Processing Chronic Illness and Autism

Hi! I'm new here and have a lot of mental health and a few physical health things I would like to find community about. right now I'm going to focus on the Autism™ My brother was diagnosed at a young age due to it taking him a while to talk. I've heard that siblings tend to have autism together so that's my first clue. Second is that I've always had separation anxiety and have always needed some form of comfort item on me, though mine were more socially acceptable (compared to my brother who carried around a stinky pillow until he left at at a hotel at the age of 8). Mine had always been a notebook of some sort as soon as I started writing and drawing. Third is my sensory issues. This is usually chalked up to therapists as anxiety. As a child grocery stores used to freak me out and make me either want to cry, or made me need to move (stim a lot). I have vivid memories of getting in trouble for this as a child. As I grew it didn't change, And the same thing would happen in doctors offices, airports, most "professional" public spaces. I still can only stand to be in grocery stores for limited amounts of time and where blue light glasses or shades when I do so. Forth is social shit. which tbh I could make several other posts about. the most potent example would be my queerness being discovered mostly due to the fact that most relationship stuff never made sense to me. I got bullied because I didn't understand why people couldn't love multiple ppl at once, scolded when toddler me would get frustrated when there couldn't be two mommy's when playing house. As a child ppl would end up not liking me for reasons and didn't understand and adults would side with them. As a grew it became clear to me that my lack of social skills are because I'm "blunt" or "bitchy". Not sure what to think about this still... but yeah! may be autistic. my childhood best friend just thought I knew I was....thoughts?

Living with ADHD, ASD, and Anxiety: My Journey to Self-Discovery

Embracing My True Self: Dealing with Mental and Physical Health Issues