Tag: actuallyautistic

strangerdarkerbetter:

autismus-obscurus:

Y’all i have a question.

Is it an autism thing to panic whenever someone yells (due to aggression)? Or is that just a conditioned response?

This seems to be really common amongst autistic people.

I think it may be due to difficulties reading people. We often don’t notice signs that a person is getting angry until they start yelling which can set off sensory sensitivities as well.

I’d also like to add that a high percentage of autistics have been physically, verbally, emotionally and/or sexually abused, and have PTSD that can be triggered badly by people shouting or getting in their space or moving in a way that brings back those memories. Our bodies have a warning system highly tuned to recognise when a situation is flipping from ‘weird & uncomfortable’ to ‘last time this happened I got whipped with a belt so hard I bruised’. Given a lot of us also have memories that are different from the norm, sometimes photographic or eidetic, you can see why we might react poorly to highly charged situations.

ivystudying:

It’s been a while since I’ve made a post, and I figured that these tips might be extra helpful with exam season approaching. As someone who struggles a lot with procrastination, I do everything I can to fight the urge to put assignments off until the last minute (even though I’m not always successful). 

As always, good luck! (ᵔᴥᵔ)

Reblogging this for the neurodiverse people on my flist, some things here that are useful for peeps who struggle with executive function and planning.

Kay so it’s a hard PTSD day because social media. I love you guys, tho, and you should post whatever you like, whatever makes you happy, because that’s what social media should be about. PTSD is a minefield, and what sets me off surprises me sometimes, and I’ve been living with it for 36 years. What set me off was something that probably seemed jokey to most people, but as a neurodivergent child abuse survivor was horrifying. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have reacted like I did. My reaction was perfectly rational for someone with my perspective. It might have seemed extreme to someone else, someone not-me, but it was rational. What I don’t want is for someone to think I’m angry at them personally for posting or reblogging something that they found funny that I did not. Our perspectives are different. The world is a different place to each of us based on who we are and the experiences we went through. A joke that might be funny to some, might trigger horrible emotional turmoil in someone who’s been abused, been raped, been discriminated against or attacked because of their race, their gender, their sexuality. That doesn’t make them wrong, too sensitive, or without humour. That makes them a human, a squishy being with a different experience to yours. Please remember, please be kind, and please adjust your world-view if needed. Thanks.

uh, i guess this is an emergency. please read this.

cloudyjohn:

i’m homeless now i think. i dunno. my mom told me i could leave so i did. i’m, uh. kind of in shock i guess? i don’t know if this is real.

but uh. hi, my name’s john. i’m a seventeen year old transgender minor who has schizophrenia, autism, and dissociative identity disorder. i can’t drive, i don’t have a bank account, or a car, or a place to stay. i didn’t get kicked out, i’d probably be welcome if i went back home, but…i dunno. i’m trying to come to terms with things. i don’t know what i should really be asking for here. there’s three issues i’m worried about, i guess.

a) medication. i’m on a lot of really important medication that keeps me functioning (makes me less prone to unreality issues like hallucinations or delusions and the likes), one for my hypothyroidism that keeps me from gaining weight rapidly, antidepressants, and adderall. i’m a little bit worried about how i’ll do without them, but i don’t really know how anyone could help with that. 

b) money. i have a paypal account, and i recently got a bank account under my mother’s name, but. considering everything i’m sure she’s disabled my card by now, not that it matters considering i only had twenty dollars on it, but like, fuck. i guess i’ll put a donations link at the end of this post or something, and then see what i can do about getting a debit card.

c) shelter. i don’t have anyone in town who doesn’t know my mom/that wouldn’t take me back to her right away if i told them what happened, so i’m kind of pressed on that for now. i literally have no idea how to resolve this. the closest person to me that i trust is in WA, and the person i trust the most is in OH. i’m in UT, so i don’t know how to resolve that either. i don’t have any way of buying a bus ticket or anything until i get a bank account, which i don’t know how to do, because i’m underage.

i have my laptop, a cell phone that my mother has already disabled, my drawing tablet, a nintendo switch, a 3ds, two jackets, one sweatshirt, two pairs of pants, one pair of socks, one pair of shoes that need to be replaced, $2.12, and three pairs of glasses. i dunno why i picked up the things i did. i was kind of freaking out. i have no fucking idea what i’m going to do. 

if anyone has advice, or money to spare, i’d appreciate that. 

this is my paypal. anything you can give me will help somehow, i hope.

even if you can’t donate, please reblog this.

nerdykeppie

vaspider:

Today I added a RedBubble store, specifically to begin offering stickers of my designs. It’s the most commonly-requested item that I couldn’t yet offer.

Of course, it also means I can now offer laptop cases, tablet cases, etc. So go check it out – I’ll be adding not only a lot of new products with familiar designs, but new designs as well, like the brand new Loud Hands design (available in all ya Pride colors – if yours isn’t up, ask!)

nerdykeppie

autieblesam:

[Image is a poster explaining briefly the origin and meaning of green, yellow, and red interaction signal badges, referred to above as Color Communication Badges.]

deducecanoe:

justsjwthings:

oldamongdreams:

greencarnations:

CAN WE DO THESE AT CONS

SECONDED.

if youre not autistic or suffer from an actual disorder, dont use these. its not cute.

er… you know a lot of autistic people go to conventions, right? And people with social anxiety disorders and panic disorders? Shit if I could get away with using this at work I would. 

