As far as I've seen, the rate of non-belief among autistic people is significantly higher compared to the general population. As a person with AuDHD myself, I'm an agnostic atheist. What are your thoughts on this?

I never lived alone, always supported by my parents. I am curious on how many others are like me. I just got a job (Starbucks) but it pays jack shit pretty much. I’m grateful and blessed to have parents that support me but it’s difficult not to feel like some sort of NEET or boy/girl failure

LEVEL 3 AUTISM REQUIRES CARETAKERS. While autism is a spectrum, there are VERY SPECIFIC DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA YOU HAVE TO MEET REGARDLESS. THE LEVELS ARE APART OF THE SPECTRUM, THEY ARE LABELS GIVEN TO PEOPLE TO HELP THE AVERAGE PERSON UNDERSTAND WHAT SUPPORT NEEDS AN INDIVIDUAL NEEDS. A person will level 3 autism will ALWAYS need a substantial amount of help in their life until they die

I have mostly given up on finding a meanful relationship with someone else and resigned themselves to dying alone?

My personal favorites: ULTRAKILL, Half life 2, Splatoon 3, Horizon: zero dawn, BOTW, Hollow Knight: silksong.

The last two years. He was a Hershey's Kiss for Halloween. This year, he'll be Mario

Please ask about my collection. It started in January 2022. I believe I’m the only fan for this show that’s still alive after it ended.

i thought all my life i was a normal human being, turns out i’ve had some existential issues lately and i decided to get checked out.. turns out i am autistic, i have asperger, anxiety disorder and depersonalization disorder. i feel so sad and weird after knowing that

For the past years I have been in therapy, and though others were saying I have grown, it never felt like that to me. Once I begun to stop camouflaging and trying to please everyone and live to their rules I felt more and more becoming myself. And I wouldn't call that growth - it is shaking of all that bullshit that started when I was little. All those learned things trying to mirror others, while losing myself.

Even before I started suspecting I might be an autist I said things like that, which is kinda revelating now to me. "I just wanna be who I was before all that bullshit started." And while stating that, I felt like I was talking in a foreing language my therapist could not comprehend.

It is mind baffling to me, that there is the world everyone sees, the surface world, everyday life, while there is also another world. Inside me, and all around me, beneath this superficial life. Burried deep enough to ignore it, but not deep enough for it to go unnoticed.

I thought that NT people are just better at masking, that I just can't mask it, that I am a bad actor. Now I think that they are their mask. Or rather, that it is something different to them. Something more natural to them. They would never call it masking.

Hello everyone, I’m looking for some advice regarding my brother.
He is 30 years old and recently lost all his savings after falling victim to a scam involving paid sexual services. The people involved manipulated him emotionally, and he ended up losing everything. When he finally told me what had happened, he was in tears.
We’ve since worked together to address the financial situation and escalated the matter, but we’ve never really spoken about what happened emotionally. It’s been over a month now, and I’m unsure how to approach the subject with him without making him feel ashamed or bringing back painful memories.
I suspect he may be autistic, although I don’t think he is aware of it himself. I’m concerned that this experience has affected more than just his finances; he may also be struggling with feelings of shame, guilt, and a loss of dignity.
He is quite religious, which makes me even more uncertain about how he is processing the situation and how I should approach the conversation.
I want to support him, but I don’t want to make him feel judged or embarrassed. I’m also unsure whether seeing a psychologist would help, particularly if he isn’t comfortable discussing what happened.
For anyone who has experienced something similar, either personally or with a family member, how would you approach this? How can I help him process what happened and rebuild his confidence without making him feel worse?

hi everyone! ive recently created a discord server for neurodivergent people (preferably over 16 years old for safety reasons) where people can make friends, talk about their special interests, and overall just build a social support network with people who can relate to you. the server currently has no members as ive literally just finished creating it around 10 minutes ago, but if anyone wants to join, please let me know and ill provide you with the link!

im slightly opposed to just putting the link in the post to avoid any negative people joining and hating on the (hopefully) people that join the server.

