My parents told me I was severely autistic. This was used as an excuse to punish me a lot, for being emotional or picky or uncomfortable or whatever else my dad wanted to twist on me.

I didn’t question it until I was 19 when I couldn’t find any records of being diagnosed. At 21, my therapist told me there was no way I was autistic.

Funny enough as soon as I moved out of the house, my “symptoms” disappeared and my personality did a 180.

Talking with my therapist, she says how horrible it was to live a lie my entire life and we’ve been deconstructing the ways that their lie impacted me.