I'm so glad you're feeling validated, it's so miserable to be adrift in thoughts of "what's wrong with me"!
Stimming is one of those things that everyone does to an extent, since it's basically just "doing things that feel nice". The difference for neurodivergent folks is that it helps us emotionally regulate in a way that neurotypical folks don't need, so we tend to do it a lot more often (or feel extra stressed/anxious/irritable).
This is what smartphones are for. Take picture of clothing item. Take picture of clothing item tag. Save pictures in a "clothes" folder that is synced and/or backed up elsewhere and reference them as needed.
I don't know. "Functional rebalancing" would be more accurate, but kind of clunky. I can't think of anything more pithy.
I don't seem to be able to reply to WookieMunster so I'll say here:
I don't get the hype over OLED screens, honestly. The difference isn't enough for me to care, and it'll be plugged into a TV most of the time anyway. It's only a downgrade in that one area and only if you have an OLED Switch, whereas I don't have any kind of Switch and couldn't tell you which model my husband's (the one I've played) is.
"Skill regression" is such an awful term. It would be like taking a severe workaholic who is getting stress ulcers, having them develop a proper work-life balance, and calling that "productivity regression".
Honestly I'd be very surprised to see an online autism community with a majority of people professionally diagnosed, even more surprised if the majority were diagnosed as children. Even setting aside how underdiagnosed large sections of the autistic population are, the people who need to seek support and validation that they belong to a community are much more likely to be those who didn't have the right language or support as a child.
I'll maybe believe a release date when it's actually announced,. Maybe. Though I already know I'm buying the Switch successor if it's backwards compatible with Switch games, so it would be nice if this article turned out to be true.
This has turned out to be a huge wall of text, sorry.
Most autistic communities recognise that an official diagnosis is hard to get and not always helpful/necessary, so while it's wise not to say as much out in the rest of the world, it's completely valid to self-identify within an autistic space.
Feeling like you're faking the whole thing is so normal. I didn't have a self-identification journey before being diagnosed as an adult, and for the first two years after that diagnosis still felt like I wasn't actually autistic and the assessors made a mistake, or not autistic enough to "count" and give myself accommodation. It comes from a lifetime of learning that your experiences are "wrong", that you "can't trust" your own interpretations of the world around you, that you could do anything a neurotypical person can do if you just try. We late-identified are raised to doubt ourselves. It's often no one's fault, but it still takes a lot of unlearning.
What you do now is start regularly checking in with your senses. Are you feeling tense because you've been ignoring a too-bright light or an irritating noise or an uncomfortable piece of clothing? Removing those kinds of subconscious distractions is a huge relief, whether that's with headphones, earplugs, sunglasses, baseball hats, whatever works. Are you hungry/thirsty/sitting in a really uncomfortable way and haven't realised it? Solve those needs.
Then look into stimming. Physical or mental actions that you feel an urge to do and find calming. They don't have to be "weird" or socially unacceptable - spinning a pen, fiddling with a paperclip, chewing gum, twisting bracelets/wristbands/rings, squeezing a stress ball, wearing clothing that puts pressure in certain places (e.g. I wear dresses with a waist belt for pressure on my abdomen) are all possible stims. Even if it sounds completely unnecessary, try a bunch of thing and see what makes you feel safe and calm.
Chances are that if you're autistic you'll have a lot more mental energy after discovering your sensory sensitivities and stims, because it's not all going into trying to ignore all the discomforts.
The social side is less straightforward, and to be honest I've not figured it out yet. People say masking is damaging and should be avoided at all costs, but those costs can be significant. I've tried to go the route of not masking stims (having found subtle ones that work) and unapologetically wearing sunglasses indoors, but still put on the mask when it comes to communication, tone of voice, facial expressions and the like. Because my aim is to be understood, not to take a stand for all autism-kind, and the relief of meeting my sensory needs frees up a lot of the mental energy for it. Maybe that's the wrong approach, but it's the one that poses the least risk to my comfort.
If you already have an ADHD diagnosis, there probably is no point seeking an autism diagnosis. Being that there's no medical treatment, and what disability protections there are would be covered by the ADHD diagnosis, I suspect you'd be best off trying coping techniques on your own. Which is mercifully quite easy to do.
The biggest game-changer for me was considering that I might actually have sensory sensitivities. I always assumed I didn't have many, if any, but it turns out a huge chunk of my day-to-day anxiety was due to light and sound overstimulation.
Would definitely recommend, it's proper co-op (in the sense of both players having the same game experience, not the sense of needing to actually cooperate). I'm terrible at platformers so I find it challenging, an actually competent player would probably find it generally easy.
I'm going to ignore all of your advice because you prioritise a dangerous fad over avoiding a genuine risk to your child's health, and I'm not interested in doing the research to find out whether the rest are similarly problematic.
Because the number of people who won't buy it because of the LCD screen is smaller than the number of additional people who will buy it if it's $X cheaper at launch.