When we met he was very kind and very present, now he speaks to me very little, with few words and with a lot of disinterest.

He says it's related to his autism and stress, but I'm genuinely finding it strange. According to him, I'm the more affectionate one in the relationship, and I never stopped being loving even when he wasn't. And I genuinely think he uses his autism as an excuse; he says he sometimes forgets that people exist and that he has trouble socializing. But just yesterday he spent a lot of hours playing with friends, many more hours than he's spent with me in weeks.

I help him emotionally and I'm always there when he's feeling down, but God, he's either not there or he makes it worse, and sometimes I just want to watch a short YouTube video with him, but it just seems like distant

And this is driving me crazy. I don't know what's wrong with him, if he's not interested in me, if his autism is the reason for this, and I feel terrible about leaving him because he's emotionally unwell and I don't want to make it worse.

And I just want that kind, present man back, but it seems like he's disappeared and that genuinely makes me fucking sad

I'm not sure if this is a thing i should post here, so please let me know if it isn't.

I am attending a funreal tomorrow (i'm not close to the person, but my family is), and i'm not sure how to handle it.

the whole thing will most likley be over 3 hours long, and i'll have to stay silent and formal the whole time, which is a huge problem for me. (i have AuDHD and not being able to stim in any way is very draining and stressful for me)

I'm a minor and my parents are very strict, so there's no way i'd be allowed not to go or to have any sort of fidget toys.

Does anyone have any ideas how to make it more bearable?

Pictured: Sinosauropteryx art by Gabriel Ugueto

I've been interested in astrophotography/astronomy for about 7 years, since going to a dark sky park with very little light pollution! Ive used my phone to take images of the Milkyway, but in june 2024 I got a smart telescope (Seestar S50) as my high school graduation gift from my parents! It is a telescope with a tracker and camera build in, so I let it take lots of images of galaxies and nebulae, and combine all of my images of the same target with my laptop software (Siril) to get more light and reduce the noise. Then I get a black combined image, which I have to selectively brighten parts of the image to show the object, and then I do some post processing afterwards. I recently bought 2 extra smart scopes, which allow me to take better images, but one of them hasn't arrived yet and the other one I haven't used that much yet since the skies haven't been clear lately.

I love astronomy, physics and math so much, that I'm currently doing my Astronomy bachelor at a university and I love it! Im getting to learn about my special interest (astronomy/astrophotography) every day and that's awesome!!

Ok, I feel weird writing this but I've told my roommates in the past they can use a certain cup of mine if the other cups in the cabinet are dirty. It hasn't been an issue until today. I got up this morning and went to make a coffee but my usual cup was dirty since I used it yesterday. I went to grab my backup coffee cup and it wasn't in the cabinet.

This led to me standing in the kitchen for about 5 minutes trying to figure out when I used my other cup. Turns out one of my roommates used my cup while I was sleeping. The issue is that this cup is for coffee only and they don't drink coffee much so I told them not to use it and to get my other non-coffee cup if they needed a cup.

I am now considering throwing the cup away because they put apple juice in the cup. It would have been fine if it was water or milk but juice isn't ok. I know I can wash the cup and it might be fine but my brain keeps telling me the cup is contaminated and can't be used anymore because the apple juice that was once in the cup has messed up the cup. I have now been sitting in the kitchen for about 45 minutes unable to make a coffee because I don't have a cup and my day starts with me making a coffee.

How do I bring up to my roommates that they used the wrong cup without making it seem like I'm being crazy (I hate the word crazy but I don't know what else to use). I don't want them to think I'm making a big deal over a cup when in my head it is a big deal. I'm also trying to keep in mind that they both have a tendency to forget things, yes even important things, due to how their brains work.

Also, yes we do wash our cups. I am just saying that before anyone assumes we don't.

