This page discusses my identity in detail. It covers things I’m often asked and a few things people don’t think to ask. I’ve ordered them alphabetically, so order isn’t related to importance.
Class: I was born into a working class family and grew up on a council estate. I attended a state school.
Disability/Non-Neurotypicality:
- I’m dyslexic. I’m also dyscalculic, but this wasn’t handled as a separate thing when I was younger, so I usually just say I’m dyslexic.
- I’ve had tinnitus since birth. I have hidden hearing loss.
- I have delayed sleep phase syndrome / delayed sleep phase disorder. This means that I’m nocturnal.
- I have sensory processing disorder. I’m hypersensitive to most sensory input and sometimes hyposensitive to pain caused by injury. This also frequently leads to motion sickness.
- It would be fair to say I don’t process everything in ways deemed neurotypical, but I don’t have any neat label that ties that together (outside of a general non-neurotypical label).
- Prior to COVID-19, I had inflexible joints and would get some joint pain and lower back pain. I started getting mild reactive arthritis after infections when I was a teenager. There was no specific diagnosis for all this, other than it being common in the family. I managed it with exercise and also sometimes walking with a stick.
- After what was probably COVID-19 in February 2020, I developed reactive arthritis and fatigue. This impacted a lot of my joints and my ability to do anything much. There have been improvements, but this situation is ongoing.
Gender: I’m androgynous. This is a non-binary gender. I don’t have a strong pronoun preference. My title is Mx (so I would be Mx Blake on formal paperwork).
Handedness: I’m ambidextrous. I was initially trained to use my right hand exclusively, but after I left school, I reverted to using both hands. This means I naturally write, draw and paint using both hands.
Nationality: English (British).
Race / Ethnicity: I don’t know much for certain about my ancestry, which means I usually go with general terms like non-white and mixed race. My ancestors were probably a mix of Romani, White British, and people from somewhere around the Mediterranean. I don’t have any remaining cultural connections on the Romani or Mediterranean sides.
Religion: Pagan Christian. The pagan part is traditional British. The Christian part is non-denominational.
Sexuality/Romantic Orientation: Asexual and aromantic.
Species: I don’t perceive my own body shape as human. I have phantom limb/body sensations and it can cause difficulties with some movements (it’s harder to judge movement when perceived body proportions are different from actual body proportions). The exact shape shifts around a bit, but usually involves elongated fingers, membranes between the fingers, a tail, and sometimes joined feet. This gets classified in different ways by different people, from being a non-neurotypicality to separate communities such as otherkin. I don’t have strong views on the classification side of it, outside of letting people define themselves in a way that’s comfortable for them.