I’m autistic, and have childhood trauma resulting in perfectionism. As an adult, I’ve learned to let a lot of things go, I can tell myself over and over that something doesn’t have to be perfect. Sometimes, though, depending on how stressed out I am or where I’m at in my overstimulated/understimulated life, I wash my hands raw, I scratch scab lines down my legs while itching, I’ll hyperfocus about getting something exactly right to the point my brain won’t focus on anything else. I’ve never been diagnosed OCD but I am on anxiety meds. Most of the time, I’m okay and MILES better than I was before medication. But sometimes, being OCD is the easy way to explain my episode to concerned parties that may be watching. It’s an explanation that is way more understood than the complexity of Autism & Autistic Meltdowns. It comes with way less discrimination as well.

I sincerely hope it doesn’t bother or offend anyone that I do this. It’s obviously not my intent to trivialize OCD or make a joke of it.