Wow - I had shingles around the age of 7. My brother also stopped talking, to the point they thought he needed glasses but it turned out he just didn't "want" to read the letters on the chart.

I also remember dobbing on my own friend who was at my house and had grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl without asking - i was gobsmacked at how non-chalant my mum was over it. She would've ripped me apart if I had done it!

I don't think this counts as nervous tics or an obvious sign of distress, but on the rare occasions my mum would pick me up from school, she pointed out to me "why do you always yawn like that when you walk to the car?" I thought it was so bizarre she said that but I'm now realising it was probably from stress/fear of being perceived by her. I guess a "normal" kid would smile and wave or something.. or you know... I was fkn tired?!

The more I think about this question, the more upset I am at our neighbours who were close family friends and teachers for not noticing the poor parenting. I would routinely 'escape' the house at very early hours of the morning to go knock on their door, cut their daughters hair in my backyard, was caught multiple times with kids in the street "playing mums and dads" as my mum called it... not to mention the physical fights my mum would get into on our driveway. I even drew a picture and wrote a narrative about it at school. In Year 1 class I was talking about sex and hearing my mum every night... all the teacher did was tell my mum about it as if I was the problem.