Weird things I worry about

Two new comics

Dear readers,

Ever since I returned from my summer vacation, I’ve been taking it slow (so much stuff waiting to be drawn!), but here are two comics digesting some of my more recent thoughts.

I mentioned this hand thing to a few people and to my surprise many people have had this thought in certain situations. It’s just I experience it almost every day when I’m in public. Learning that I am neurodivergent (ADHD+who knows what else—autism and OCD are up for grabs) opened my eyes as to why I feel like this. I just don’t know how to be myself in social situations. I imitate others and try to be what I think will work socially. This is often called masking in neurodivergent circles. But one thing that is not often discussed regarding masking is the “physical masking”, or not knowing what to do with your body. Dancing? Look at what others are doing and imitate it. Sitting in a café? Look at others and imitate them. Some neurotypical friends sometimes tell me “just be yourself”, but they don’t understand that there is no me in social situations. I never learned how to be myself, because I don’t feel like myself when I’m in complex social situations with arbitrary social rules I don’t understand. And that’s ok. Because my hands and my mind can rest with people who don’t care about those rules either.

(I know I’m exaggerating, there are no explicit “hand rules”, but there are implicit rules about what makes you look cool and I have always failed at looking cool with my hands… Ok, enough of this nonsense!)

Things I don’t worry about

This is another stab at something considered to be a small talk question. Well, it’s not. If you are not comfortable asking someone if they had sex last night, then you are not close enough with them to ask whether they want children. Case closed! Use this test whenever in doubt.

Do you have any weird things you worry or don’t worry about? Let me know in the comments and don’t forget to click on the heart!

Until next time,

Ana