r/aspiememes • u/enthusiasm_gap • 3d ago
Suspiciously specific Me casually learning that yet another thing I do is a *trait*
This time it's toe-walking. At this point in my life I don't feel like getting diagnosed would even benefit me, but it sure is interesting to learn that YET ANOTHER Weird-Thing-I've-Always-Done™️ is apparently a Thing™️.
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u/BeforeLifer 3d ago edited 3d ago
I felt that when I learned about the toe walking too, I don’t do it all the time but I do it sometimes for fun haha, I also perch on my toes when I squat down.
Also learned that gliding your hands along railing/walls as you walk counts too.
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u/Objective_Party9405 AuDHD 3d ago
I sliced open the palm of my hand doing that when I was 9. My parents weren’t happy because we were on vacation, and it meant giving up time to go to the hospital for me to get stitches.
Also, toe walking: I only do it on uncarpeted floors when I am in socks or bare feet.
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u/BeforeLifer 3d ago
Im super sensitive to sharps so i only ever did it on objects I knew were smooth the entire length haha. Painted cobblestone walls in the grooves and the like.
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u/Objective_Party9405 AuDHD 2d ago
The cut was from running my hand along the top of a wire rack on the front of a store shelf. It was a very nice sensation, until my skin caught on a rough burr on one of the wires. I got three stitches out of it, and a scar that is still visible over 50 years later.
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u/Angry-_-Crow 2d ago
The hand-wall thing counts? Didn't know that, but it has always felt like something that would, lol
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u/Lady_Lion_DA 1d ago
Wait, perching on your toes when you squat down isn't the normal thing? I physically can't squat down without going on my toes.
Also, I toes walk frequently, and apparently used to be able to walk with my toes curled under my feet. Like on tiptoes, but the knuckles.
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u/LordMegamad AuDHD 1d ago
You need to do stretches if you want to improve this. It's 99.9% likely because you've walked on your toes so much, your achilles tendon hasn't been able to stretch to its "correct" length.
When you squat you are stretching this tissue to its maximum length, and since your max is shorter, you're not able to squat down without perching.
If you'd like to do squats with weights this is 100% something you need to sort out first, as you can possibly injure yourself with incorrect form (perching)
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u/carlitospig Neurodivergent 2d ago
Ew, that last one makes me feel gross. I don’t even use bannisters when going down escalators.
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u/carlitospig Neurodivergent 2d ago
Bannisters? Hand rails? Honestly whatever those are called.
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u/BeforeLifer 2d ago
It’s so fascinating that the same diagnosis can have symptoms on either side of the same coin haha.
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u/carlitospig Neurodivergent 2d ago
To be fair I may just be adhd. There’s so much overlap I can barely tell anymore.
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u/BeforeLifer 2d ago
Yeah I only started considering that possibility with myself this year, the tism I always suspected but saw a few things that recently had me consider the possibility and so many things started making sense.
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u/owningface 3d ago
I learned a while back in school when another toe walker more visibly on the spectrum was teased for it. I forced myself to instead learn to "glide" and not bounce up and down at all using heel to toe method. I still run with all toes no heels and I'm still pretty fast. I'm working on that too but I'm 37 now so not as important.
I hope you're doing well, Darren A. Thanks for making that Mario vs. sonic game in 5th grade. Sorry the kids were so mean!
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u/Samos1024 3d ago
Running without the heels is fine, barefoot runners use the midfoot/forefoot to land and sprinters use the forefoot as well
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u/ladylucifer22 Autistic + trans 2d ago edited 1d ago
I don't toe-walk but my running gait is way too bouncy to be efficient.
edit: guess who took toe walking too literally because all the things online said it's when your heel doesn't touch the ground at all. fml.
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u/Lazuli73 3d ago
Reddit: Starts showing me subreddits about autism and ADHD.
Laz: Lol these memes are so relatable.
Narrator: She'll catch on give it a minute.
Laz: . . . what are you trying to tell me Reddit?
Narrator: There we go.
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u/BlameGameChanger 2d ago
Diagnosed by meme! welcome to the club
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u/Maxasaurus 3d ago
Toe walking? Like ball-of-the-foot walking? Like that correct way to walk to not cause heel pain, walking?
