Link: https://old.reddit.com/r/autism/comments/1tfolws/how_i_learned_to_use_mirrors/

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The original was posted on /r/autism by /u/idunnowhatosay on 2026-05-17 12:47:50+00:00.

I realized I was autistic at the age of 34 when I discovered my struggle with using mirrors was not normal. The only people I've discovered with this same difficulty are also autistic, so I wanted to share this experience in the hopes it would help other people. I will state I have done exactly 0 research on this and I don't even know if this is a common issue but if it helps even one person that's cool with me. Apologies if this is completely unrelated to autism and doesn't properly belong here. I also had no idea what flair to use.

When talking to a friend, they mentioned how they tend to look at themselves in the mirror when brushing their teeth and I expressed how I almost never look at mirrors and would definitely not do so while brushing my teeth as that would just create extra work. Which understandably confused them. Up until then, whenever I used a mirror my horizonal movements would be flipped as if I had turned on inverted controls in a video game. It genuinely caused the same each response as when I play a game where the controls are inverted by default and I don't realize it until I try looking left and end up turning right. Looking at myself in the mirror and trying to shave for example would constantly lead to me wiggling my hand uncertainly in-front of my face until I got to the spot I wanted, and then very carefully and slowly guided my hand downward.

My friend told me how their (non-autistic) sister had an issue with mimicking people's movements rather than mirroring them when they were trying to show her where a piece of fuzz was located on her face, for instance. If they touched the left side of their face, she would touch the left side of her face rather than mirroring to touch the right side of her face. The solution was to tell her "Remember, it's like a mirror." That line is what sparked the realization that when using a mirror I've been operating as if I was the one in the mirror. It took some mental gymnastics to get past how wild that was for me.

So I practiced using mirrors from then on, and am fine with them now. I would have to consciously "sense" or "feel" my body, whatever word you want to use, when looking into a mirror to ground myself and imagine the reflection I was seeing in the mirror was not myself but a different person. This allowed me to get past the inverted controller sensation that would take place in my brain and just move my hand around normally. It took conscious effort at first, and I still had to move slowly but over time it became second nature. This was probably a very long winded explanation for "You're not the person in the mirror" but I hope the context helps. I know my brain tends to require precision and replicable steps with these sorts of things.