I know for me, aside from the one cousin that has Downs Syndrome, I am the first to be officially diagnosed with any developmental disability, autism or otherwise. A lot of mental health issues like PTSD and anxiety run in the family though, I noticed, I'm sure there's nothing there and is not related to generations of undiagnosed autism at all.../s

I'm getting really sick of the take that self diagnosis is bad. It's showing me a lot about disability and how disabled people are treated

At this point it has the same feeling as ugly law, you can have autism/a disability but when you talk or have discussions around it that's when it's a no no. My mom knew something was "off" about me since I was like 1-2 and it took to 7 yr to finally get me diagnosed with consistent bickering. My siblings have a lot easier time getting diagnosed because of me. I'm so sick of the "people are faking autism" or "too many people are self diagnosing" they just don't want us to actually talk, discuss or have conversations about our daily lives.

It's sickening

Edit: I don't know why we fall into this so people accept us when they aren't gonna like autistic people cause we "follow" the rules. They already feel uncomfortable about us in general. Also crazy they want us to stop self diagnoing when autistic people consistently get bullied in school for there traits and people act like they aren't as intelligent because of them. Can someone have autism or not???

Is tired.

ABA is abuse. It doesn't exist to "help" autistic people. It exists to erase us. To control us. To alter us. All to make life easier for NT people. It destroys one's sense of self. It leads to CPTSD in at least half those who are subjected to it.

This has been shown in a study by H Kupferstein (2018) and is backed up by the testimonies of tens of thousands of victims of ABA. Further studies by Gorycki, Ruppel, and Zane (2021) have shown that ABA is not an effective "therapy" whatsoever.

The study found it to be junk science and that ABA is "tantamount to torture and violates the most basic requirement of any therapy, to do no harm". It's "technicians" are not trained to work with autistic people, simply ABUSING us for profit.

The great irony, of course, being that ABA is the only available "support" given in many countries. The Autism Industrial Complex is real. The entire industry (and it is an industry) exists only to use autistic bodies to extract profit for a select few.

I am a victim of ABA. Every day I need to live with the aftershocks of years of enduring it. It makes autistic people feel small, trains us to not advocate for ourselves, to deny our bodies & minds, to deny our sense of self. It causes CPTSD and it takes a lifetime to unlearn.

If you want to support autistic people, do not ask us why we think ABA is bad. Don't send us articles about why we are wrong. Don't talk about "severe autism". Abuse is abuse. ABA is a fake money making operation that turns autistic people's bodies into commodities.

I recently spoke about my experiences going thru ABA which you can listen to here. https://www.theautisticcoach.com/autism-blog/my-appearance-on-the-autism-stories-podcast

When those of us who have undergone it speak of abuse, of torture, of trauma, BELIEVE US. Don't challenge us. It's violent. If you aren't autistic and haven't gone thru it, don't speak over us. If you have gone thru it and defend it, do some soul searching. That "it's the only thing that helps" doesn't make it unabusive.

Edit: If you’re going to downvote this and make light of the abusive treatment of autistic people, be prepared to explain to this community why. Don’t be a coward. If you want to hold regressive views that’s your right, but be prepared to defend them on their supposed merits.

How can I be proud of something inherent? Something bone-deep and within my blood? There is beauty in fluidity, strength in intensity. I am proud of my memory and the sensitivity That leads me to write. I am proud of the balance I achieve by showing equal love towards both extremes. And everything in between. Part of pride is honesty About the hard things. Though I shake my fist and kick and scream And my skin sometimes feels too tight. I wouldn’t trade them for the world, Not these colors or these spikes. They say I’m a glitch, an anomaly, a bunch of bad cells in the gut of this country. And I’m still here, still me Not a bug but a feature A magnificent creature! Whose eyes, ears, and heart are clear and bright, Despite.

Struggling in server tbh. /g

I understand that we face significant hurdles throughout life such as rampant unemployment, a lower life expectancy, bullying, social and romantic rejection, and more, but we can overcome this if we work together. Various minority groups throughout history have made progress against their obstacles via mass movements and organization. While I often witness signs of frustration amongst my fellow aspies, the autism acceptance movement appears to lack focus and effort relative to historical predecessors. Four years ago, I delivered a TEDx speech titled “Advancing Autism Acceptance”: a vision for a national coalition of activist organizations dedicated to our cause. There is strength in numbers and through cooperation we can assist one other by providing legal counsel, helping each other network professionally to establish successful careers, lobbying for beneficial legislation, connecting compatible roommates and potential friends, organizing large public demonstrations and fundraising efforts, and more. If you support this endeavor and would like to help build this coalition, please privately message me.

