[smeej]

I'm like you in both respects, but I also read as fast as the parent commenter. My operating theory had been that, since nobody had taught me to read one word at a time and subvocalize them, I just developed a different means of reading than most people, reading several lines at a time rather than individual words.

The jury is out as far as whether I'm also autistic, though. I have a great many traits in common with people who are, but I've also found a surprising amount of success reducing my more frustrating symptoms by a combination of working through early childhood trauma (which has helped my nervous system stop overreacting to stimuli) and extremely strict regulation of my diet (I have only eaten 10 foods, prepared in two ways, in the last year and a half) to reduce gut leakage and brain inflammation. (The diet is not expected to be this severe forever. Foods are reintroduced in stages. And it includes slow-cooked meat on bones and organ meats, so it's not as dire/risky a nutritional thing as it probably sounds.)

Because I had no language delay as a child and Asperger's was not a separate diagnosis until I was well into elementary school (and they certainly weren't looking for it in girls), I was never tested or diagnosed as a child. I also haven't identified enough advantages to pursuing a diagnosis as an adult to choose to pursue it now. But if healing my nervous system and my gut eliminates my symptoms (eventually), I'm inclined to think that would indicate I didn't have autism in the first place, just a cluster of overlapping symptoms.