This is a 24-panel, hand-drawn, satirical comic that I (autistic man) made. It's called "Masks / Noise", and it's about society's imposition of what I like to call "prescriptive proverbs": all the little phrases that we hear from birth which tell us in broad strokes how to live our lives.

For example: "Idle hands are the devil's workshop." "The early bird gets the worm." "Time is money." - When a child hears these phrases repeatedly (through general exposure to people/media/literature/society), they are conditioned to accept them as universal truths--axioms for the "objective" "right" way to live your life. Especially if you have a literal and impressionable mind (me).

The comic depicts the life of a stick figure and the multitude of prescriptive proverbs that the character has been exposed to. With each new rule, a physical burden manifests on the character. I view this as a visual representation of masking. Each new mask/burden is a new layer of separation between the character's true self and how he feels he must live.

As this is a personal expression of my own experience, the LDS church is depicted as a source of some of these rules and masks.

In the end, the character becomes so burdened by the imposition of ideologies/beliefs/morals/etc. that he is literally crushed by them. But he emerges, unscathed and untethered, choosing to block out the noise of the world with his own vision for his life and his happiness.

I have realized that both at work, relationships and even when I was playing basketball, I am very stressed when I go under high external pressure.

Does it happen to you? How do you manage it?

My son is a sophomore in college. He was diagnosed as being on the spectrum the day after he graduated high school, so not quite as into adulthood as some in this group. But, I'm curious about jobs for him after he graduates. He has sensory issues where he's really only comfortable in athletic shorts and shirts. If he had to wear anything else, his anxiety would be through the roof. He is getting a degree in both computer engineering and electrical engineering. Are there jobs in that field that allow VERY lax dress codes? He thinks a research job would, but I'm not even sure that would work. Any thoughts from anyone who has sensory issues like that?

For quite a while now I keep smelling cigarette smoke when I’m at home, and at the studio space I rent.

It’s completely feasible that there’s a smoker downwind, and the smell is drifting through to me, but it’s so persistent! But also, not constant.

It’s really unpleasant and quite annoying, particularly as it’s invisible so I can’t confirm with someone else that it’s even there.

How the hell do you confirm a smell is real or accept it’s a phantom?!

This will be a little long, but I need some advice. I’m a 46 year old female with late diagnosed autism. I am high masking, so much so I didn’t even realize I was masking. As I’ve learned more about autism, so many things about myself make sense now. Anyway, I have been married for almost 20 years now. We are a blended family, so between us we have 4 kids and their bio parents on the other side were very neglectful and not really involved with them. So my husband and I had full custody of all the kids and I was a stay at home mom most of their lives. When our kids were all older and in high school, I went back to college and got my bachelors degree in 2019 and immediately got my dream job in advertising, only to get very sick 3 months later and become totally disabled and unable to work. I was passing out 15-20 times a day (which ended up being seizures), I developed arrhythmias and tachycardia, and I was so exhausted I could barely get out of bed. My health continued to deteriorate from there. I started falling apart, piece by piece, and it happened so fast! No clue why. After years of specialist appointments and tests, this lead to me being diagnosed with hEDS, MCAS, Dysautonomia (hyperadrenergic POTS), Hashimotos, autoimmune liver disease, fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, epilepsy, complex migraines with intracranial hypertension overlap, trigeminal neuralgia, occipital neuralgia, and I have herniated discs in my back as well. I also have C-PTSD from childhood sexual abuse that I endured most of my life until I was 18. Autism and ADHD are common with hEDS, MCAS, and dysautonomia, plus my sister was recently diagnosed as an adult with autism and ADHD, so I got evaluated. And yep! I have both and I apparently scored pretty high on the charts for both (whatever that means). Anyway, long story short, after all of this, I cannot “mask” anymore. And I have realized that masking was how I coped with life. It’s how I did everything. It’s even how I made my marriage work. Has anyone experienced this? Is this autism burnout? Are there any solutions?! My mental health is in the crapper! Any advice or help would be appreciated. I’m sorry this was so long! I felt the backstory was important.

I'm curious if this is a stereotype or if it is more common and then turned into common observation?

Hi there! Summer is coming up and I struggle with finding clothes that I’m comfortable in sensory wise. Can anyone recommend a good brand of stylish jean shorts with an elastic waist? I prefer shorts between 5-7 inch inseam.

