#heartype

[crimson-moved]

Can you be otherhearted for a human character?

Or is it just a therian thing where it NEEDS to be an animal

[notactually-human]

Alterhuman/otherkin tumblr, I have a question for you. (Tl;Dr at the bottom)

Okay so. Saying 'I am almost a cat' is the closest I can get to saying how central my catlike identity is to me as a being, but that doesn't fit the definition of otherkin. Otherhearted isn't strong enough, and otherkin doesn't fit (because I don't identify as a cat, I identify as incredibly catlike).

Acting like a cat feels natural to me, and I do things like meowing all the time (including meowing to communicate when I lose speech occasionally), biting lightly to show affection, and batting at cat toys (and more, I could write an entire list), and I've done it as long as I can remember, including my entire childhood.

It also feels deeply connected to my autism, and it's central to how I communicate and engage with the world, especially when I was younger and had less communication skills/knowledge of social rules (but it's still very very important to me and still a very important way I communicate)

I've had cats as a heartype on my list, but it feels stronger than that and I want to know if there are any terms that fit.

Sorry if none of this makes sense! It's late and I'm sleepy.

Tl;dr

Being very catlike is central to my identity and one of the strongest ways I communicate and engage with things as an autistic being. It's stronger than a heartype but less than a kintype. Are there any terms that fit?

Edit: I found my terms!

[notactually-human]

A suggestion for a microlabel under a term:

Nd-otherhearted. For where you have a strong fundamental connection with a species/non-human identify, because of your neurodivergency, or situations related to your neurodivergency, but not identifying as that species/identify. It would be a microlabel of nd-inhuman, which is identifying as non-human because of neurodivergence, and you could say things like 'I am nd-cathearted' or 'I have an android nd-heartype'.

One of the differences with nd-otherhearted is that you don't need to identify as non-human, just with nonhumanity in some form. It's similar to how otherhearted is a part of the alterhuman community.

For example, I do not identify as a cat. I'm not a cat. But because I was dehumanized and ostracized from humans because I was deemed 'weird' because of my autism, I ended up identifying more with cats than humans. I now have a very catlike identity, and regularly have very catlike behaviors, but I'm still not a cat. Being catlike is central to my identity, and I love it. Therefore, I am nd-cathearted.

Other examples include an nd-otherhearted person been treated as if they have no emotions because of being low-empathy, and therefore identifies strongly with robots because they have no emotions, despite not identifying as a robot, or an ADHD person hyperfixating on dogs to the point where dogs become a strong, central part of their identify.

You don't necessarily have to identify as non-human, but this label can be used in conjunction with a non-human identity, as long as you don't identify specifically as your nd-heartype.

This is an opt-in label, and you don't need to use it if you'd prefer to use other, less specific labels. There's also crossover with other labels, but I personally wanted a label that specifically meant this, so I coined it, and you can use it if you want to and it fits for you.