Having Self-inserts For Shit Is Good. Fun. Healthy, Even. I Encourage It.

If you are a late diagnosed autistic and/or ADHDer, you may discover a very odd comment being thrown your way that will have you questioning everything:

"You didn't used to act this autistic/ADHD".

You'll stop, look at your actions and wonder "fuck... Am I faking all this because I've been diagnosed?"

No. No you are not.

What you are experiencing (and what they are seeing) is known as unmasking.

Diagnosis (for many late diagnosed adults) is a long sought after answer. Before diagnosis we often suppress all our needs, including stimming, hyperactivity, difficulties concentrating, force ourselves to go out, socialise etc.

Diagnosis is the first time we feel we have permission to not kill ourselves for the sake of a 2 hour dinner party. And we say "no, thank you" or we stim more to concentrate or cope instead of holding it all in.

And NT people see that and say "this is different. People don't change unless something is wrong with them. So, something is wrong with what they're doing."

But there is nothing wrong with unmasking. It's scary, sometimes necessary... But it's never wrong.

I've recently realised I haven't drawn any fanart that wasn't intended to go into my game, so I spent some time having fun, relaxing. I hope someone will like it as much as I do!

aaaa

I feel like this is an unpopular opinion, but more people should read incomplete/unfinished/in-progress fanfics.

I've noticed this huge trend where creators on tiktok and tumblr who will be explaining how to use Archive Of Our Own to new users and they always say "and make sure to scroll down and click completed only" or how people will go out of their way to mention they only read completed fics 'because they were traumatized when they forgot to check the dates and didn't realize this fic hadn't been updated since 2012'.

The thing is - I think by not engaging with and/or actively avoiding writer's WIPs readers are potentially adding to the aggregate of abandoned works. Now this obviously isn't the case for all abandoned fics, anything from major life events, to loss of interest, to getting busy can be a reason for a fic getting abandoned - but at least on some level I just know that writers are quitting while they're ahead when they aren't garnering any response or feedback because reading WIPs has become unpopular. If you're worried about reading something that hasn't been updated since 2012 then you can use the date updated function to sort out old fics.

Anyways, support your favorite fanfic writers by engaging with their WIPs.

[aggressive autistic flapping]

[id: a light purple userbox with a pastel purple border and pastel purple text that reads “this user wants more pokemon plushies.” on the left is an image of an espeon plushie. /end id]

Could people posting about the new HP game tag their posts with Harry Potter or discourse?

Me after Pokemon didn't announce Gen 1 or 2 for Gameboy online or Legends of Arceus 2.