Hello there, justsjwthings.

I would like to introduce myself.  I refer to myself as Sam Thomas, though my legal name and how a lot of people know me is Matthew.  I am officially diagnosed autistic.

Over one week in June 2013 (last summer), I was in Washington, DC for an autism conference called the Autism Campus Inclusion (ACI) summer leadership program run by the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network for autistic college students.

If you have any question as to the truth of this, I would like to direct your attention to this YouTube video that ASAN produced promoting the above-mentioned conference.  I appear as the first person in the video and you can find more images of my face on my blog.

At this conference, not only did we use these communication badges pictured above, but we actually had the opportunity to meet Jim Sinclair, the inventor of these badges.

During the part of the conference in which Jim Sinclair gave us a history of Autism Network International (ANI)—which they were a co-founder of—they talked to us about the establishment of this particular piece of assistive technology.  Basically, it was a simple idea that seemed to fit a need and quickly became very popular among many autistic spaces for it’s practicality and ease of use.

The conference it originated from is called Autreat and is held annually by ANI. This is an autism conference that accepts Autistics and Cousins (ACs)—that is, anyone diagnosed or otherwise self-identifying with any disorder autistic or similar that may share a number of autistic traits.

There was a need.  The need was met.  This is how we can safely assume most technology either emerges or becomes popular.

We also talked about something called Universal Design and the Curb-Cutter Effect.  The Curb-Cutter Effect is when something to fit a specific need is found to create convenience in a broader area than intended.  Curb cuts allowing for wheelchair accessibility to sidewalks proved to also be convenient to anyone who may have trouble with steps or even simply a mother with a baby stroller or maybe a child with a wagon.  This is a desirable outcome with disability rights advocacy as creating convenience for non-disabled people often makes the assistive technology easier to advocate for.

In this sense, these colored communication badges could serve that Curb-Cutter effect.  Not only would this be perfectly acceptable for non-disabled people to use for convenience, but would also help to increase their effectiveness and convenience for those of us who need them.  Here are a few examples:

  • Increased popularity makes the colored communication badges more easily recognizable to the general public, making them as effective outside the above-mentioned autism conferences as inside.
  • Increase in demand would create increase in supply and availability, likely making these available to pretty much anyone and even being included with, say, the name tags you are required to wear at most cons.
  • In addition to these helping people recognize the communication state of the wearer, the wearer will be able to recognize whom they can feel more comfortable to approach.
  • Increased popularity would make these badges more acceptable for public use and less alienating to those who would wear them frequently.

This is not something that we are completely incapable of surviving without; this is something that was convenient and made our lives a lot easier.  If that can be easily shared with the general public, then what purpose does it serve not to share it?

Thank you for reading.

I’d just like to add since it wasn’t mentioned by autieblesam, there’s a reason for the symbols as well as the colours – this is so that they’re accessible for people with colourblindness. As autieblesam said, like kerb cuts, this system can only HELP society if it’s more widely implemented, but DO IT RIGHT. Keep both the colours and the symbols, and keep them obvious – brightly coloured badges, lanyards or bracelets that are easy to read from a distance. People are going to screw up and accidentally address people who don’t want to be occasionally, and that’s unavoidable, but you reduce the chance of that happening drastically if you remember that the purpose of these is communication and don’t stylise, downsize or modify them to the point that they’re ineffective.

On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis

Dear Corinne,

I got so excited when I found out that there was a book in the sci-fi/fantasy genre with an autistic character, written by an autistic person. You have no idea. The moment Otherbound hit my radar, it was on my wishlist, an eventually, I managed to snag a copy. It’s on my shelf, waiting, and I’ll get to it, too, but I haven’t quite yet. I wasn’t expecting that I would read On the Edge of Gone so soon. I have serious anxiety comorbid with my autism, and end-of-the-world/apocalyse scenarios are a trigger for me sometimes. It’s a hangover from being a child of the time before the Berlin Wall fell. There’s so many books from the Soviet era that are all about what happens to a kid after the bombs fall. It was so normal that when someone a few years back asked for recs for this subgenere, I came up with about thirty books. We were brought up in the shadow of our imminent extinction. Let me tell you, the current POTUS isn’t helping that.

But fate stepped in – my library had a copy that I found by accident on the shelf in Young Adult. Both Otherbound and On the Edge of Gone, just sitting there, waiting for me, and On the Edge of Gone was the one I didn’t own, so I grabbed it. And once I started reading it, I didn’t stop. My attention issues make it hard these days to hyperfocus enough to read a book in one sitting, but I did it. It wasn’t just the autistic character. It was the others – the queer secondary characters, that I saw a lot of myself in, too. The sister. The couple, helping out any way they could. I even saw myself in the mother, though her burden isn’t one of my own, I saw myself at my most dependant, my most weak, and I ached for her. You shone a light on the side of society that most people forget exists – the queer, the disabled, the addicted, the different, and you didn’t just make it a narrative of horrendous loss. You made it heart-breaking, yes, but you made it hopeful. You gave your characters choices that weren’t always right or wrong but were always HUMAN, and made me feel my inherent connection to a species I often feel has marginalised me for my neurotype, my gender, my sexuality. It took the common ‘they all die, obviously’ trope and turned it on its head and created something beautiful.

I still have Otherbound waiting for me, but reading it isn’t stepping into the unknown. I know now what you can do, and how you can make me feel, so I’m anticipating what it will be with excitement.

Thank you.