10 things

I found this on the internet one day and thought it would be interesting for people to know. There are 10 things,I thought that I would just post 1 or 2 per day.

1. I am first and foremost a child. I have autism. I am not primarily "autistic." My autism is only one aspect of my total character. It does not define me as a person. Are you a person with thoughts, feelings and many talents, or are you just fat (overweight), myopic (wears glasses) or klutzy (uncoordinated, not good at sports? Those may be things that I see first when I meet you, but they are not necessarily what you are all about.
As an adult, you have some control over how you define yourself. If you want to single out a single characteristic, you can make that known. As a child, I am still unfolding. Neither you nor I yet know what I may be capable of. Defining me by one characteristic runs the danger of setting up an expectation that may be too low. And if I get a sense that you don't think I "can do it", my natural response will be :Why try?
2. My sensory perceptions are disordered. Sensory integration my be the most difficult aspect of autism to understand, but it is arguably the most critical. This means that the ordinary sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches of every day that you may not even notice can be downright painful fo me. The very environment in which I have to live often seems hostile. I may appear withdrawn of belligerent to you, but I am really just trying to defend myself. Here is why a "simple" trip to the grocery store my be hell for me.
My hearing may be hyper-acute. Dozens of people are talking at once. The loudspeaker booms today's special. Musak whines from the sound system. Cash registers beep and cough, a coffee grinder is chugging. The meat cutter screeched, babies wail, carts creak, the fluorescent lighting hums. My brain can't filter all the input and I'm on overload!

My sense of smell my be highly sensitive. The fish at the meat counter isn't quite fresh, the guy standing next to us hasn't showered today, the deli is handing out sausage samples, the baby is line ahead of us has a poopy diaper, they're mopping up pickles on aisle 3 with ammonia…
I can't sort it all out. I am dangerously nauseated.

Because I am visually oriented (see more on this below),this may be my first sense to become over stimulated. The fluorescent light is not only too bright, it buzzes and hums. The room seems to pulsate and it hurts my eyes. The pulsating light bounces off everything and distorts what I am seeing--the space seems to be constantly changing. There's glare from windows, too many items for me to be able to focus (I may compensate with "tunnel vision", moving fans on the ceiling, so many bodies in constant motion. All this affects my vestibular and proprioceptive senses, and now I can't even tell where my body is in space.

P.S. I wish I could remember where I got this, I did not come up with this myself.