How does it feel to be autistic?

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It feels normal, to me. I'd feel strange, if I suddenly woke up an NT, one morning and I got this sudden urge to shop at The Gap.

That's like asking me what it feels like to be a human or to be a woman. I've never been another species or a man before so I have nothing to compare the experience of being human or a woman too. I've never NOT been autistic before so I can't compare being autistic to not being autistic so therefore I cannot answer the question of "What is it like to be autistic?" or "How does it feel to be autistic? I've lived in both Texas and Ohio, so I can compare what it is like to live in Texas to what it is like to live in Ohio.

This is an old thread, but I can reply. I feel that being autistic, it feels like I am the "normal" and everyone else around me is a bit strange. But I don't mind how they are, I just can't relate to some things. I always think , for example, that I do everything the normal way, or like what is normal, but it doesn't come across that way. Over time I have come to learn how it differs from the normal way. I am not a snob against "neurotypicals" or whatever they are called. In fact, I admire them. I can learn how to "act" more like them, but it doesn't feel authentic. So I only do that in case as when I have to be an actor in film/stage, etc.

It feels like I'm the only person I know who's not afraid to be them self in their purest form.

I've thought of asking people who ask me that question, "How does it feel not to be autistic?"

It feels like I have a disorder/disability that keeps me withdrawn and nonverbal and always in need of assistance and hypersensitive and unable to keep still and overly fixated on some things whilst being unable to follow and keep track of most other things.

It's a bit like being thrown into a room of lions with a disassembled AK-47. You have the tools, your life depends on it, everyone around you knows how to put it together.... for the life of me I can't understand the instructions

To me, it just feels like a learning disability.

It feels as though I am the Prime Minister of a loud and ornery parliament whose members all have their own ideas on how things ought to be run, so every task is a struggle to convince the other members to sit down and do their jobs for awhile.

It feels as though my body is a company. I, the conscious thinky part, am the CEO who decides how it's run. The workforce who handles the low-level tasks like moving limbs is dedicated and efficient. However, the middle managers who relay the decisions of the CEO into simple instructions to the workers are all incompetent, leaving me to try and bypass them by having the CEO personally assign and manage each assembly line worker.

It feels as though a neurotypical mind consists of many parts that work together seamlessly so that you never notice the distinction; they function as a cohesive whole. Being autistic means that the conscious "you" part is restricted to only some components while the others run on autopilot, doing the best they can to work despite being cut off from further instructions. It's only when this fracture of control occurs that the distinction between parts can even be noticed.

Imagine you lost conscious control of your arms but they continued to function in a limited capacity based on reflexes and procedural memories— you can't choose to pick up a pen and write, but the act of opening the door of your house as you approach it is so automatic that your arms do it on their own. Now imagine that you can regain conscious control of your arms through immense effort, though the exertion is too much to maintain for very long. Autism feels like that, except with regard to certain aspects of my brain rather than my arms.

I feel that I was born in the wrong country in the wrong decade to the wrong family. That's how it feels. I also have lots of fun celebrating my differences as well.

Frustrating in the sense that everybody has a different idea and opinion about my neurology

Back to the bat question. Animals do have consciousness and are perfectly capable of telling you what it's like to be them if you know how to listen. All life forms have consciousness and can communicate. If you want to know what it's like to be a bat, ask a bat. The trick is that you have to know how to hear him.