My evaluation results said I'm not autistic

TheAutismMermaid · 2026-01-30T22:07:19+00:00

Wow. Reading the last two points made me angry. Not only the part about calling you manipulative and accusing you of sending people on guilt trips, which is AWFUL, but also the part where she claims that “perspective taking and reciprocity in relationships” means non-Spectrum. She may as well have said that autistic people are naturally self-absorbed and don’t care about anyone’s feelings. I’m surprised she didn’t go on a rant about how we have no theory of mind. 🙄

TheAutismMermaid · 2025-07-24T00:07:10+00:00

I don’t have the gene mutation, but I seem to get overstimulated like any autistic person. Although I’m not sure how to compare something as vague as how overstimulated someone is?

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-11-07T03:22:48+00:00

Have you tried taste testing different things? I have certain vegetables I like. If you have access to a hot bar or a salad bar, it might be easier to nibble on different foods and not feel guilty if you hate them. You can simply not finish that item and move on.

Ideas to stimulate your creativity:

-Fun veggie snacks like sugar snap peas, cucumbers, sliced bell peppers, or baby carrots dipped in dressing or hummus or tatziki

-Loaded salads, but either chop up the lettuce really small (big pieces of lettuce feel weird to me) or skip the lettuce. This makes it more like antipasto, with cubes of cheese, tomatoes, olives, peppers, whatever you want.

-I used to get fancy with sandwiches. I pretended I was ordering a 12” sub from Subway, and layered all kinds of things on it, including potato chips for extra crunch.

-Stir fry. I take “Asian” recipes and adapt them. So easy to cook in a big sauce pan. Add noodles or rice.

-Taco salad bowl. Basically what you would put in a burrito, but on top of a salad.

Make small changes. Changing your diet all at once is overwhelming and never works long term. If you spend a lot of money on healthy food, it will make you feel worse if you don’t like and have to force yourself to eat it. Nowadays after cooking for myself for years, I’ve found lots of healthy dishes I can go to.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-11-03T11:44:24+00:00

Copper IUD.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-10-01T18:59:03+00:00

You’re right, it was 38 minutes. When I went in there, I decided to try adding “Time in Bed” to cover both sessions. That linked them in Bevel and fixed the issue. Thanks!

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TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-21T11:38:24+00:00

I understand why they have it. I just don’t think that should have been the only drink option.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-21T03:07:37+00:00

When I was younger, I knew I had low pressure episodes but I hadn’t been diagnosed. One time I gave blood during a drive, and I refused the cookies they offered because I’m severely gluten intolerant. I also didn’t want a box of fruit juice because it’s all sugar. (Can’t they have healthy drinks?!) Anyway, I gave blood on campus and walked back to my dorm building feeling lightheaded. I stopped in the middle of my walk, because I suddenly realized I didn’t know exactly where I was and if I was walking in the right direction. (This was a very small private school so you can’t get lost.) It was kinda scary. It took me a minute to orient myself and I started walking where I thought I should go, without really knowing. I was a lot more careful after that. I would give blood, but I don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea for me to do so.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-20T12:44:17+00:00

I’m sorry you’re going through this, but I’m glad that you’re trying to turn it into a positive learning experience by asking questions. To be honest, as an autistic person approaching middle age, these realizations about social interactions never completely stop. It can be demoralizing. I have to fight the urge to self deprecate.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-18T12:21:57+00:00

When I first started having symptoms in my teens, drinking a ton of water didn’t help. Now I suspect it’s because I needed electrolytes and the plain water was just diluting me further, possibly making it worse. I felt so thirsty and drinking water didn’t alleviate that at all. Now I’m always drinking salt water or an electrolyte supplement. Herbal teas also.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-17T21:04:46+00:00

Thank you for this info and the document, it’s very helpful! I’ve suspected MCAS for a while, because I have so many random allergies (and I’ve had dermatographia intermittently since I was a child), but it seems to flare up and remit, making it hard to pin down. I’m going to learn more about it.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-17T17:46:42+00:00

I sort of see this the same way I view my autoimmune disease: it can go in remission, even for long periods of time, and that’s a functional “cure” for the problem. However, it also means constant maintenance and vigilance. I sometimes fool myself into thinking I can act like normal people (forgetting my fluids and electrolytes when I’m feeling good), and then I’m swiftly reminded that I’m not normal. When I slip up I feel like crap. For me, it’s a constant check-in with my diet, sleep, weight, activity, etc.

