Autism - Blog Posts
so i got diagnosed with autism
so i was always told by my parents "oh you just have adhd from being female that means you are different" then when I went to therapy they told me I see gender differently (I'm a ftm demiboy) and I'm autistic so they wanted to test me right? WRONG I was pulled out of that therapist's office places in another one and WOW SHOCKER SHE SAYS IM AUTISTIC!!! so she wants to test me my mother says "NO I don't want you pumping M3Ds into my kid!. and I secretly took it like a week ago 2 clinical online tests and one in person test so yeah i was right too i had always had thought i may be autistic since i act in ways that are commonly associated with autism but i didn't self-diagnose until i knew for sure but i was always told its just adhd. so it feels good to know what i might need for my agree to regress and be comfortable
No longer using responses as of June 25th, 2023. However, you’re free to still answer the questions if you want a place to talk/rant about your experiences!
Misophonia Survey - reblogs appreciated!!!
HAI!!! Ok. So. Misophonia, - when you hear certain sounds made by others that [drive you mad], give you a feeling of abnormal disgust, anger, or discomfort. I have that! It really sucks!!!! And I want more people to know about it! For those unfamiliar but wanting to learn, this is a good base article to read.
I'm working on a project based around misophonia for school, and one part of this is a survey - and I'd really appreciate, if you know/believe you have it, if you'd spare some time to fill it out...?
It's completely anonymous :3 There's a place to give a name, but only if you want to. You can use it as a place to vent, You can be as lengthy as you want, or as short as you can possibly manage. However you wish to be!! There is verrry small mention of self harm at the scale-based question, but that's it.
14 questions: 2 for your name/consent, 3 multiple choice questions, 8 open-ended text questions, and 1 bonus one for misokinesia.
For those who followed me for art,, Help me share this and i can get back even faster ;) ;). asjdfgdnf That felt evil sorry! This is a really important topic to me o|-<
If you don't have it yourself, but still reblog it, thank you so so so much!!!
i really shouldve sensed the pattern when i felt guilty as i watched every season of naruto, every season of south park, and every season of bobs burgers, all of which are incredibly long shows, in a very short amount of time
i really shouldve sensed something was up when i felt extremely embarrassed and told no one that i used to run back and forth flapping my arms imagining my favorite characters from percy jackson and pokemon in made up scenarios until i was 11, and still feel the urge to now
i really shouldve sensed i had something going on when i felt like i grew up too fast but also never matured as much as those around me, how i always had to wear a mask around people, a facade i had learned from disney tv shows i used to watch
but thank god i had the sense to let the mask fall off, get the fuck out of the smoke and breathe fresh air for once
NO ITS SO BAD BC SINGING/BELTING LIKE LINDA IS MY MOST FREQUENT VOCAL STIM THAT I CANT FUCKING DO IN PUBLIC SO MY POOR FAMILY HAS TO DEAL WITH IT WHEN I COME HOME I DONT WANNA BE THIS WAY!!!!!!
I think one blasting big sign that I was autistic was that I would spend hours watching those criminal psychology videos, memorising the right "innocent" facial expressions and body language. I was terrified of somehow being seen as guilty if I were to ever get questioned surrounding a crime.
Meanwhile I was 14, only had two friends and barely left the house except for school lol
It's not your fault that you're struggling so much. A lot of circumstances are not in our control. If you keep running into roadblocks or experiencing limitations, it's not you.
From a teen to the adults (And others)
Forcing people do do things is wrong. It doesn't matter the person or the cercumstances. Its wrong. My own parents somehow don't understand that. People have their triggers, their dislikes, certain things that bother us more than the person standing beside us. Some people aren't afraid to jump head first, some are. Example, a couple years ago I went to this.... Swimming area? A natural pool where people would swim and hang out at. You would climb the slope up to a drop, where then, you would jump. When I got up though, it was muddy and slippery, I was going to do it even when I slipped. The people down below started trying to encourage me. Despite the good intentions, it didn't help. I got overwhelmed, I turned back around thoroughly embarrassed. My father getting onto me for it wasn't exactly helping either. The people had good intentione, I wasn't mad at them. Like my parents, they try and break me out of my shell all the time. Its the way those people do things though. Shoving people into it or getting hostile about their preferences and fears doesn't help. Be patient, see if they work themselves up to doing whatever it is. See if they ask you for help. If they do, be easy and understanding about it. Remember, people have borders, pushing those until they break or build higher is not the things you want to do. This isn't just to parents, but also to my age group. For anyone and everyone. Its an important piece of knowledge for life, for friends, siblings, communitys, even strangers. Don't try and pull them out of it. Reassure them, let them know they aren't alone. Separated from others in their struggles. Hated for something they try and 'fix' even when people can't see it. That they aren't broken or shoved away because of it. At least that you won't treat them that way, even if others do. Now, this isn't just for people to recognize but for the people that read this and know that it's for them. That somebody knows and others will as well.
