This really did put a smile on my face. And really puts the feeling in a perspective that many can understand. Thank you. :)
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Oh my gosh! I have one deaf ear too, and crowds have always been too overwhelming for me too! and yes, I like real life conversations with people, but with text, I can re-read things instead of asking people to repeat themselves!
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Maybe you could talk to your kids about how, while it can be fun to be loud, there are places where it isn’t appropriate? (in the car, for instance, but basically anywhere that ppl are stuck together and there ppl can’t leave if a noise irratates them) and encourage them to maybe go outside if they have a lot of energy? That way, you aren’t stopping them from having fun, but you are showing them when and where loud noises are appropriate, while you also get a break from the noise?
Hope this helps!
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yeah, a lot has changed since i made that post to say the least. That situation is way better. Going outside is great as are my headphones :)
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Oh hooray! Three years later and the subject of compulsive prefacing is still being discussed! As soon as I saw the now famous post “this is in reply to a comment about compulsive prefacing” I became so excited that I wasn’t the only one with this issue! Then, like everyone else, did a search for compulsive prefacing and got redirected back to iNat. But now I know that although Google and Bing don’t recognize the term, for so many of us we automatically know what it means.
Here is a little story. My daughter was telling me that people get frustrated with my opinions, because I sometimes seem to be perhaps, unkind, or critical. “But wait!” I cried. “People make these assumptions… but they don’t wait for me to finish my story! I am just trying to start with a tale that will prove my actually kind and uncritical point, but they cut me off before I can explain!” And to me, at least, that is a true example of compulsive prefacing.
Yes, I am a classic Spectrum ADHD and all around geeky girl.
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Great post! Thanx for triggering me to check on how much more of California I need to cover and what percentage of my observations are research grade. :)
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I haven’t started the process of seeking out a diagnosis yet, but I learned a couple of years ago that the “mind’s eye” is more than just a metaphor and that I must have aphantasia to the point of absolutely no visual imagery. That realization really shook me and had my head spinning for a while. It’s a lot to realize that you’ve been processing information in such a different way from everyone else for nearly 30 years without realizing it. And at least at first, it feels like a lack of visual imagery has to be some sort of deficiency or competitive disadvantage, so I was just kind of in a panic. I felt like I was missing out on a super power.
But as I started to look into aphantasia more and found other people talking about it, things started making more sense and I felt like I could cut myself a little bit more slack for some things that I had trouble with previously. My terrible autobiographical memory made more sense as well as my constant tendency to forget where I put things. The other nice thing is that there’s a good bit of current research into the entire spectrum of visual imagery right now. Reading more into this topic led us to realize that my wife is on the complete opposite side of things with hyperphantasia where she can basically just play movies in her head.
I was diagnosed with ADHD as a kid but it’s probably more complicated than that. Either way, as time has gone on I actually have really started to value my aphantasia. I have a lot of sensory overload issues (especially audio), but without visual imagery I can usually kind of slow down the alarm response in bad spots. I also work in forensic entomology, so I see some pretty grisly stuff regularly and I think it bothers me a lot less than most folks since I don’t have to ever relive it again in my mind. The flip side is that mental imagery and episodic memory are tied- my semantic memory is great but my episodic memory is basically nonexistent.
I did well in school in subjects I cared about but couldn’t really put in the effort in others, so didn’t really stand out in undergrad. Once I finally got into the work force and was actually doing insect research, I was thriving and eventually found a perfect fit. I always thought I wanted to be a primary investigator of a research lab and was disappointed that I couldn’t achieve that but working as a research tech/lab manager I’ve realized that I could not handle any of the administrative and social obligations. Let me stay in the basement and do technical research all day.
To that end, I think identifying is probably different for me when I’m learning a group but once I know what to look for, not that different. I specialize on a few groups that I think I have decent ID skills on and have little confidence outside of those, especially with complicated taxa. Pictorial keys are the greatest invention ever and people who make them don’t realize how amazing they are and how much I appreciate them. I usually have multiple copies of the revision open and am flipping between tabs to read the description, compare to the picture in the key, and then look at the photo.
