Wellington Looks So Different to My Newly Autistic Eyes

I was diagnosed with autism last December and have ADHD as well. As my autism continues to come out, I find my senses and especially the way I experience the world around me is changing in all sorts of unexpected ways.

Yesterday was the second time I’ve been to Wellington city since getting back to NZ and it looks so different from how it was before my autism came out. I don’t mean lots of new buildings or exterior renovations, rather it’s like I’m seeing existing old detail for the very first time. The geometry and repeating patterns of the buildings are mesmerizing and all quite new to me. Looking at them brings me so much joy and pleasure, a little like jumping up and down on my tippy toes while hand flapping but with slightly less euphoria. Still a very deeply enjoyable experience and one that, I believe is part of the intensity many people with autism, including me, experience the world.

I feel I could quite happily go into Wellington for a day and spend the whole time looking at the buildings as the sun moves through the sky creating whole new worlds of shadows and reflections in its wake. Seeing the very old reflected in the glass exterior of modern buildings and vice versa is particularly beautiful.

They really do hold a new fascination for me. I guess this is a new form of visual stim for my autism, which was both unexpected and very welcome. I noticed a similar feeling in the central city in Singapore. But, there the buildings tend to be more modern glass clad and generic. While Wellington holds a mixture of old and very old buildings along with a very few new glass clad ones. What’s more the ones in Wellington are shorter and much closer together, making the resulting reflections so much more vivid.