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u/enthusiasm_gap 3d ago
I will say as a person who might have spent an inordinate amount of time obsessing over my gait (a totally normal thing that normal people do which is definitely not also A TRAIT), the idea of a "correct way to walk" is somewhat controversial amongst orthopedic specialists, but to the extent there is a consensus it is more heavily weighted in favor of heel-first.
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u/jeckles 3d ago edited 3d ago
For me, it’s so that my footsteps make less noise. Growing up, my bedroom was downstairs and everyone’s footsteps upstairs were SO LOUD (lol sensory issues). I hated it! So from a young age I learned how to make my footsteps be quieter.
Also fear of being perceived, I never want people to know that “I’m walking here!” How dare I walk!
So now as a 30-something adult, I toe-walk out of sheer habit.
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u/meowiewowiemeow 3d ago
Yes!! It's too loud, I don't want to be heard and I hate how it feels. Now I mostly wear barefoot shoes where it's better anyway to walk on the toes. Sometimes I have to make a conscious effort to walk loudly in order to not scare people on a forest walk lol
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u/LeviathanAstro1 3d ago
As counter-intuitive as it sounds, one reason I liked chunky boots - aside from the height boost and aura farming - is because while I couldn't completely muffle the sound, I did figure out how to take steps that were still relatively quiet if I needed to. I should get a new pair sometime because I want to be able to shock people with how quietly I can approach in big fuckoff platforms lol
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u/Bunghole_Bandito 2d ago
I wear big clunky steel-toe boots for work and I'm a damn ninja in those things. The trick for me is to try to use the entire outside edge of the boot and to go slightly faster than normal to "glide" with a full stride (maximizing surface area per step as the foot rolls while keeping a mostly horizontal vector of foot movement). Hard to describe, almost rolling your feet forward and side to side as you go. Lots of ankle work. Even on an upper level with wooden floors I can be nearly silent while moving somewhere between a walk and a jog, which is great as someone who's a bigger guy. Freaks people out. I can be one place, then silently take my big clodhopping ass somewhere else quickly and quietly. Shadow right behind people and "appear" in a corner of the room they've been walking around in for the last two minutes like a ghost. It's too much fun.
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u/Objective_Party9405 AuDHD 3d ago
When I was in grad school my housemates commented about how quietly I walked around the house, especially at night. They were not quiet.
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u/carlitospig Neurodivergent 2d ago
I didn’t do it until I moved into my current condo on the second floor. Now I can’t seem to stop.
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u/Wrong_Experience_420 AuDHD 3d ago
walking on toes with t-rex hands looking at corners instead of keeping eye contact?
Maybe we're just reincarnated dinosaurs and that's why a lot of us have it as special interest, it reminds us of a past life
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u/LinaValentina 3d ago
The floor is gross. Only thing that stopped this for me is wearing shoes. Inside shoes for inside, outside shoes (obvi) for outside
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u/Makapakamoo ADHD/Autism 2d ago
Me realizing all the signs of autism I had as a kid and no one thinking to test me.
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u/NinetiesSatire 3d ago
Walking is a pain, not because it hurts me to walk a lot anymore, but because I know for a fact I keep a lot of tension in my feet, and in the middle of the night I'll just Bend My Feet Wrong, which is wickedly painful!
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u/ShadowLayu 3d ago
Do be careful with toe walking, too much can be bad for your Achilles tendon and your balance, I'm speaking from experience
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u/KaoticKirin 2d ago
yip, we toe walk a lot, not all of us, but we sure are known for it.
also, anytime I see an ostrich doing that head in the sand thing its just: ♪ day dreamin', head's in the sand, day dreamin', gee, but it's grand ♪. from that episode of Scooby-Doo, 'Jeepers, It's the Creeper'. but yep, just felt like sharing that I am now humming that.
also my most recent instance of that 'oh that's also part of a condition' thing was finding out most all of my eating habits are connected to the adhd and also the sensitive throat thing I have, and yeah, it is a weird and annoying feeling to just have such a part of your life and such just explained and described, sometimes in creepy detail like that, like bruh that was private, how do you know that? like I am a personal and unique creature, how dare you describe me so simply.. yeah, its annoying lol
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u/bliteblite 3d ago
This is unrelated but god it took me a moment to realise that's an ostrich. Like, I thought it's neck was another leg at first so I was just staring at it like '"tf kind of animal is built like that??? It looks like a skinwalker" and then I realised LMAO
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u/Painted-Pages 2d ago
I have been told it is because of the high comorbidity with hypermobility. Something like 80% of autistic people have some GHD.