I hope enough people see this, for enough people to be affected by what I just shared.
Reblog this if you agree or want to help.
@panromanticturtle
@leafiles
As someone who has a tendency to go nonverbal when anxious, stressed, or scared, I would like to back this up. I remember learning some basics when I was much younger, but I never had the chance to use it so I forgot. I have an autistic friend who uses sign language when she talks sometimes, but I don't understand it.
idk man. i just think itd be really cool if sign language classes were mandatory throughout primary school. yeah because it would make communication with deaf kids and autistic/nonverbal kids much easier. and those kids would be accessible to the others so they cold make friends and have healthy relationships. yeah. and kids would eat that shit up man. like their own little secret language? they love that.
Autistic Inertia is an autism experience that makes it hard to start, stop, and switch tasks.
It somehow doesn't get talked about enough - so I made this comic!
YouTube • Instagram • Twitter
Also, if you want to read the research study I based this comic on, it’s right here!
autism
I have that! I am a low-support-needs autistic person. Essentially, I can live without assistance, but it's easier having a housemate (my brother, in this case).
I am fighting the urge to ramble on about the different levels and needs for high, medium, and low support autistic people out of fear that you already know and I would end up sounding annoying.
Your ask was only one word. Why am I overthinking this?
Sometimes I get so excited over my special interests that I actually can't handle it and start crying even though I'm happy.
This is so real.
I litterally can't go a second without thinking about drawing or homestuck😭
Like I don't think I could live without either of them and the idea of me in any job outside of selling art in the future genuinely upsets me. If someone insults homestuc or art (either mine or made by someone else) I get so upset like as if they insulted me PERSONALLY, like they were saying IM bad/awful and not just the media. It's so weird😭😭
I think that special interests are actually a disabling part of autism
I'm tired of people (allistic and autistic) saying that it's bad that special interests are 'pathologised' because passions are good. This is because that comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what a special interest is. Special interests are not just things you like a lot, they are 'highly fixated interests abnormal in intensity or focus'. For me (and pretty much everyone with autism I've asked about it), this means that special interests are basically your whole life. For me, my special interest is ASD. I think about autism all the time. It's the only thing I find interesting, and every thought I have can be linked to autism in some way. This is pretty disabling to me because it makes it way harder to talk about and do stuff that isn't related to my special interest.
It makes making friends really hard because, on top of my social challenges, I also don't know how to talk about anything other than my special interest, and I will bring the conversation back to my special interest if I feel comfortable around someone, and just not talk to someone if I don't feel comfortable around them. It also makes doing the things I need to do in life (such as doing work for uni, taking care of myself, cleaning my living space, etc) so much harder because my brain doesn't think it's interesting in the slightest and therefore I have absolutely no motivation to do them.
Maybe my special interests are more extreme than other people's. I wasn't diagnosed with a level, I just got a diagnosis of ASD, but I'm probably on the higher end of level 1, possibly on the lower end of level 2 but I can't really figure that out for myself. However, the ASD diagnostic criteria in both the ICD-11 and DSM-V state that your traits of autism must be causing 'clinically significant impairment' (i.e. they must be disabling) for you to qualify for an ASD diagnosis.
My fandom/special intrest isn't even niche it's just the people who know about it don't wanna talk about it and the people who don't know it also don't wanna talk about it😭😭
god gives his most niche fandoms to his most autistic warriors
Blinky thingzz!! :3
(Btw sorry I can't find the original ownerz/creatorz of these!!)
Pyshic Trio
inspo from the song soldier poet trio
first Yumeno omnisexual all pronouns
second Haruno Madaka bisexual she/her adhd
last Ponia Tochi pansexual she/her autistic
Alright, I know April’s almost over but as it is still Autism Acceptance Month, I wanted to talk a little about it. Just wanted to share what being autistic is like for me and some of my special interests.
