My party trick is to be able to absorb large amounts of information (auditory or visual, word or picture) quickly and retain it for a very long time. I can't remember names to save my life, that's one of my biggest blind spots. I don't consider a person's name unimportant, I just can't do it until I know them well. The more common the name, the quicker it flies out of my brain.

Yesterday, someone posted about an art history professor being terminated because she showed her class pictures of Mohammad from Persia during the Middle Ages. I had seen those in my 20s and could picture them clearly. I also remember a few of the ones from India, Mohammad and some of his followers painted with grayish skin because that's probably how palefaces looked to people in northern India. I'm glad those paintings are still stored in there, they're gorgeous. Oh, and I'm in my mid 70s.

I think the exclusively visual thinking might apply more to men on the spectrum, since women on the spectrum were early talkers and late walkers and tend to be intensely verbal. In fact, it's expressed so differently in girls and boys that the girls simply got missed for decades. Now the thinking is that the incidence is roughly equal in both sexes.

However, my own term is neuropeculiar. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

It really helped me understand myself. I don’t know that I cope any better, though

and I wonder if the author was familiar with the term for experiences like yours and crafted it into fiction. A book that champions people who think differently. But I don't want to further compare distopian entertainment with your very real experience.

There is documentary about Temple Grandin's life as well as a movie starring Claire Daines. I highly recommend both.

https://www.pbs.org/video/rmpbs-specials-temple-grandin-world-needs-all-kinds-minds/|

https://documentaryheaven.com/the-woman-who-thinks-like-a-cow/|

Maybe I'm not?

(most of which I flunk spectacularly, but some things just don't fit the diagnosis) that will point you toward making an appointment to get evaluated.

Women on the spectrum have flocked into the social sciences the way men gravitate toward math and engineering, so you're likely to find a therapist who understands.

(FWIW, I got marched off to engineering school because of how I tested in math and mechanics. I tested even higher in languages (English and French), so go figure. These days, it's only Typoese.)