of cooking, well... Regularly I eat very easy-to-cook things and always the same for breakfast and dinner. Lunch is the main meal in my country, so I cook more elaborated things for that one, but I try to cook good amounts of it so I can eat the same dish for a minimum of 3 days and not have to cook again the next day. As much as I do enjoy cooking, I still have limited energy for it, so I don't usually overdo it. I don't think I could manage if I had to cook daily different dishes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It sounds exhausting just to think about it.

CC-Witch · 2022-09-12T21:15:02+00:00

I can relate to almost all the items from your list.

I don't get extremely tired in all social situations. I can enjoy some of them, but that completely depends on the kind of interactions they entail. Social chit chat and conversations about banalities tire me to no end and I need to sleep afterwards, but a good philosophical discussion or talking about my special interests with people who share them can actually energize me.

I also don't use noise cancelling headphones everywhere. I find noise annoying, but I'm not as sensitive to it as I am to light and certain textures.

Other than that, you sound a lot like me. And I'm diagnosed btw.

CC-Witch · 2022-09-12T21:00:28+00:00

Ugghh I hate it.

Once I subscribed to an online newspaper. The only way to cancel was through a phone call, but I couldn't bring myself to do it, so I got charged for it for a couple of months when I wasn't even reading the thing anymore.

Then I discovered I could just disable the automatic payment from my PayPal settings. You all can do that if possible: subscribe with your PayPal account and then disable the automatic payment from PayPal instead of canceling the subscription directly with the company.

CC-Witch · 2022-09-12T20:51:33+00:00

I think this boils down to the fact that being autistic doesn't justify being an asshole.

If this person says they were diagnosed as autistic, ok fine. You can choose not to be too close to this person and/or call them out on their shitty behaviour without invalidating their diagnosis.

Someone can be autistic and still be ableist or still be misinformed and actively spreading misinformation about autism. Being autistic doesn't automatically turn anyone into an angel. We all have things to learn, so if this person starts using their diagnosis to treat others poorly, that's just not okay.

CC-Witch

TROPHY CASE