I think it’s no wonder that I obsessively photograph wildlife though. I tie wildlife to memories and everywhere I go, I’m observing wildlife. And then I absolutely love iNaturalist for being able to relive and organize those moments. For someone that has so much trouble with autobiographical memory, looking at an insect I saw from a trip to Ecuador triggers recall of things I don’t want to forget.
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Don’t sell yourself short! I rely on your stink bug IDs often.
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Now that you mention it, I wonder if aphantasia has an affect on recognizing species? I think I heard it has that affect on faces, making it difficult to recognize them.
I think it kind of depends on the person. And I’ve heard people talk about “face blindness” as almost a subset of aphantasia or something along those lines. Personally, I don’t really have any issues recognizing faces or familiar species. It’s sort of like “Oh yes, that image goes with this information that I have sitting around in my head”. Although if you ask me to try to draw something- I’m absolutely lost.
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I do the same thing! I think I (there I go again) have a lot of anxiety about being misunderstood. My autobiographical memory isn’t good, so I can’t point to specific instances but I’m sure it’s the result of some interactions I found traumatic. I prefer written formats because I can be precise with my language and minimize chances of misinterpretation. On the flip side (particularly in work), I can’t stand it when other people aren’t precise with their language or give instructions that could be interpreted multiple ways, so I’m constantly asking for clarification.
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What makes it even more frustrating is that they seem unaware that their instructions could be interpreted multiple ways. So when you interpret them in a way other than what the person thought was the only obvious way, they get upset.
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Man I’m glad I’m not the only one; identifying gives me so much anxiety sometimes and its absolutely ridiculous, and I KNOW I’m overthinking it because I’m sure many people aren’t putting nearly as much thought into it as I am.
Every time I have to disagree, especially if its someone who seems like they know what they are doing or at least their profile indicates some level of interest/knowledge in a particular subject, I swear I start to sweat a little, out of fear of either me being mistaken on an ID, or the person getting defensive if I don’t agree with their ID - I’ll admit I’ve skipped past observations that I KNEW were wrong but I just didn’t have the energy for an argument.
I hate that I feel justified because I have gotten curt and annoyed comments for disagreeing, I’ve had one person straight up demand I remove my identification. Its so frustrating, I really do try to do IDs in good faith, and I try to explain myself if I think there will be confusion, and if I make a mistake and catch it I note the correction, and if someone points out a mistake of mine I acknowledge and correct it - but of course the hampster wheel of overthinking that is my brain refuses to let me feel peace about it.
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If you’re certain about your ID and the observer’s ID appears to be incorrect to you, but you don’t want to trigger an argument, you can always add a comment instead, indicating what you think it is. Leave it to others to push it to the correct ID and move on.
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Sure that would work.
But you underestimate anxiety :D
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Actually I don’t. I just don’t get anxious about anything related to iNat. If I did I’d take a break from it.
Thanks for sharing your perspective! You are the leading identifier of my fungi observations 
Social situations are where “my brain refuses to let me feel peace”, so nature has always been my escape. For whatever reason, I have very little ego or embarrassment about being wrong on iNat (I try my best to be correct, of course).
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Its not really ego, or even embarrasment, in my case - just a massive dose of imposter syndrome and what could (probably) be deemed rejection sensitive dysphoria. I’ve had a couple of really traumatic experiences that have really ruined my ability to function in some situations, I used to have better coping mechanisms but… eh. I’m trying to heal.
It’s all good, I’ve got an appointment with my family doctor to maybe try to get a referral to a psychologist in hopes of MAYBE getting a diagnosis (which… I’m not actually very hopeful for because our mental health system is a joke)
(Also glad to help with fungi! I’m not the best out there but I’m certainly trying to learn and get better every day XD)
Alas, if I took a break from everything that made me anxious I would literally never get anything done.
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Actually on iNat there is always someone sweeping thru again, by taxon or location.
Imposters get outed, kindly. Or, it’s been a LONG day!
You are the fungus fundi.
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I’m on the autism spectrum (I think) and with ADHD, and I absolutely love INaturalist. I think one of the reasons I love it personally is that it allows me to visualize and put things into boxes (like looking at my life list in a taxonomical view) in a way that makes sense to me, and like you said, dive fully into my special interests! I think a lot of people who are super into nature like this are neurodivergent
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