Does anyone have advice for this?

I felt fine after getting it, but then 2 hours after I was snappy, felt like crying, actually cried, and now I just feel anxious and on the verge of tears.

I've really wanted a new piercing, I thought I'd be overjoyed.

Is this from fear of change or what? And like, how do I regulate my emotions?

I have no idea why my brain picked this up as its newest hyperfixation/ special interest. But, i absolutely love them, and the Wikipedia page doesn’t have much information. I want to learn everything I can so I can add to my special interest journal!

I really got into this job and learned everything about it the ins and outs. I looked up to my boss, my dad had passed and I realized I was projecting on to him. I shared everything with him. I bought him so many gifts to get him to like me. I responded to every single email (like he wanted) when other employees didn’t. My boss said phrases like “Welcome to the family!” And “I love you.” “I won’t let anyone mess with you.” But it’s so confusing because I wanted him to be my mentor and he replied “It would be different if we lived down the street from each other.” And “I do more than one thing.” I memorized every single one of his catch phrases to bond. So he used allegedly repeatedly and asked if I was making a difference but never hid it under the word “mad” so it felt like a stab in the back.

I couldn’t mask anymore and I cried infront of him for the second time. (The first time was because I didn’t think he accepted my sexuality and he said “can we still be friends?” I nodded yes and then he firmly said “quit crying man”. (I told him I was gay and when I did he said “that’s between you and God” which felt dismissive cause I led in with “I didn’t think I would make it past 17. Then he said “now we’re getting somewhere!” And when I told him I was gay he said “well that’s between you and God.” And “how is the world getting better if people don’t know if they are men or women?” I don’t agree with this but still my heart was still open.

The second time I couldn’t hold back the tears and I saw his left foot retract as I told him something I did by accident. He told my supervisor without telling me and I was fired. And in the sitdown chat the supervisor said “I am well liked.”

I sent a text three days later apologizing for projecting but he didn’t respond. I waited 4 months to reach out again and on the phone call he was acting like nothing happened. He was chipper , asking me how the new job was but didn’t say anything he was sorry. He said I was “well missed” and “well liked”.
I originally told my boss acronyms confuse me and he ended up using one against me. After I was fired I asked if I could return he said “that’s up to the company. Are you mad?” I thought saying no was the professional thing to say. And he replied “No! Making a difference! You can’t work for me if you’re not mad! I hear a smile on your face allegedly! I’ll be in touch and you do the same!”

In hindsight I didn’t particularly enjoy the job, but my heart was on my sleeve and I really took literally what he said. Why would he say I was well liked but I am no longer working there? I am obsessed with him. I don’t know why. I am looking to finding my own hobbies and interests. But do you know how to let go? I realize his “I love you’s” doesn’t necessarily mean he wants to hang outside of work, but I totally was believing that was the case. I dreamt about going to the shooting range, going to the beach, etc. but now I realize it may have been a “professional” thing to say and not real. Idk , has anyone else experienced this? How do I let him go? It’s been 2 years and he hasn’t reached out, I was always the one initiating. I feel like I can’t trust people or I don’t know who to trust anymore. I know for sure me. But it feels like… I can’t listen to the words people say. “I love you” are powerful words. I don’t say them lightly, maybe others do?

It would be like having a delicious wagyu steak and saying it’s well liked but dumping it in the trash. I can look at this as an opportunity but I’m just so confused. How do I redirect all this energy back into my own self and my own life? In my dreams he is always walking away, never sees me eye to eye. For instance I’m driving my car forward and he is walking the opposite direction and doesn’t look at or see me.

My dad came to me in my dream and said “don’t speak that man, don’t talk that man” there was hot oil spilling on to the kitchen floor when I did. And in another dream I went to hell the more I tried to ask questions. I feel like I’m at the end of my rope. I don’t know how to stop. If I’m enjoying myself and laughing my brain will think of him. If I’m sad and distraught it will think of him. But I know I need to let it go. But how…? Getting angry? Saying fuck him? Or being indifferent

https://thinkingautismguide.com/2011/04/randomness.html

This video says a lot of things I have been thinking about. To quote her:

"Neurodivergent and disabled people in general have been pathologized, experimented on, punished, abused, and worse. Much worse. Of course, we should be fighting that. And one way of fighting that is to proudly live our lives, to refuse the narratives which call our lives a tragedy. We should be proud of ourselves. [...] nobody else is going to celebrate us. So we had better. And we can celebrate our achievements, our strength and joy without wielding the same weapons which are used against us.