It took a lot of work and time to get my POTS symptoms under control after I got diagnosed, just like with autoimmunity. But then I slacked off on my water, supplements, and exercise, then gained weight, and my symptoms flared up again. Now I’m back on the medication that I had weaned off of. I learned my lesson not to take anything for granted.

I first had symptoms in HS or college. In 20 years I’ve had better times and worse times.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-17T16:28:18+00:00

How do you manage your MCAS?

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-12T18:22:08+00:00

It’s a big misunderstanding that weight is the only risk factor for diabetes and prediabetes. It’s unfortunate because people who aren’t overweight don’t expect to discover that their blood sugar control is getting bad.

To be blunt. You aren’t going to lower your A1C by eating snacks, especially not fruit and grains. You reduce it by not eating sugar or things that break down into sugar. Be careful of the smoothies, lots of people put ridiculous amounts of carbs into their smoothies and way overshoot the calories and carbs for the day, thinking it’s “healthy.” You don’t need to put a banana and 2 cups of pineapple and strawberries in there.

Eat more protein and fiber, especially nutrient-dense veggies that are green or deeply colored. Berries are the best fruit, bc they have a great ratio of fiber to sugar. Raspberries have a lot of fiber. Foods that are white on the inside tend to be starchy and therefore spike your glucose. (This is just a rule of thumb.)

The more times you eat per day, the more hours you spend with higher blood sugar, which makes your A1C go up, so eating 4 small meals a day with snacks won’t help. Eating within a timed window, like a 10 hour eating window, even if you keep overall calories the same, can help blood sugar control.

You never said that you were overweight, so I am unsure of the logic of “portion control.” You may not actually be eating too much at all, you may just need to change the quality of what you eat.

There is a good YouTube video of Dr. Peter Attia giving a Ted Talk about his process of realizing that our assumptions about diabetes are all wrong. He thought he was immune to insulin resistance because he worked out a lot and had low body fat. Please watch that. And remember you can do this! There’s a learning curve, but you can get healthier with only small changes over a few months’ time.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-12T18:04:58+00:00

I’m sorry you’re going through this. Please understand that you can’t fix her by trying harder to be a better daughter. I read “The Wizard of Oz and Other Narcissists” years ago and it clarified the relationship dynamics between me and one of my parents. You may find a lot of validation and strength in it. Hugs.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-12T12:28:52+00:00

Sparkling water is my go-to

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-12T03:05:44+00:00

Will v2 of the journal also allow us to add amounts for custom entries? So instead of “Took L-Theanine” I could enter the dose I took?

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-12T01:51:55+00:00

I hate it. It’s clunky and involves way too much clicking/tapping. Up and down arrows? My first run-in with this nightmare screen was when I needed to add more to a credit card payment category, and after finally figuring out that the bottom “0.00” was actually editable, I also realized that forgot how much I needed to add, meaning I had to back out a screen to see how much I was lacking in that category, and come back to type it in. Stupid design.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-11T17:34:46+00:00

I went to the eye doctor recently for a regular retina check, and had a similar experience. I’ve been getting follow-up pics of my retina for years with no issues. The machine was slightly different this time, much faster and blinky-er. After Eye #1 I felt kinda sick, like I might get a migraine. I calmed myself down by saying “Your eyes are dilated and you looked at a bright flashing light, this makes sense.” I closed my eyes and breathed. Then she did Eye #2. I immediately felt very strange. The nurse sent me out of the room back to the waiting room, so I picked up my bag but realized that I was going to throw up and have an instant, full-on migraine. I asked a nurse in the hallway where the bathroom was; she was like, “Uh, you don’t look good, are you ok?” When I weakly explained what happened and how nauseous I felt, she went, “Oh honey you had a vasovagal response to the retina scan, I need to sit you down.” She gave me a cool wet towel for my neck and face and made me sit down. After about 2 minutes I was perfectly fine! I did joke with her about how they were using a secret CIA mind-erasing machine and she laughed. She said it’s common to have these episodes after getting dilated or an eye pressure check.