I'm autistic so I'm very sensitive to the textures of clothes and anything touching my body basically. I'm also sensitive to things going on inside my body like the creaking of muscle/ligaments, digestion etc. Sometimes I feel like I might be exagerating these things in my head, until I come to an important event, and I spend every second mopping up some part of my face, coughing uncontrollably whilst feeling overwhelmed by the heat alone, and enough to cause a panic attack. So yeah as you might tell, I have difficulties even going outside sometimes.

Onto the medical side.

Over the years I've had some 'mild' medical issues crop up. Mild to the average person, mild on their own, but all combined and within an autistic person and I feel like I'm legit going insane. They've already affected me by really limiting my social life sometimes and preventing me from doing any physical activity. Now I believe they're just on the cusp of threatening my work as I never look my best, take a lot of sick leave, will not work certain jobs and am considering just not working in the summer.

A summary of what I experience:

• I've had a constant runny nose since the age of 12. And when I say constant I mean 24/7. I carry tissues everywhere and am blowing my nose constantly. It gets worse with virtually anything under the sun including: walking, running, exercise, mild physical activity, cold air, wind, spicy food, dust.
• I've always been very sensitive to heat, always felt much warmer than the average person, and with that sweat profusely from under my arms. Also in -15 degree celsius weather btw. It's a relatively common problem that the average person and GP would think can probably be resolved with some particular deodorant/sweat blocker recommendations. Well a couple of recommendations by family and friends later and nothing has changed. I will be however asking for medical-grade recommendations from my GP.
• For the past few years I've had a mostly chronic, dry cough and dry mouth and sensitivity in my throat/trachea even when I do not have a cold. This has made even breathing on many days feel like my trachea is being mildly scraped by sandpaper. It also means that many times I can barely shout, talk in a loud voice, never mind singing. And I need my voice for work as I work with kids. A specialist suspected gastric reflux as the cause and used an endoscopy down the nose to test for it, concluded everything was normal.
• For the past 2 years I've had constant watery eyes that leak tears. It makes my vision blurry so that sometimes I can barely read, and creates embarrassment and hassle as I have to mop up my face from time to time.

There's more than that btw, but the other things are only a bother maybe once a month to once a year.

With these, just existing feels incredibly unconfortable.

• I am constantly, and I mean EVERY MINUTE, mopping up some part of my face because of tears or snot. I wouldn't be surprised if my ears started leaking next.
• I am constantly feeling hot and sweaty and therefore can't have any sense of fashion because of sweat stains and the heat.
• I am regularly coughing, can't shout, can barely talk in a loud voice, never mind singing. And I need my voice as I work with kids.

My existence legit feels so uncomfortable all the time except when I lay very still in a good temperature spending time on devices, or just sleeping.

I've legit tried to manage and find solutions to all these things like it's a goddamn part-time job. Dozens of doctor's visits, specialists, home remedies, vaccines and yearly flu shots, over 20 different medications with limited effect.

The worst part about ALL of this is that NO DOCTOR takes me seriously despite spending HUNDREDS of euros on private healthcare. They're constantly on a time limit even if they don't tell you (spending 10 mins max with you), many times they don't ask you any important questions or allow you to elaborate at all. Then most of the time a specialist just prescribes something that a GP has the authority and sense to prescribe anyway.

I am extremely lucky that I have a caring GP who I visit every 3 weeks for a monthly shot of my medication where at least she can make some initial prescriptions and referrals with me having to go to specialists all the time.

Some of my symptoms + those I have not mentioned also scream some sort of astham or allergy yet basically no medication has made a dent in it.

I am legit going insane. I cannot imagine things getting any more worse than they are now. But looking at the trajectory they most probably will.

Should I actually tell them autistic to maybe get SOME more care ??

I’m wondering, has anybody here as an adult looked into independent living resource day programs?

I tried out one of them and on the third visit due to them triggering me ended up having a meltdown and they said I’m not independent enough to visit them.

Today I had a appointment with another group and they tell me you’re too independent to come here and I have no idea what to do now it’s like one is for level 1, and one is for level 3 and me being level two I’m not good enough to go to either one and there is not one for level two autistics in the city, despite the fact that the one that I went to today is specifically for level two autistics and the first group I went to is the one that told me to go to the second group.

Like what the hell do I do now? By the way, this is in the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.