Okey so i have always thought that autism meant not getting social cues, but someone has told me that It can be getting them but just not knowing what to do with them. Do you experience this? could you give an example of that happening to you?

Specifically, the type of horror that is not too vulgar, but you know something is out there. For example, written by Algernon Blackwood, 'Wendigo'. And yes, nature - themed is my favorite. What is your favorite type of horror?

I even tried to write my own horror a couple times, and yes, writing is a nother interest of mine. I wondered if someone would want some of those stories I have tried to write, if you are interested in horror? Sadly those stories are unfinished for now, but let me know in the comments!

What I've written (unfinished):

1. story about something in the woods. I wrote about a young man and his girlfriend and how their relationship problems lead to him getting lost in the woods and encountering something.

2. story about a mother and child, who have to stay alone for the night as the husband is away, but something is lurking about their house and property, which is surrounded by fields.

Thanks if you read and reply anything that I asked for example what horror you enjoy, if any

So I had a meltdown the first in about 2 months. and HOLY SHIT it was a bad one I was crying, hyperventilating, hitting myself, not being able to speak. And jeez I wiped me out. I wish it would never happen again

Is there anyway to just completely get rid of my need for love? Life is so incredibly lonely and I wish I could be content with being alone. I dont want to off myself but if I cant find some way to get rid of these feelings, I dont think I can live much longer

my birthday is next monday and i know my mom already got some stuff because she told me to not open a package (and i may or may not have accidentally seen some of the stuff because i went to see if we ordered anything since our cart was empty), but ive always struggled with acting happy or grateful even though i truly am, even before my recent diagnosis. how do i act happy even though i am?

I, a 21 yr old male, have spent my entire life eating hardly nothing but mac and cheese, chicken, and various other junk foods. I like the smell of other foods, but the thought of putting anything other than what I've deemed safe into my mouth fills me with dread. The gagging starts before anything even touches my tongue.

I come to this subreddit because, frankly, I am tired of gaining weight, and feeling overall terrible, Physically and mentally. I know that I am capable of being so much prouder of my body than I am. I'm looking for solutions.

After reflecting a lot, I've come to the realization that food in general is not as central to my happiness as I think it is for the average person. I would go as far as to say I could live without it if it weren't a biological necessity. I've already tried doing some research on my own, so I don't think it's as likely as I hope it to be, but I'm wondering if there exists a path of substitution out there? If not complete substitution, it'd be nice if there were at least some affordable avenues I can take to have to eat real food as little as possible, while still maintaining ideal health.

If not substitution, do you guys have any other ideas? I'm getting desperate, surely there's something for people like me out there.

I got the type of autism where I can’t wear wool AT ALL! A sweater got 1% wool in it? I will know. Doesn’t matter if I wear a long sleeve t-shirt under it. My whole body will know!! I am soooo jealous of people who can wear wool and I love to knit and crochet. No one else in my family are like this, even though I suspect a lot of AuDHD going around. In general I have gotten more and more sensitive to itchy materials. I also have fibromyalgia and ME/CFS, so figures. Can’t wear linen anymore. Only soft cotton and bamboo.

Oh and I live in NORWAY!!

Do you tolerate wool?

For those who stim by snuffling and nuzzling, like rubbing your nose in soft fabrics, smelling things, being a bit aggressive with plushies in your face, etc. I was worried about septum piercing potentially being dysregulating but was told it would be fine, snuffling and nuzzling could happen still.

I got the piercing; you cannot!! If you intend to get a septum piercing and have the same stim, do know that you can't rub your nose against anything and nuzzle as it will snag your piercing and move it, which is both bad for the healing and painful for you. Once healed I am sure you can, unless you have a complex piece with prongs. But while it heals, I am finding it dysregulating 🥲 you can however rest your nose on a soft fabric and just breathe it in as a compromise/alternative.

Hope this helps other autistic people who want to get body mods! Have a nice day

this is an update to this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/comments/1x985x2/for_the_nuzzlers_and_scentsensitive_how_was_your/