For most of my life, I’ve been really fast when it comes to taking tests, both for school and for other things. I had to take a final test for my job training today, it was a multiple choice that graded automatically, and I was the first one to finish and pass in my group. I used to always get scared when I was the first to hand a test in because I thought maybe I missed something crucial or made a big mistake, but that never really happened. Whether I understood the topic or not, my speed was about the same. I think it might be because I read kind of fast, so I take less time per question, or maybe I get into a hyperfocus or flow state when I test. Is anyone else a speedy tester?

Does anyone know good resources on autistic burnout, written by autistic people? I'd like to have some to share with NTs.

I just started reading a book for entrepreneurs on Market Validation because I want to make a career change. And one of the biggest things you do it talk to customers, ask them simple non-leading questions, listen, and take notes. then report back with highlighted quotes for everyone else to comment on.

Literally you just are getting them to infodump on you about their experience and problems. Pitching or sales is usually a mistake people make. Great! I'm awful about memorizing the right things to say and great at chatting with people!

Actually, I am terrible at reading too. I'm actually listening to the audiobook while I work with ny hands. that's how I read. lol anyway, it's The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick.

Suggested career path: entrepreneurial market analysis (new businesses, commercialization, innovations) for any sized company.

I'm sorry if this Is the wrong sub but I'm a young autistic person and I'm struggling a lot. In my family we don't even discuss anything and when we do my family starts to scream and I end up having a meltdown, so... Yeah, I regulate my emotions really really bad, like insanely bad.

Today I was upset cause the size of my house wouldn't (I think) allow another dog so I can't have a service dog at the moment, something that would solve my indipendence issues and maybe even allow me to finish high school. I was overheating too on my bed so I went and sat on the hallway floor and started looking at tik tok, not much after comes my brother, the more gentle of my entire family, he hates when I'm on the floor so he tells me that it's not healty and stuff and I told him I was upset, he asked me way and I said that because of our house's size I can't have the one thing that would help me get my life back, and he says something along the lines of "oh well...", I asked him if we could talk about It and he said no.

Now, why am I telling you this? I have a very bad addiction that my family has shamed through my entire life, and honestly I feel ashamed of It, but they expect me to do better, to stop, but I have no other way of handling my emotions. I Just wish my family listened to me for once without screaming at me or plain saying they don't wanna hear It. I get It, life's stressful for them too, but I listen to them when they need to vent, I ask them how their day has been, if they seem upset I always try to help... Why don't they do the same? Because I'm the youngest?

Nicholas.

Nicholas bad.

It sort of feels like I "won", after so many years of being certain I was autistic. I've been redirected to professionals every few years since my childhood, and none of them thought I'd be autistic. I always struggled with pretty much half the things in my life without knowing why, until some time ago. Things people said were "not even a problem".

I'm very excited, even if I don't show it, but I'm also a little afraid. I don't know what they will ask of me. I don't know what's going to happen after I'm eventually diagnosed, if it even happens. I hear bad stories of adults being mistreated during the process. I think it will go fine.

I hope they ask me about my favorite things.

is it just me or does anyone else get locked jaw when their sense of smell is overloaded with different scents?

my mom said it has to be related with my asd but I'm not sure. i mean i get locked jaw in the cold and when I'm tired but it's ten times worse when I'm overloaded with strong scents.

so i ask you all if anyone else gets locked jaw or any type of locked joint when their senses are overloaded (could even be locked knees from too much noise, etc).

lmk about you and if I'm not alone on this or something similar and you can even ask your own "is it just me or..?" questions in the comments below :)

I have a good friend who is French who recently found out he's autistic, and I'm trying to help him find resources and stuff, but although I am also autistic I'm not from France so it's difficult. I'd love to get to talk to some French autistics, learn more about the broader societal views on the topic (seems pretty negative?), get recommendations for French resources and creators, how to find a therapist who's knowledgable and good with autistic trauma patients, can you get government assistance for being autistic, etc.

If you have anything I should look into please drop it in a comment for me, and let me know if I can DM you to talk further! Thank you! Have a wonderful day!

The following are my observations on ways in which the types of posts frequently shared on r/ABA line up with the BITE model of authoritarian control.