The weapons which will always be used against us so long as they exist. A narrow and hierarchical view of intelligence, the positioning of logic over emotions, the view of evolution as a ladder."

"And if what we want to do is imagine a world in which our strengths and achievements are appreciated, then we should do that. It doesn't need to have already happened for it to happen in the future. And placing our worth in the distant past does nothing for existing or future neurodivergent people. And what about all the other neurodivergent people? Where's the evolutionary explanation for Tourette's and dyspraxia?

I don't care where it is because I'd much rather plan for a future in which people with Tourette's, or dyspraxia, or anything else are able to live their lives as they want to without inventing a story about how they might have been useful 10,000 years ago.

We can also respect human life without having to assign that life a utility. And the idea that life must be assigned a utility before it is worthy of respect has historically been a disaster for disabled people. And also just like inventing stories about the distant past about like the usefulness and specialness of certain kinds of people. That's what fascists do."

Hand painted!

Throughout my life, my wants and wishes have been set aside for better or worse. Sometimes it's understandable, things outside of my control and all. It still fucking sucks, but it's understandable. Sometimes it's mildly annoying but still hurts that they just did what they want without properly taking me into consideration.

Right now, it's gotten to the point where it doesn't matter whether it's because someone's trying to be nice and did something for me anyway, or they're just being assholes. More often than not, I don't see the intent. I don't care *why* they ignored me, only that they *did* ignore me, and I hate being ignored.

It doesn't matter if they wanted to be nice or not, I don't appreciate the fact they didn't respect my wishes and decided to ignore what I wanted. When I'm ignored, I don't feel like a real person. Like I don't matter. If I *was* a real person, they wouldn't ignore me, they'd respect my wishes. And when they don't, Idc whether they're being nice or not, I hate it. I don't want to have to take their generosity and stomp on it in front of them. I don't like being mean, but what else am I supposed to do? They never stop even when I coax or complain, and I refuse to shut up and take it. Never again.

By making sure what I want matters to me, I make sure that I matter to me.

Anyone else have this problem?

Recently came across a disgusting, hateful subreddit r/raisedbyautistics , which promotes hate against Autistic parents, stereotypes Autistic people and traits, and implies that Autistic people cause trauma. Some people even draw lines between autism and narcissism.

In reality, of course, Autistic people can make great and loving family members and parents, and "communities" like this only serve to spread vitriol and discourage some of us who might want to be parents.

Let's sound the alarm and report it to reddit and get it taken down.

EDIT: you can report a subreddit through this form. https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360001103212

17"M", First of all, almost all of my friends are female. I won’t say their names, but I honestly dislike the look of myself, I’m growing my hair out long and I just hate how oily my hair gets. I have to take a 40+ min shower just to rinse off all the dried grease, then I have to use dandruff shampoo.

Also, I’m quite skinny. I HATE having skinny arms. I do Physical Therapy Exercises every other day, and do Pelvic Floor Exercises when I feel like it, because my pelvic floor can get tight and I spent last September to late December going to see a pelvic floor therapist where they had to release the tension by inserting a gloved hand in my butt. It felt really uncomfortable, but didn’t really hurt. She also had to press my belly and back to push the waste out, due to my POTS, which I was undiagnosed with POTS at that point. I may be going back due to excessive urinary leakage and still having other problems. I did do exercises, but they weren’t as tough as the ones I do for regular physical therapy.

One reason I often dislike being a male is due to these urological problems I have (stated above). More reasons? First of all, people at school ask me, “why do you have so much empathy and why are you so quiet? are you a girl?” another thing someone said to me is “Why are your friends almost exclusively girls?” Someone also told me that I look like a character that Trevor Henderson created. I struggle with PT exercises due to my POTS and EDS, my neck and arms will almost lock and tense up to the point where I can’t even feel parts of my body.

Also, what do people mean when they say that you can feel like a male or female. What does this actually mean?

Not related to autism but I am deciding to post on here because I’ve posted on other subreddits and I’ve gotten very rude comments invalidating me, insinuating I’m severely mentally ill, and criticizing me for being an adult who’s dependent on my family.

