Dielyr

Not to discredit your experience, but I had the opposite. I was damn near worshipped by the department for choosing to go into computer science, and even before going to university my high school did everything it could to shove as many women into engineering, mechanics, and tech as possible.

I found THAT invalidating, and I don't remember a single instance of my abilities being questioned because of my sex.

A lot of resources say that autism presents a little differently in women. I just got an autism diagnosis at 23 and my therapist often mentions how it's overlooked more often in women. How young were you diagnosed, and did you have a harder time getting a diagnosis than others? Who and what first brought it to you or your family's attention? I noticed you said that you can't stand water on your face, I'd imagine that would be pretty noticeable in childhood.

How do you do with social stuff - I see you have anxiety (me too), do you have certain categories of social behavior that you do better in than others (like better or worse at 'script speaking', like is taught at service jobs ['how may I help you', etc], better or worse at knowing how to comfort people, and so on)?

(I'm interested in answers from anyone to the social category questions btw)

I probably misspoke. It was "hoo-rah girl power/nice to see so many women here/let me help you succeed specifically" stuff from women in the department. The men didn't act any differently towards me than they did to my classmates. The professors who did it were sexist, yeah, but not negatively towards women.

I think /u/scootstah has a point, you'd probably want to test and practice the grip strength before putting anything important in there.

Interesting! My family thought the same thing of me - that it was "just [my] quirks", and even now they aren't exactly sanguine about the whole diagnosis, but I guess that's because I was just diagnosed a few months ago.

(I hope your anxiety attacks have diminished lately)

Thank you for your response.