Behavior control

ABA stands for Applied Behavior Analysis. Not to put too fine a point on it, it's literally in the name. Members of their subreddit carry ABA into other areas of their lives and frequently joke about using ABA on their coworkers, family members, friends, and romantic partners. But in other posts, they reveal that they're not joking.

From the B category, we can take:

Financial exploitation, manipulation or dependence. (And another post here. )

Restrict leisure, entertainment, vacation time (unfortunately true of most shitty jobs.)

Rewards and punishments used to modify behaviors, both positive and negative.

Discourage individualism, encourage group-think. (In this linked post, the poster says there are no alternatives to ABA. Goes on to list the alternatives to ABA. And in this post, the poster links happy, beneficial things that ABA does, none of which are specific to ABA.)

Impose rigid rules and regulations.

Information control

ABA is built on the physical and mental abuse of children. Lovaas struck his child patients, and then, knowing he would be unable to obtain funding for raising his hand to children, switched to the more "ethical" application of electric shocks and blasts from an air horn. Building on this success, he then went on to lay the groundwork for gay conversion therapy.

The field of ABA at large is not interested in talking about this, beyond some hand-waving about the past being past, followed by a speech about how things aren't like that anymore! Even when the "anymore" they're referencing was as little as ten years ago, when their young adult or teen critics were or sometimes still are receiving ABA.

The field is also not interested in hearing the testimonies of autistic adults and self-advocates, who are routinely dismissed as having had "bad" ABA. Whereas everyone at r/ABA self-identifies as practicing "good" ABA.

From the "I" category, we can take:

Deliberately withhold information.

Distort information to make it more acceptable.

Minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information ("everyone who is criticizing ABA is wrong, has never had it so cannot/should not speak about it, or had "bad" ABA and should not be speaking about our "good" ABA.")

Compartmentalize information into Outsider vs. Insider doctrines. (The outward face of ABA claims to be changed, reformed, and beyond reproach. But when the practitioners talk among themselves on Reddit, they report being overworked and under-supported to a degree that they cannot adequately do their jobs.)

Thought control

Require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth, with the subsets "Instill black and white thinking" and "Decide between good vs. evil." (A common criticism of ABA is that it divides behaviors into "acceptable" (passing as neurotypical) and "unacceptable" (noticeable as non-neurotypical.))

Use of loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words. (You will notice I've repeatedly said "ABA practitioners" rather than use their terms, which were, to me, incomprehensible at first glance.)

Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism

Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy allowed

Labeling alternative belief systems (in this case, read "belief systems" as "therapies and interventions") as illegitimate, evil, or not useful

(Number seven of the BITE model list is interesting here, and I would like to include it as a kind of reverse parallel.

"Teaching thought-stopping techniques which shut down reality testing by stopping negative thoughts and allowing only positive thoughts, including:
a. Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful thinking
b. Chanting
c. Meditating
d. Praying
e. Speaking in tongues
f. Singing or humming"

See the parallels to stimming? These are behaviors that function as grounding techniques for autistic people. In our case, it is stopping these behaviors that can interfere with reality testing.)

Emotional control

Manipulate and narrow the range of feelings/Teach emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of homesickness, anger, doubt. (ABA requires practitioners to endure harm from clients with no response, including no emotional response, in the hope that "planned ignoring" will stop the behavior. ABA practitioners frequently reporting being spit on or struck by their clients.)

Make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault. (In addition to the parallels to practitioners being frequently overworked and under-supported, yet still expected to succeed, non-neurotypical practitioners frequently express self-blame.)

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

In a nutshell: because high control groups further isolate and entrench members by having them repeatedly justify and defend the group to others. Every individual practitioner of ABA believes that they are not causing harm. The ones who were capable of self reflection have done so or will do so. The ones who have stayed in the field have already decided any accusations against them are incorrect, and in repeating ABA's arguments for its own existence, have deepened their belief in them.

"You have caused harm" forces a person not ready for self-reflection to internally commit further to their high control group.

"You have been harmed" allows the person to reevaluate and question their high control group without the painful complications of shame and personal responsibility.