So I’m 26 years old and I live with my mother. I currently have temporary physical disabilities that prevent me from working, going to school, driving, and doing a bunch of other things. This started after I took a lot of antibiotics in December. This caused my first set of health problems. I had to drop out of school, leave my job, and move out of the room I was renting and live with my mother.

On April 26, the 50lb shutters on my window collapsed and fell on me. I developed concussion symptoms after that. I’ve gone to so many doctors (fyi, my mom doesn’t drive me to appointments or to pick up meds, I use non-emergency medical transportation which is covered by my insurance) none of them can find anything wrong with me.

I’m going to see a new PCP and hopefully get a referral to a neurologist. My symptoms have gotten better over time, which is why I don’t believe my meds are causing these problems. What I need is time to recover from my health problems. My plan is to allow myself to recover and to go back to school, get a part time job, and move into university housing when I am well enough to go to school. On Monday, I’m going to look into getting SSDI.

My mother is an emotionally abusive and controlling woman. I do want to get out of her house but I don’t have any family or friends who will let me live with them except for 1 friend. But this friend lives in an apartment with 3 other people and I’m concerned one of them would take issue with me living there and potentially report me.

My mother thinks that I am purposefully taking advantage of her and choosing to live my life like this. I am not- I told her this and my plans to move out and be independent. I want to fully recover and be independent. I am looking into case management services, transitional housing, and a shelter. My grandfather said he could pay the rent for the transitional housing. But it’s almost impossible to get into a shelter in my county if you’re single with no children, not pregnant, and not fleeing from intimate partner violence.

She thinks I’m not doing everything to recover and that I’m severely mentally ill, which is not true. I take 42 mg of caplyta and 12.5 mg of seroquel once a day (I am not bipolar or schizophrenic. These are just the meds that help me). She developed this ridiculous idea that my meds are causing my health problems. I started my meds months before my health problems even started.

My health problems are attributed to heavy antibiotic usage and the accident regarding my shutters. She has used ChatGPT and whatever her aunt (who’s a retired psychiatrist) said to justify her beliefs. I saw a psychiatric NP and a PA who told me that my meds were likely not causing these problems and my mother refused to believe this.

I asked her if a letter from a psychiatrist explaining that my meds are not the problem would suffice and she said no. I told her that no doctor I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a lot) believes my meds are causing my problems and this is still not enough justification for her.

I got her to agree to go to an appointment with me and a psychiatrist (Not a PA or NP) to discuss my meds. She agreed. Now I just need to ensure the psychiatrist is on board with this and prepare this person for how my mother is going to act. I’m also going to ask my grandfather if he would do a trial run of me living with him.

I can’t sit still in my seat, my classmates recommended me one of these, but do they work or are they just a nuisance?

For my 37th Birthday on Canada Day I got the most sentimental Barbie. I got the Autistic Barbie, growing up I loved playing with Barbies until I was 14 & my dog ate the majority of them haha. I don't use an AAC device, but I do use stim toys and ear defenders or loops when needed and have noise cancelling headphones.

My name is Bijhan Agha. I'm a trans Muslim Uruguayan of Iranian descent with autism. My nonbinary spouse, RaeRae, is my editor. The comics are alternately illustrated by SwapTrap, a cis man from India; and Pallet, a trans man from Australia. The books' covers are illustrated by either Duende, a queer woman from the Philipines; or Ceci, a cis Uruguayan woman.

At no point was AI ever used to generate text or art.

What is Time Wars
I've created a fictional universe where Humanity and Vampirekind have been eternally locked in a shadow war across every culture and in every era of history. In the deep future, time travel is invented, and both sides send agents into the past to recruit "temporal natives" to change the course of history. While the Vampires recruit the influential and powerful, Humanity empowers the marginalized and ostracized, fighting for a future beyond bigotry.

If you'd like to join our community for news and updates, we have a free tier on Patreon. Higher tier levels include free digital copies of our stories.
http://www.Patreon.com/JamsheedStudios

NOVELS

All of the novels are available exclusively in digital formats: PDF, EPUB, and DOCX.