I was diagnosed with ASD and ADHD when I was 8 years old. Back then, I was technically diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome but that was merged into ASD in 2011 so I’ll just refer to it as ASD. Anyway, I didn’t really know what that meant until I was seventeen and actually did some research. Learning that a bunch of my behaviors and certain feelings I had were actually because I was autistic was…. I don’t know, relieving? Things started to make more sense. Before this point, all I knew was that I didn’t understand social cues and I was very specific about what I liked and disliked. It did not help that I was also on ADHD medication that exacerbated the negative parts of autism. Since that day, I’ve learned so much more about myself and I learn new things about autism everyday. I’m not angry or upset that I’m autistic. I was (and still kinda am) mad at the people who didn’t explain it to me properly when I was younger but that’s beside the point. I’ve learned to accept it and I’m a lot happier because of it. I don’t need people to be aware of me. I just need people to accept me.
Okay, that was a lot. Hmm. Anyway, SPECIAL INTERESTS, LET’S GO!!!! 😃
My primary special interests are manga, anime, and video games. And within those special interests are even MORE special interests. For example, some of the manga I have a huge interest in include Bleach, One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist and Jujutsu Kaisen. There’s a lot more but there are too many list. On the flip side, the anime I like differs slightly. I don’t always like anime adaptations of manga I like. For example, I really don’t care for either the Bleach or One Piece adaptations (Bleach TYBW is the exception). There are certain scenes from each that I really enjoy watching and they both have great soundtracks and great voice acting in both the original Japanese and the english dubs, but weird choices that differ from the source material and huge pacing issues make them hard for me to watch. On the other hand, there are certain adaptations that I prefer to the source material, such as Demon Slayer or Mob Psycho 100. These two in particular take the original material and enhance it greatly. What’s more, there are certain series where I really like both the original manga and the anime (Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen to name a couple). Also, I love original anime, like Space Dandy, Oddtaxi, Gurren Lagaan, Appare Ranman, and Vivy: Flourite Eyes Song. It’s really cool to see original content in a medium that is primarily adaptations.
Starting a new paragraph for video games. This might be my big special interest. RPGs, Metroidvanias, platformers, action games, puzzle games, party games, etc. I really love video games. Favorite series include but are not limited too: Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, Pokémon, and Xenoblade Chronicles. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a big Nintendo person. If I had to pick a genre, I’d say RPGs are my favorite, whether they are turned based or action oriented. My top three favorite games of all time are Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Kingdom Hearts II. Favorite Pokémon generation is three though Scarlet is my current favorite game. I could go on about how I love different combat and level up systems in different games, how I love that the sidequests in the Xenoblade games add to the worldbuilding and give them so much depth, how I love watching videos analyzing background lore in games like Hollow Knight or Breath of the Wild or videos going into detail about how dark series like Kirby or Splatoon are, or how even though the story is insanely stupid I adore Kingdom Hearts for how sincere it is. But I feel like this has gone a bit longer than I originally intended.
Anyway, a couple of notes really quick about Autism Acceptance Month and autism in general:
Don’t support Autism Speaks. They are a hate group focused on trying to “cure” autism.
Don’t use the puzzle piece when talking about autism. It is ableist. Use either the gold infinity symbol for autism or the rainbow infinity symbol for neurodiversity.
Vaccinations don’t cause autism. Whoever came up with that can burn in hell.
I think that’s everything. If whoever is reading this is autistic, I hope you had a great Autism Acceptance Month.
Happy birthday, Steve!
Please help the family of a non-verbal autistic child (who has been losing weight because he only eats certain kinds of food, largely unavailable during this time) leave Gaza!
Challenge!
Draw yourself in your artstyle
Pass the challenge to someone else
oki drew myself irl version
Friendly reminder that when you only talk about high masking and low masking, you throw autistics who can't mask under the bus.
We're not low masking, we DON'T mask.
This makes us no masking. Not low masking.
Hi, I'm sorry if you aren't the best person to ask but i cant find anyone else but is it ablest of me to avoid verbally communicating even if I have the ability?
Like I can talk, and it's not particularly hard for me usually, but I feel more comfortable not doing it usually, especially during the times it does hurt. I'm autistic but I don't know if that's the reason why, and I worry it's inconsiderate to not do it by choice since some people don't have one.
Sorry again
It isn't ableist. I've said it before and I will say it again, everyone deserves a comfortable way to communicate. And for you, if using a way other than oral speech is more comfortable, do that!
You deserve to be comfortable, and if that means using AAC, sign, etc. to communicate even though you are speaking. Do it. Somebody who reblogged one of my posts said this, and I think it applies:
"Its called an aid for a reason. You don't NEED a jacket, but winter will be a lot easier if you have one.".
