When The Autism Is Being An Actual Mental Health Problem Instead Of Making Me Obsess Over Fictional Characters

therapists saying you're surprisingly self aware is like being called a pleasure to have in class for adults

Quick visual guide on what to include when writing alt text (Taken from this article by Veroniiiica):

[Image description: An infographic titled “Writing Alt Text” featuring a photo of a capybara. Parts of alt text are divided by color, including identify who, expression, description, colour, and interesting features. The finished description reads “A capybara looking relaxed in a hot spa. Yellow yuzu fruits are floating in the water, and one is balanced on the top of the capybara’s head.” End of image description.]

If you use a screen reader and there's anything else you like image descriptions to have that isn't detailed here, feel free to add! I will rb additions :) I also implore you to check out the original article for more info!

Shout out to the ten year old who just got diagnosed. Shout out to the housebound fourteen year old. Shout out to the eighteen year old who can’t go to the university they wanted. Shout out to the twenty two year old who can’t get a job. Shout out to the twenty six year old with a caretaker. Shout out to the thirty year old who can’t buy their own house.

Shout out to young disabled people. We exist.

When I say “school should be disability accessible”, I don’t just mean we need handicap rails and EAs. Kids should be able to miss a day without failing out of school. You shouldn’t be dismissed from clubs because your attendance record is “spotty” (true story). I once missed an entire week of school because of a terrible, unending migraine. I was expected to keep up with my studies despite the blinding pain that came with working on my computer. When I heard my teachers say that you couldn’t miss exams, I asked what I would have to do to be excused from them. Their response? “Either get a doctor’s note an hour before the exam or death of an immediate family member.”

I cannot express how rigid this expectation was. First of all, with my condition, I wouldn’t have enough warning about my sickness to go to the doctor and request a note. For many people, this is exceptionally difficult, especially with the current shortage of medical professionals. Next, it ignores the fact that my schedule may not line with theirs because of my medical needs. Once, I had to visit a hospital a province away (which I was on the waiting list of for over a year) on the same day as an exam. I begged my mother not to take me because I was so nervous that I would be marked as an automatic fail. I was lucky enough to make it work, but that’s only because of my spectacular support system consisting of family members and wonderful doctors.

Disabilities aren’t always about needing a bus that can accommodate wheelchairs. It’s already difficult enough for many of us to maintain school attendance without the harsh punishments involved for skipping a day. We need to be able to miss school without being punished. Only than can you claim that the school is “accessible”

"Oh you talk to yourself! That's unhealthy!"

UGHHHHH NO ITS NOT SHUT UPPPPPP. I'm tired of people acting like it's a bad thing! I talk to myself because what ELSE am I supposed to down with all this energy??? I talk to myself because it makes me feel like I'm releasing energy! ITS A GOOD THING and actually BENEFITS ME. And I only do it when I'm alone anyways, so who CARES.

DESTIGMATIZE TALKING TO YOURSELF.

Autism acceptance includes accepting all autistic manners of communication.

That means supporting autistic people who talk in a "very childish" way. (I do this a lot irl)

Autistic people who do "TV talking" (this means talking like a character from your favorite media,basically talking in quotes and copying their speech patterns,as far as I know)

Autistic people who use echolia.

Autistic people who are very awkward/quirky when they communicate.

Autistic people who are overly technical,or have very sophisticated and articulate speech.

Autistic people who mumble.

Autistic people who talk really fast.

Autistic people who can't control their tone of voice/inflection.

Autistic people who talk in a monotone voice.

Autistic people who use different kind of sounds,or body language to communicate.

Autistic people who talk slowly and draw out their syllables.

Autistic people who use a lot of sentance fillers.

Autistic people who use Aac devices,communication cards,etc etc.

Edit: acceptance of nonverbal autistics is also necessary. Nonverbal people deserve love,respect,acceptance,accommodation and support.

you know what, shoutout to the neurodivergent people with "scary" symptoms.

the ones who:

-say dark things without realizing

-talk to themselves

-have homicidal thoughts

-get really, really angry

-make others uncomfortable on accident

-don't tolerate bullshit

-can't/won't mask

-have dark interests

-have genuinely hurt others before

-have been in a psych ward before

-obsess over people

-have intrusive thoughts about hurting people

-have sexual intrusive thoughts

-don't really care about others much

-always choose themselves first

-have low/no empathy

-are seen as creepy or scary by others

this goes out to my folks with autism that isn't "uwu cute". personality disorder havers. schizospec people. ocders. odd and ied havers. and anyone and everyone else.

this post does not support intentionally hurting people. but people who have hurt others in the past and have changed or are trying to change/in the process of changing are more than welcome here.

it would be so cool if able bodied people could get it through their heads that i dont just get a little tired or hurt a little bit when i do things.

“we need to start doing xyz —” i cant “but it needs to get done” i still cant “but —” cant :)

"All autistics have low empathy" - This statement is wrong.

"Autistics having low empathy is a MYTH, we actually have HIGH empathy!" - This statement is ALSO wrong.

Autistics can have low empathy, they can have high empathy, they can have learned empathy. The myth would be that all autistics only experience one end of the empathy spectrum.

In spreading around misinformation that autistics actually have high empathy, you are disregarding the autistics who do have low empathy. And vice versa.

Thinking about the dichotomy of "I feel uncomfortable/triggered in the presence of x/y/z environments I would like to be someplace without that" that I constantly see online and when I tell my therapist I really get uncomfortable when people raise their voices around me even if they aren't actually mad and her response of "you can only control your own reactions and emotions, it's not really fair to police others on how they should exist in your presence" and honestly it sucks to hear but she's right.. it's good to have people be conscientious of what triggers you but really it's up to us to do the hard work of building that emotional resilience. The idea of people around me having to be hypervigilant of what they say and do lest I start getting dysregulated does not sound fun at all, I want people to feel comfortable being themselves around me and that means training my dumb lizard brain to chill tf out. Living in a constant state of avoidance sucks ass for everyone involved.