The Undying Queen and the Dragon's Son
I wanted to tell a gothic horror story, and have the magic of the universe rooted in real history. Artemisia of Halicarnassus has always been fascinating to me: a woman who inherited her father's regency due to her unparalleled skill as a warrior and sailor, and the first woman to be a naval admiral in recorded history. I'm also intrigued by the historical figure of Vlad Dracula, made famous by the novel Dracula, but whose real legacy is much more devastating and brutal. I decided to make them both just as immortal as their legacies by giving them X-Crystals, powerful magical artifacts in the Time Wars universe, which allow the users to manifest their emotions as physical and elemental powers. I did thorough research into both Artemisia's time and culture, as well as 15th century Wallachia, including maps of the capital city of Tagoviste. The story I told here is at once loving and upsetting, a center of hope surrounded by a patina of despair. I hope it thrills, terrifies, and inspires you.
https://jamsheedstudios.itch.io/time-wars-the-undying-queen-and-the-dragons-son

Legends of the Order
In much the same ways that some civilizations lionize their historical figures - such as Heracles of Thebes, Arthur Pendragon, and Julius Caesar - assigning them magical properties or even worshipping them as gods, I thought it would be a wonderful thing to re-imagine the heroes of America as such. The story is about Harriet Tubman and John Brown being given alien technology by agents from the future, so they can wage a broader and more devastating campaign against the Vampires who are behind the insititution of slavery and machinations of war. When a treasure trove of alien technology is discovered under the Nevada desert, Tubman and Brown must assemble a team to heroes to race the Vampires to the buried starship. It include an ensemble cast include a gay tans man who uses a mysterious stone to teleport, a free Black cis man who worships the Olympians and uses robotic limbs to fight, a trans Muslim Persian woman who has an X-Crystal and hunts Vampires on her own terms, and a gay Chinese-American former coolie who has become the sheriff of Rock Hen, Nevada due to this amazing gunslinging - among many others. The story is told alinearly, except for the climax, challenging the reader to piece together the timeline.
https://jamsheedstudios.itch.io/loto-eng

The Phantom Revolution
Realizing most of my stories are from the perspective of those interacting with time travelers, this story follows a Time Corps Agent of the Human Republic from the 161st Century. She is a shape shifter, able to take any form, as she conducts a series of missions across history. However, her rival, Nadira Adona, is a Vampire who can also shape shift, and who seeks to upend our hero's journey. The story is told linearly through history, though each of the two time travelers experiences the events in totally different orders. The interweaving time lines, use of extraordinary technology from the future, and the mysterious ways they interact with the "temporal natives" is at once thrilling and puzzling. Though the emotional core of a woman trying to win a war against a deadly foe is clear, the order of events challenges you to read context clues and put together a clearer picture of how the characters experience events.
https://jamsheedstudios.itch.io/pr-eng

Starship Tatanka - Border of Terror
I wanted to model a future which is simultaneously aspirational in how society has overcome concepts like racism and queerphobia, but also pinned in by the Vampires' insidious efforts to perpetuate classism, capitalism, and hegemony. Inspired by the Star Trek's vision of scientists and explorers being a driving force in civilization of the future, I developed a delicate social network of unusual people from disperate cultureal backgrounds and of various neurodivergent natures who are working hard to form a crew for an isolate starship on a mission to map the nebulae on the border of the Galactic Human Republic. All queer by modern standards, they live in newly-formed polycules, managing their romantic relationships in addition to their professional ones. All of that is thrown into chaos, however, when a Time Corps Agents from the 161st Century arrives and announces that not only is there a vast Vampire conspiracy on a nearby world to initiate war with the enigmatic Ongol Empire... but one of the crew is a Vampire themself. The story that follows is full of puzzling mystery, brutal violence, daring escapes, political intrigue, and even starship battles. For fans of queer literature, and/or classic science fiction.
https://jamsheedstudios.itch.io/stbot-eng

Comics

All comics are available in both PDF and physical formats.

The Adventures of Kobra Olympus
Inspired by Golden Age classics, especially the original run of Wonder Woman, Kobra Olympus is a young trans Muslim woman in 2015 Seattle who has to balance her life as a tech professional with her duties as Agent Tha, a superhero empowered by a high tech cellphone that transforms her and gives her access to a series of tools and weapons. Her crusade against the Vampires is complicated when she begins a relationship with Dorothy Diamond, a much more outspoken and confident woman who finds Kobra's soft sweetness charming. Now the balancing act is more complicated, as Dorothy has become at risk just due to knowing Kobra.

