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ive been wanting to make this thread for a while but here’s an educational and positivity thread on autism, using my own experiences to describe it more easily :)
it has been brought to my attention regularly that people are still pushing negativity towards autistics (eg using it as an insult) and i’m talking about it to remind autistics that you are not a burden and are so loved and to educate others on the topic
here’s a quick explanation for people who don’t know much about it: autism is a genetically inherited disability that commonly runs in families, you cannot get it from vaccinations. it affects the way the brain works and can cause different traits in each different person
things like touch, scent, taste, sound and sight, if too intense, certain ones that are dislikable to the person or (for me personally) too little/dull things can cause a sensory overload, meltdown or physical pain to their sensory organs
stimming is something that i find hard to explain so pls look at the picture below. i have toys like fidget spinners or squishies but often i get laughed at by people who don’t understand that these aren’t “cringe” to use, nts just ruined them and got them banned from schools
another thing i want to talk about is ‘special interests’ (if that’s what you call them). nts dont get these along with hyperfixations. i used to be ashamed of my interests bc of people laughing at me about them but now i have realised that there’s nothing i can do about them!
the happiness that i get from these cancel out the meanness of cringe culture. i remember my first ‘special interest’ was the fimbles (tv sho from when i was a toddler) and my longest one has to be how to train your dragon, there is nothing i’ll ever love more
autism also affects your ability to socialise. this does not mean that autistics can’t do it or don’t like being social, it just makes it a little bit harder. it’s taken me a long time to make real friends but i’m getting better at reading social ques and attending events!
getting bullied for something you can’t help is never ever acceptable, your insults hurt and are ableist, please stop using autism as an insult or simply just hating autistics for no reason, it makes us feel even worse about ourselves
despite all of this, i have some of the most amazing friends i could ask for thank you all <3 and thank you to anyone who has read to this part of the thread, i will carry on adding things when they pop into my mind, if there is more when you see this, pls continue reading :)
charities and organisations are a complicated thing in the autism community, but i’m going to use the opportunity to tell you to not support autism $peaks, they speak over us and are extremely damaging to the community, if you want to know more please use your google
masking is something more common amongst autistic girls but boys can do it too, it is when a person analyses nt behaviour and copies it to hide their autism traits. i do this a lot because i’m so insecure, i am aware that i shouldn’t be but i cant help it sometimes
let’s talk about media representation. recent shows have tried to display good messages but failed. love on the spectrum has tasteless editing choices and make the people seem awkward and weird. atypical showed an autistic boy with common traits and demonises it in some ways
i get asked this question a lot, how do i deal with concerts if i can’t deal with other sensory things similar? the answer is with great difficulty but now i’ve done it for so many years now, the sounds and lights are predictable and i always position myself near a quick exit
a lesser talked about thing is tiredness. a trait of autism is fatigue after social interaction, this is usually dismissed by people but please give autistics a break when they say they’re tired, it really starts to take a toll on us after a while
good morning :) this thread is not finished yet but i will be sharing it around and sending it to the people i love who i know are willing to share it, i want them to read this so they can understand me a bit better, i am not using it for notices or sympathy in any way
not specific to autism but i wanted to add a website called http://doesthedogdie.com , being autistic causes me to avoid new films and tv shows, it tells you what triggering topics there are in them, i dont watch new things in case it’s bad/scary and this helps with that
trying new things breaks routine for me and like me, a lot of other autistic people struggle with the same thing. watching the same movies since you were 10 isnt cringeworthy and nts should listen when we talk about routines. also i hate changes pls stop changing plans last min!
i’ve seen a lot of people praising atypical recently and i believe that it doesn’t deserve that praise. the first season was awful for autistic representation, it completely demonised it and after watching it from an nts perspective it made me realise this.
it displays sam in some points as a straight up home wrecker, it shows how everyone else is struggling with having him around and it makes him seem like a burden and after rewatching it made me feel bad about myself too. they use bad messages in it and support autism $peaks
it’s as though they’re speaking over autistic people and consider this me using my voice. as the show goes on they bring in a more diverse cast of autistics which is great but doesn’t change the fact that the protagonist is a white male who fits all the stereotypes of autism
here’s a well written article on this, before supporting atypical please read https://link.medium.com/Hr1MqiJIb9
