The_Empty_Tuple

Not at all; that’s not something I can know. But if you struggle with the things outlined in this post to an unhealthy degree, it might be worth talking to somebody much more educated than me to figure out the source of your symptoms and learn how to handle them within that context.

I have ADHD, not autism, but this is something I hear a lot, and I think this is a mischaracterization of what these conditions are and how they impact daily life. Most mental illnesses/disorders/etc aren’t just defined by unique and niche symptoms, but also by issues most people have experienced, but cranked up to 100 and present all the time.

Take depression for example: we’ve all felt sad at some point, and maybe even had times where we had low motivation and felt empty due to grief or stress, but if these struggles are permanent and all-consuming to the point where you struggle with life, you may have a disorder.

Some of the things listed in the image make sense when done in response to a certain stimulus, or in a specific context. But if you’re living your entire life in this way, something is clearly off-center.

There’s also a lot of overlap with symptoms between different disorders, but understanding the source of these behaviors can be crucial in learning how to deal with them. Just because ‘hiding ones feelings’ isn’t unique to autism, that doesn’t make it less unhealthy.

• P.S. edit: Looks like you might not see this since I’m on kbin. Maybe someone on my side of the Fediverse finds this tidbit of wildlife knowledge!

I’ve had some experience with seabird and waterfowl nesting research so this caught my attention. I haven’t come across anything like this personally, but I’ve only ever worked with larger birds with higher nest building costs and greater territorial behavior across seasons.

Apparently this is a common behavior with some bird species, and it’s baffled scientists for a while.

I managed to find a specific explanation for American Robins (excerpt below). I can’t guarantee the validity of this author’s ‘supernormal stimuli’ explanation, but it’s a compelling one:

A. This is a question we hadn’t been asked before, so we wrote to Len Eiserer, the author of The American Robin: A Backyard Institution. Len answered:

"Building multiple nests simultaneously happens every now and again with robins. One started 26 different nests on roof rafters of a garage under construction; another built 8 on successive steps of a fire escape. Support from underneath is the primary site selection factor for the female robin — it’s more important than concealment. Because some human structures provide repetitive sites with strong support, the female can get seduced into building multiple nests.

This is an example of “supernormal stimuli” — artificial stimuli that are even more effective than those provided by Mother Nature (tree limbs). Animals have a hard time resisting supernormal stimuli. There are many examples. Your robin will probably settle on one site and just lay eggs in that nest, or else just incubate eggs in that nest after laying, say, one egg in one nest and two in the other. She won’t lay two complete sets of eggs and try to incubate both of them at the same time."