little autism education thread for the tl<3

- the term aspergers (used to describe those seen as high-functioning), originated from hans asperger, who has evidence links tying him to a nazi eugenics program which makes the term quite harmful!

- high and low functioning are also really harmful, as high functioning autistics are often just masking or have traits that people take less notice of. this doesn’t mean we’re high functioning on the inside:(

- ^masking is when an autistic unintentionally mimics the actions and expressions of others, often to ‘fit in’ more. it often happens before diagnosis when people feel thr need to suppress traits more however it happens after diagnosis often too!

- autism affects many things, but can often affect someone’s social skills (not all of the time), for example: little to no eye contact, social anxiety, difficultly making/keeping friends etc because sometimes we just don’t know exactly how to act:(

- autism is a sensory processing disorder which means it can really affect the way we see the world, and it can be awful when we are exposed to certain sensitivities. we can be sensitive to light, certain sounds, textures, or a combination of many things

- ^ this means that we can often struggle with sensory overloads, which can present itself in many different ways. we can’t help being overwhelmed and it’s not our fault when we don’t know how to communicate what we need sometimes!

- things that can help some autistics with sensory issues are:

• ear defenders (or headphones/earphones) - to drown out loud noises
• stim toys (eg fidget cubes) - to distract ourselves
• i cant think of any more rn but there are lots!!

- something important to note is that instead of saying ‘person with autism’, most (not all!) autistics prefer just ‘autistic’, as autism is part of who we are and that can’t change<3

sorry this thread was so long and i don’t think anyone will read it but i didn’t know much at all about autism until i was diagnosed which is so weird to me?? anyways im annoying ok bye

also if i made any mistakes please let me know! im still learning<3