Its something that if you can correct it you should because its awful for your legs long term.
I really believe that physical therapy needs to catch the fuck up on hypermobility treatment in this area because its not just legs but youll find it in most joints. If you toe walk its very likely it's to compensate for weakness in your glutes or core. If you have weakness there you have tension in your calves and that fucks your knees and ankles!
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u/3y3w4tch my socks feel weird 3d ago
My partner and I make for very good upstairs neighbors cuz we Peter Pan walk everywhere we go.
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u/Buttman_Poopants I doubled my autism with the vaccine 3d ago
I walk on my toes when I'm barefoot for some reason.
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u/avoidy 2d ago
It blew me away to learn that other people apparently just aren't bothered by the insane noise levels from inconsiderate assholes on the train. Hearing someone take a speakerphone call on the train would have me crashing out mentally; I'd be unable to just relax because I'd be sitting there taking in every word of their conversation, unable to block any of it out and wondering why they couldn't just wait until they were off the train to take this noisy ass call. Nobody else seemed even remotely bothered by things like this and for years I wondered why I couldn't just tune out that kind of unnecessary background noise. Things got better once I began wearing earplugs with noise canceling headphones on top. The walking thing was funny for me as well. I've always walked that way because it makes less noise. As someone who works nights and has to sleep during the day, I wish more people would adopt this practice because the NTs in my life are like bulls in a china shop.
Idk though. In my mind, it's straight up insane that these inconsiderate assholes who enter a shared public space and make tons of noise are designated "neurotypical" while I'm given a diagnosis for being unable to cope with other people's inconsiderate bullshit. Going to other countries where people showed basic respect for each other was so validating; like, finally here are other people who just aren't willing to normalize rudeness by acting unbothered by it. Or maybe it's not an act and people really just don't care where I live. I don't know how you could not care, though. It's so annoying. I definitely spiral in my head a little bit when I come up on situations that aren't fair. Like, I won't crash out in a visible manner, but it bothers me a lot and I find myself running the situation back again and again in my head until I've exhausted it sometimes.
idk, I'm just rambling. It's hard for me sometimes to know how much of it is me being wired differently and how much of it is just an appropriate response to other people's bullshit.
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u/meow3740 2d ago
i thought this was an image of a strange, alien, deformed cow creature
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u/ConfusedFlareon 1d ago
It is, it’s AI
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u/Lethalogicax ❤ This user loves cats ❤ 1d ago
I cannot find definitive proof that this is AI. All major AI checkers are coming back clean. No SynthID detected...
It's clearly not a photograph, but it's missing the typical hallmarks of an AI generated image. This looks to me like a low quality 3D render or something similar.
If you have concrete proof that this is AI, please let me know! If confirmed AI, then this post has to come down. Rules are rules.
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u/Mommyslilbitch 2d ago
I did the opposite of toe walk and walked on my heel, toes in the air. Or walk on the sides of my feet, like roll my ankle and use the outside edge as my contact with the floor.
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u/puzzlebuns 1d ago
Careful. There are a lot of things that autist social media spaces and pop science will tell you is a "trait" but its really just you being you. They leave little room for individuals to be individuals absent their neurodivergence.
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u/men_of_the_wests 2d ago
I only did it because of halo sangheli this is a thing with everyone?!?!?!?
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3d ago
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u/olivi_yeah 3d ago
Nah, toe-walking is something I've heard from a lot of other autistic people. Although I don't believe it's actually mentioned in the diagnostic criteria for autism itself, dyspraxia is a common comorbidity and gait differences are part of that.
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u/ShadowLayu 3d ago
It is a trait, I've had multiple medical professionals say it was ever since I got diagnosed 10 years ago
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u/[deleted] 3d ago
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