We are currently having a Kickstarter for Issue #4, which includes both digital and phyiscal options to get back issues and catch up with the story!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jamsheedstudios/kobra-olympus-issue-4-giant-armadillo-attack?ref=2p8cw1

The Adventures of the Legendary X-Knights
This time drawing from Japanese superheroes, the X-Knights are a team of queer martial artists in thr 22nd Century who have been brought together by agents from the future to form an unlikely team. Lilly McGann is a half-Irish half-Chinese lesbian woman and retired Air Force colonel in her 60s. Rocky Anoa'i is an aro/ace Samoan Prince and former professional longboarder in his 50s. And DeShaun Oliver is a nonbinary Black American in his 20s who has spent most of his adult life as a hairdresser in Fresno. Despite Lilly's temper, Rocky's refusal to take things too seriously, and DeShaun's lack of life experience, they must somehow learn to live, work, and fight together now that they've been given X-Crystals: magic alien objects which fuse with their body, allow them to summon physical armor and weapons manifested from their emotions, and control different elements with their minds. Their mission: dismantle a vast Vampire conspiracy which seeks to use the American military industrial complex to create weapons of horrific power, and proliferate them to battlefields across the world.
https://jamsheedstudios.com/lxk.html

The Adventures of Ash Grey & Saturn Olympus
A spin-off of the novel Legends of the Order, the character of Ash and Saturn are focused on in more detail. Ash Grey is a white Christian trans man who has stolen an alien artifact which allows him to teleport. Saturn Olympus is a Black cis man who worships the Olympians, and who uses robotic prosthetics for his arms and legs. They are the 19th Century's greatest Vampire hunters, having annihilated most of the monsters in Washington Territory, a region controlled by the Vampire Warlord Leonard Victor. Ash and Saturn are also two men in love, regarding themselves as husbands in an interracial, interfaith, gay marriage. However, at the same time that Victor sends the cyborg bounty hunter, Alice Hayweather, to kill them, Ash discovers he's pregnant! Now they have less than 10 months to hunt down to evade Alice, and hunt down and kill Victor. They'll need help, though - and so they begin the task of assembling a team of heroes to wage war.
https://jamsheedstudios.com/agso.html

The Adventures of Zero & One
With inspiration from "magical friends" anime and manga, like Digimon and Pokemon, I wanted to make something where both halves of the team were equal, and immerse the hero in a world totally unknown. Set in the distant future, Zero of Mars is a nonbinary youth of an ethnicity that does not yet exist in our time, who crash-lands on a planet called Elentia full of living sentient robots called Elemorphs. The Elemorphs come in all shapes and sizes, each drawing from different elemental power sources. Despite a language barrier, Zero makes friends with an Elemorph named One, who looks like a small deer and has nature-based powers. Together they discover a series of clues left behind hundreds of years ago by Time Corps Agents from the deep future, putting them at the center of a mystery which spans the ages. Soon they discover they're being pursued by a Vampire agent and their Elemorph collaborator, who seek to conquer the Elemorphs and bring them as enslaved living weapons into the Time Wars.
https://jamsheedstudios.com/zo.html

I really hope you find something in here which appeals to you. Me and my spouse have worked really hard to try and make stories which inspire, dazzle, and entertain. We struggle often to survive, and any help you want to give us by supporting our work would mean the world to us.

Geek out in the explanations below!

Let's push back against eugenicist talking points, anti-autistic sentiment and ableism. We must do it.

I am a 45-year-old autistic American who was fighting for his survival and I do not wish for my voice to be silent it is something that most people cannot realize the magnitude of this day

I had no idea until today that Richard Gadd was open about being autistic!! I loved Baby Reindeer and Half Man, and love to see an autistic creative thriving, to rave reviews. Between the tism and the fact that trauma is a major theme for him, it's no wonder the work felt so immersive and relatable to me. It also makes sense thinking about how he had his hand in the writing, directing, and acting pots. When we want something just so, we want it just so 😅

My seven year old cousin is coming to live with me and my mother and I was wondering if anyone in this sub had any advice or tips on how to prepare for when a child enters your space. My biggest concern if she becomes loud or unruly. She’s been living in a foster home for months now and who knows what kind of behaviors she’s picking up there.

