Autistic Hedgehog

[Made fun of by family for “strange” food habits

No one ever says a word about allistic sister eating cold ravioli for breakfast every day for years]

I hate being teased for me eating habits, and my family has done it to me for years. Yes, there’s a lot of things I can’t eat. Yes, I tend to eat the same thing over and over again. There’s numerous reasons for this, some of them seated in the way autistics are treated, some of them a direct trait of the autism.

A lot of it is to do with my texture issues. Thanksgiving was always like the worst thing ever: Mashed potatoes, all kinds of mashed up squashes, tons of things with wonky textures, and of course I got teased because all I would eat was turkey and cranberry sauce. I can’t help that I have so many texture issues. Believe me, I wish I didn’t. 

I also get nervous about trying something different, for example, at a restaurant. I’m afraid I won’t like it (more because of texture than taste). Not only was my father always a stickler about not “wasting” food (I had to stay at the table until my plate was finished), but because other people didn’t have my texture problems, they didn’t believe me. I spent years convinced the problem was in my head.

But my sister, who doesn’t appear to have texture problems, would go through phases of eating the same thing. Ramen for breakfast (yes, breakfast) for years, cold ravioli, broccoli with dinner every night for months. When she did it, it was at most a bit quirky. Me? I was some sort of unnatural fucking weirdo.