As a child/teen I:
-Was very social, and wanted to do things with others
-Liked summertime and summer activities
-Liked colorful clothing
-Loved hugs
-Was very empathetic, loved helping people and trying to understand how they feel.
-Had relatively good social skills, especially as a teen
-Had much better hygeine
-Didn't like dolls. My idea of a doll as a child was G.I. Joe.
-Obsessively organized things like movie and CD collections, often
-Held movies as a special interest, maybe my only one as a child. If 200 new movies came out in a year, I found a way to watch 150 of them.
-Liked a small amount of food items as a child, then fell in love with food as a preteen/teen
As an adult I:
-Avoid confrontation and people to every extent possible
-Hate summertime, have seasonal affective disorder.
-Have a wardrobe that is 80% black. I think the only reason the other 20% consists of color is to stop my mother from saying anything.
-Don't like being touched generally, unless I initiate contact
-Am hardly empathetic at all. I took the EQ score yesterday and got 10 of 80. I took it a few months ago and got 15 of 80.
-Can rarely force eye contact, I put my feet in chairs in public and slouch. My facial expression tends to stay the same during conversation.
-Have poor hygeine, possibly because my routine of hygeine was imterrupted as a child. I would take a bath every day for 45 minutes, and my mother told me I had to stop taking such long baths. I haven't been right since.
-Like playing with online dolls and dressing them up. I can spend hours doing this.
-Obsessively organize far less but I have my moments
-Still love movies but I have other special interests, and I don't obsess over movies. And I only watch ones I'm interested in. So if 200 movies come out in a year, I'll watch 5-10 and it will take me 2 years.
-Don't really like food. A lot of it is texture sensitivity. I love making and staging food though.
So I've basically gone from pretending to be a normal child (and in hindsight not really getting away with it) because I thought I had to, to zero given. Bad life experiences can account for some of it but not all.