I’d love to hear about your quirky habits.

One of mine is that when I’m out in nature I tend to collect cool looking rocks, sticks, cones etc. My window sills have become a geology exhibit (and I have zero clue about what I’m collecting, I just go by “ooh shiny”) and more often than not I’ll have small rocks in my pockets, bags, backpacks etc etc

  •  interolivary   ( @interolivary@beehaw.org ) OP
    2•1 year ago

    Good question. I haven’t actually looked into it so personally it’s anecdotal, but I do know several people with ADHD and/or autism who experience this, and I’ve got both of those and I definitely fixate.

    Based on a quick Google Scholar search, there does seem to be some research into this but I’m not finding a lot. There’s eg. this editorial in Nutrients from 2021 about nutrition and ASD, and it does seem to support the claim that at least folks on the autism spectrum do have “eating disturbances”:

    However, in addition to the core symptoms, ASD may have strong associations with other disorders and/or be associated with a plethora of behaviors and symptoms, such as those related to food selectivity and the consequent inadequate dietary intake [5].

    Although some types of eating disturbances, such as food refusal, are also frequent in the general pediatric population, their prevalence appears to be significantly higher in ASD children, with rates ranging from 51% to 89%