Also, the more people who use AAC the more normalized and available it'll become!
It is not inappropriate for AAC users to have acsess to swear words.
My peers started swearing at around age 10, and if that is what language the speaking people of that age are using, nonspeaking people have the same right.
Not giving us acsess to the same type of language as our peers feels alienating, it doesn't let us communicate with the same language and terms our peers and friends do. We are not babies. We are not stupid. We are the same as our speaking peers. Just because you can sometimes control what language we use, doesnt mean you should.
i dont know what autistic person needs to hear this but your sensory wellness is so important. and that goes beyond just avoiding things that trigger immediate distress. sensory enrichment is vital too! do things that make you feel safe and comforted and happy and alive. it's not insignificant. it's not silly. it's part of taking care of your lovely autistic self and enjoying life. your life, which thrives when your wants and needs are met.
writing an autistic character when you are not autistic - a masterpost
completely double spaced version on google docs here – this post is more blocky for the sake of people’s dashboards, but still long so people will be less likely to glaze over it. my apologies if that makes it hard to read
things to look for and avoid in an autistic character
• symptoms only manifesting as “nonverbal and rocking” • super smart / living calculator • super dumb / doesn’t understand anything • all the symptoms you can come up with for them are “awkward” and “has special interest(s)” (please do more research) • trains, technology, and/or math as special interests • acting like a child • getting treated like a baby • unreasonably cruel and uncaring about others’ reactions to them being cruel • if they’re comparable to sheldon from the big bang theory, start over • animal comparisons • a lack of feelings • please no stories about what it’s like to be autistic told by allistics
the right way to write an autistic person
• lots of symptoms, including secondary ones not included on a general diagnosis requirement list (here’s a list i rather like that was made by an autistic person – their blog is also a good resource) • having a good amount of general knowledge and actually talking about it (i cannot believe that i have to say this) • talking about things outside of special interests (again…. come on……….) (special interests are usually the default things our brains go to when theres no stimulation or we want to entertain ourselves – it isn’t literally all we think or talk about ever. if a conversation has no connections to a special interest, reconsider having your autistic character bring it up in a context that is not an introduction.) • explicitly expressed to be capable of attraction and romantic feelings – if your character is an adult, add sexual feelings to this point • capable of general functioning, just with a disability that makes it more difficult – not a walking disability (….sigh) • a wide amount of feelings and emotional turmoil (but perhaps only being able to express it in limited ways) • we’re people • just people whose brains are wired differently
things to avoid in research for an autistic character
• autism moms / autism blogs and websites not run by autistic people • any affiliation with autism $peaks means you should walk away and never look back • a scientist trying to create explanations for what autistic people do without actually asking / not mentioning asking autistic people • anything about a cure for autism • a person that “worked with autistic kids” phrased in the same way as “worked with animals” • talking about autistic people as if they are mysteries, are like animals, or are otherwise othered weirdos instead of people
things to look for in research for an autistic character
• actual autistic people talking about their experiences and symptoms • just stick to that and you’re good but it’s hard to find sometimes ngl. just look for the above red flags
things i would personally like to see in an autistic character
• less easy to swallow sadness and more destructive anger. i would love to see a canonically autistic character who was frustrated easily by small things and had trouble communicating why • not a story about being autistic, a story that happens to have a character or characters who are autistic – it isn’t pointed out or questioned, they’re right at home with the rest of the cast and not othered (a la symmetra from overwatch) • intensive sensory issues / small sounds making large reactions • clear communications about not liking x sensory thing (for example being touched) • poor motor skills / clumsiness and not being laughed at for it • walking funny (body bent downwards, walking very fast, walking slowly, big strides, shuffling, stiffness, etc) – no one treats it as if it’s funny or something totally strange • a big personality that has a presence so they can’t be cast aside (but feel free to have quiet characters too) – if this was along with being nonverbal they would probably leap to being one of my favorite characters ever • a fear of asking for clarification on sarcasm or jokes because of past experiences and an arc about the character becoming more comfortable asking questions
>> if any fellow autistic people want to add something, feel free <<
allistics are encouraged to rb this
Batman being autistic, assuming Captain Marvel is also autistic and responding kindly.
have i or anyone else expressed the idea that billy just says out of pocket things like normal children do, especilly as captain marvel?
like he'll be in the watch tower and he'll be like ".. mr. batman what's your favourite dinosaur? My favourite is a stegelosauris with all those plated spikes."
or like
"Hey flash what's your third favourite color?"