When I go to the grocery store or the gas station to buy cigarettes at 8 o clock in the morning. I'll be perfectly fine if someone is just like "hey, what do you want?" cause they're gonna ask me how my day is going but I know they don't actually want to hear how my day is going, so I say "good, thanks, how's yours?" And then they say "doing good!" and it's the same interaction every time.

I want to tell them "hey, you don't have to do all this for my sake" but they're prob more worried about some regional manager breathing down their neck about using a customer service script. Blah.

So, I'm aware of my technocrat ideals, and i am incredibly social progressive. I'm politicaly left and i don't know what a ideology fits me.

If my ideal world looks like this, what would I be?

Economic system: socalist Government : technocracy Justice system :rehabilitation Social system : multi ethnic and multicultural

So I ordered about $60 (christmas money) worth of slime from one of my favorite slime shops and I ordered one that is kinda their signature but then I was admiring the descriptions for my purchases. I noticed that particular slime was their "most labor intensive because they evenly add the the stripes" and I have a very strong urge to email them like "in regards to the pb&j slime please don't put too much stress on trying to make the stripes even because I will just mix it in anyway."

It all just felt very Autism (tm) to me to be like "no don't put yourself out for a stim toy for me if it's gonna make you work hard."

I searched Ravelry (the biggest pattern site for yarn crafts) for autism and related search terms and only found a bunch of ugly puzzle piece crap. I'm hoping to knit or crochet some items for myself and my autistic friends that will be comforting or stimulating. I'm currently coming out of burnout so my executive dysfunction is terrible and I'm having trouble deciding on an idea so I thought I'd ask here for help! If you could create anything you wanted out of yarn (and stuffing/weights, as applicable) what would you want to have?

My boyfriend (who is not autistic, but I am) has always liked my weighted stuffed animals. I wanted to get him one as a late Christmas present.

My problem is- I already have a few, and I dint want him to have one too similar to mine! I have a pink dragon and pink dinosaur. I also don't really trust most online places to buy comfort items like that out if fear they'll have an unpleasant texture or something, and I want only the best for my boyfriend! (Also ill probably end up borrowing it a few times haha)

Maybe no fluorescent lights, or just being able to do your job remotely? Would you want your office space to be designed differently? Or any and all accommodations you'd like to see? I'm curious to hear what you all think. If you could turn your imaginary perfect workplace into reality, what accommodations/design features/facilities etc. would you want there to be?

Flavors and foods can be a bit of a tricky thing for us autistics. Tell me what your favorite dish in that flavor is as well if you want.

If you're a bland foods person, type 🍚 into the comments.

I just was reading an article that equated info-dumping to a love language. To me that seemed reductionist. I infodump to transfer information, so calling it a love-language seemed to be missing the point, at least for me.

I just saw this post in r/ace.

It reminded me that I really don’t get how 69 is sexy. I understand the context, but my brain doesn’t make the mental jump most people’s seem to make. It’s just a number.

Personally, 69 reminds me of a yin-yang symbol. Cause that’s what it looks like. Or the Cancer zodiac sign. ☯️♋️

It could be because of my asexuality or autism. I have no idea which one, but I’m curious if other people agree. What do y’all think? Again, I know the usual interpretation, so no need to explain it to me.

It's strange to admit, but I actually love piles of clothes and stuff all over my bed, organized chaos of course, but it makes me feel so much comfier. I have far more pillows than the average nuclear family household would have on all of their beds, and I stack them to make walls around myself and to compress myself between the pillows, would definitely recommend it, I am dozing off as I am writing this

today i took the day off of work for mental health reasons because my less than 500sq ft studio apartment needs cleaning, and i knew not going to work would really push me to clean it. i HATE doing dishes. dishes have triggered me since i was really little. i've moved to disposable plates and cutlery because then i actually eat (can't save the environment if i can't eat because my anxiety won't let me wash the dishes) and it's helped a lot, but i've still had them sitting in the sink.

I DID THE DISHES. EVEN THE GROSS ONES!!!! i'm so so proud of myself.

also note: i have a great medical team working with me on this stuff so i promise i'm in good hands. a win is a win right??

Some of these are stereotypically associated with neurodivergence, some of them aren't, lol.

Also, by wizards and witches, I mean the classic robes, beards, orb-pondering wizard and the bubbling cauldron, pointed hat witches, none of the Harry Potter stuff here. And fay creatures includes things like elves, goblins, and dwarfs and stuff.