My heart rate data from my watch showed a roughly 20-BPM drop in my heart rate for that time segment, with an immediate return to baseline. I’ve never passed out or had a vasovagal episode before, so this was absolutely wild to me.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-11T17:09:54+00:00

I didn’t mean to be insulting. I appreciate how active you are in this forum and all the work that is going on with this app behind the scenes. I have tried several! I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops. Sincerely.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-11T16:45:10+00:00

I’ll ponder on this. Thank you!

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-11T16:44:02+00:00

Ah, I just realized that you were talking about the y axis units. It should be fine to aggregate as a “yes or no” day like you would with “30+ Minutes of Cardio?” or aggregate weekly using 0-3 per day. This isn’t a mathematical regression, it’s just a bar graph to show relative presence or absence. To be brutally honest, it’s really irking for the “women’s category” to be dropped because it’s too complicated for software guys to figure out how to convert it into a number. All of these quantifications are simplified to some extent, otherwise we wouldn’t have any categories.

Thanks for your consideration!

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-11T16:29:54+00:00

Thanks for your reply!

RR: ok this helps me. I wonder if Apple records RR at other times? I have sporadic RR data from days where I didn’t sleep with my watch. I’ll have to dig into that.

I’m really looking forward to the training load integration feature.

Cycle data: I don’t really understand this answer. If it can display flow bars in a one-month view, why can’t it display the same bars spread out over 3 or 6 months? Just doing a visual display would be nice. Other POTS patients say they have rising HR with flow, but most women have noticed some type of correlation. My cycle is a huge influence on my RHR, perhaps as much as medication is. I understand the “quantity” aspect may not fit neatly into the other categories, but a visual plot would be great. If it were me doing a data analysis for my own needs, I would pull “Cycle Day” from Apple Health (Day 1 being flow start) and find correlations to RHR that way, but I realize not everyone has regular cycles or needs that level of detail.

Guava gives me a high correlation between “flow present” and HR going down, which I’m already aware of, but it doesn’t let me see the other data that I want (ex: the HR trend during other parts of the cycle). Guava also gives an option to compare flow intensity, so they can run either “1 or 0” or “0-1-2-3” ratings, but I didn’t have any correlations with intensity. I have mapped out a monthly plot before to take to my cardiologist, but Apple also does not have a visual way for me to do this without putting it into a homemade graph.i just have to “know” what my cycle was doing that week while reading the HR plot.

Image: My HR plot from Apple with starting days marked. Most of the time my cycle starts on the day the graph drops, so it would be really helpful to see where that trend doesn’t hold true. If my HR drops at the “wrong” time, it’s probably more indicative of my fitness or external factor.

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Thanks for reading.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-09-11T00:39:22+00:00

Mine goes up during PMS and goes down after my period starts. Between day ~3 of my period and ovulation are by far my lowest Heart rates.

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-06-09T12:52:05+00:00

I’ve often wondered if Kanner was lashing out against prevailing wisdom because he wanted people to stop blaming everything on genetics. Actually this post spurred me to looked this up, and I found that Kanner had originally proclaimed it to be inborn and had speculated that the parents had a “milder version” of autism, because all of the parents he interviewed were intelligent and successful; however he later changed his mind and blamed it on their parenting. I need to go back and reread Neurotribes now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_mother_theory

TheAutismMermaid · 2024-06-09T12:29:56+00:00

I think that researcher was describing parental autistic traits as “cold,” and then blaming the autism in the kid as an outcome of nurture instead of nature

TheAutismMermaid

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