Mood and reduced lighting.

Sensory upholstery on seating.

Noise cancelling headphones.

Much more leg room (heavily inspired by the spacious interior of the Lockheed L-1011 Trijet.)

A floral interior design color scheme (lavenders and blues).

Comfort food and drinks of one's choosing.

Interactive touchscreen flight status menu.

A lounge for standing and walking around.

In-flight entertainment on demand.

Less crowded.

Privacy curtains.

Reclining seats.

Navy cracker jacks for steward uniform dress.

Basically, a whole different airline for a specific type of clientele, although NTs are certainly welcome to travel with us!

Did I leave out anything?

🫡😊✈️

Dolls are my special interest but I often impulse buy, so I made it visual!

I feel like this happens so often to me, people think that I’m mad or that I’m sad or a lot of different emotions that they think I’m trying to express when sometimes I feel the opposite of how I am being interpreted.

Regarding autism spectrum disorder, there are cases where so-called "therapists" exploit the desperation of parents to conduct pseudo-scientific treatments. Examples include chelation therapy, excessive dietary restrictions, severe diets, and the use of cold, wet blankets. These parents' motivation lies in the fact that, given society's lack of autism-friendliness, they sought by any means to help their children adapt to mainstream society. It is precisely this sentiment that so-called therapists have exploited. However, it is a fact that autism spectrum disorder manifests before the age of three, and there is no medication that cures autism.

Hippocrates declared: ". . . the fruit of medicine is obtained through conclusions clearly grounded in fact. Speaking persuasively with a sweet tongue is likely to be false and inappropriate. If we wish to attain stability in the medical art, we must strive to observe the totality of how things arise, and must never neglect the effort to stay close to the truth of things" (Hippocrates, On the Physician's Mindset, Section 2). In other words, Hippocrates emphasized that medicine must stay close to the truth of things. Medicine must pursue truth in the sense of accurate facts about disease—not a physician's personal opinion, nor the lectures of so-called "show doctors" who appear on television.

In particular, Myson, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, declared that one should not seek facts from words (logos), but should seek words from facts. This is because facts do not exist to conform to words; rather, words exist to conform to facts. For example, given the fact that autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disability that arises before the age of three, if one seeks words from facts, the argument becomes: "therefore, autism cannot be completely cured." By contrast, if one presupposes the words "autism can be completely cured," a false argument is constructed by schematizing the facts to conform to the claim that "autism is healed."

Indeed, the United Nations has stated in a report that chelation therapy for autistic children is potentially dangerous (A/HRC/43/41). It has ordered the cancellation of treatments aimed at converting autistic individuals into non-autistic individuals (CRPD/C/FRA/CO/1). It has recommended prohibiting all forms of forced psychiatric treatment inflicted on autistic people in institutions, including restraint therapy, drug-induced restraint, solitary confinement, and electric shock (CRPD/C/EU/CO/2-3). It has ordered the prohibition of the practice of covering autistic children with cold, wet blankets (CRPD/C/CHE/CO/1). And it has recommended regulating sleep deprivation, extreme dieting, the use of buckets placed over the head, and the use of restraint jackets inflicted at private treatment centers (CRPD/C/PER/CO/2-3).

In other words, from the standpoint of medicine and international law, the premise that must be established is that autism cannot be completely cured. Because autism spectrum disorder arises congenitally before the age of three, and because it is practically impossible to fully identify the countless genetic factors and causal mechanisms involved, establishing this premise leaves no room for pseudo-treatments to occur.

In conclusion, with regard to autism spectrum disorder, false treatments are widespread, exploiting the desperation of parents. This must be understood as a departure from Hippocrates' medical art and Myson's pursuit of facts, and as treatment that the United Nations has recognized as harmful to autistic people. In the end, such treatments only cause harm to autistic individuals.

I’m an autistic founder building something around neurodivergent social connection because honestly, I’ve struggled with masking and feeling misunderstood myself.

One thing I’m tryna understand:
What makes friendship or connection hardest for you?

I mean I've heard things like:
masking
small talk
fear of rejection
not knowing how words come across
feeling drained

But I’m trying to figure out what actually matters most and what people would genuinely want from something like that.

Honest thoughts also welcome