Huge Text Space Added Automatically After Some Symbols

Hello. I have noticed that after a recent Illustrator update, when I type in a hypen, plus sign, bullet, etc, Illustrator puts a large space after it before the text and turns it into a bullet. If I try to turn off the bullet feature, the space goes away, but so does the symbol. I just want to type something like  "- item 1"  or "+ Add" without it looking like "-      item 1" or "+       Add." I can adjust the spacing in the bullet settings, but that is a pain because I don't want it to be a bullet in the first place. How can I turn off the new feature that makes Illustrator automatically make bullets after symbols when typing? Thank you.