#ActuallyAutistic

[aw-tysm]

"That's not autism, they need help"

"That's not an autistic thing, that's wrong and they need therapy"

"That's not because of autism, they shouldn't be let out of the house"

Often, it IS autism. Often, it IS because of autism.

But a lot of those symptoms/behaviours tend to be labelled as "bad autism" or "scary autism". Due to that, it becomes a taboo topic to talk about in public spaces, in online spaces.

There has been a lot of backlash in online autism spaces when these very common and real behaviours of autism are talked about, and it needs to stop.

Just because you don't relate to it, or don't want to be associated to these behaviours doesn't mean it's not real for autistics to experience due to their autism.

It is so important for the "bad" symptoms, the "scary" symptoms to be talked about in autistic spaces. People need to be educated about the whole spectrum and how it presents, not just the "quirky" side of autism.

When you refuse to acknowledge these as autism things, you are actively hurting a part of the community that needs the most understanding and support.

[earlgraytay]

they used to think autism was a kind of early-onset schizophrenia, did you know?

we have so much more in common than we have different.

no neurodivergent infighting here

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

disabled children not allowed be children.

especially. intellectually and/or developmentally disabled (I/DD) children, & children w behavioral or “behavioral” struggles (aka many I/DD children) not allowed be children.

which may be weird thing say at first because I/DD famous for be infantilized, be treat as forever children. so would think children be only thing they “allow” be, n say they not allow be children contradicting—

but not actually.

as general whole, nondisabled children “allowed” tantrums. allow emotional immature. allowed childish quirks.

what be normal child tantrum fuss in (white) nondisabled children, even with child health/care professionals who whole entire job be understand that nondisabled typically developing child have underdeveloped brain n not yet have self regulate skill n that developmentally appropriate that normal, it may be talk as annoying & inconvenient, but for I/DD children every. single. time. where they “tantrum” “fuss” even in developmentally appropriate ways, chance be write as sign of their disability, sign of behavior problem, sign of emotional problem. be evidence of disorder. of abnormal. of something wrong. which be “okay” reason dehumanize, abuse, be talk about like animal, like not in room, like difficult problem to be solved.

nondisabled adults fondly look back at childhood comfort objects that maybe still have now, stuffed toys blankets or maybe less usual things that mean something to them. but when disabled children have them it be more likely *automatic* see as problem, as something need be weaned off, need be taken away, as unhealthy overattachment, be write into behavioral plan, only allow x minute per day, see as “impractical” & “useless”.

as general whole, nondisabled children allow say no, allow act out “no,” allow prefer, allow not want do something so protest by not doing, by not listening, by pretend not hear you. it may be see as funny or annoying but meanwhile for disabled children it largely see as oppositional as noncompliance as inattentive as something need be trained out of by all means possible.

nondisabled children do things because they kids. disabled children do things because there something wrong with them.

nondisabled children rights n autonomy not fully respected by any means but disabled children get even less of it.

disabled children often not allowed many leeway’s as nondisabled children, what be developmentally appropriate for same age nondisabled children often be over label as disorder as problem as something abnormal need be get rid off in disabled children.

n especially when come to behaviorally, white nondisabled children get be the most “child,” n Black n other disabled children of color get “child” stolen from them in multiple ways.

[theconcealedweapon]

Some people dislike you because they're an individual disliking another individual. There's nothing wrong with you or with them in this case.

Some people dislike you because they're intolerant of anyone who's different. They go out of their way to recruit people to dislike you.

Some people dislike you because you're an asshole without realizing it and they're responding in a completely reasonable way.

If you're autistic, you'll likely experience all three of these on a regular basis. If you have a child who's autistic, it's important to make sure they know the differences between these and how to respond to each.

[absobel]

I always thought I was not autistic because I don't take things literally at all. And then I realized I was always like "I knoooow this is just a joke and I'm being pedantic buut"

So mood o7

Getting the basic point of the whole "doctors can't figure out autism as fast as school bullies can" thing but like no in most cases your bullies did not catch that you were specifically autistic they just knew you were weird which the doctor may have picked up on too or even if they didn't they probably would've had a better chance of it if they saw you as often as the kids at school. Hell for some of us a random stranger who briefly saw us would get that same impression. Doesn't mean they have any insight into it. Like I sort of get it and I'm being pedantic but like autism means a specific thing a vague "that person is different" is not the same as a diagnosis and there are plenty of other reasons a person will be treated like that

[wheelie-sick]

my therapist pointed out that I stop moving whenever I'm upset and it's like,,,, yeah that would be ABA therapy constantly shaming the movement out of me so now I feel wildly uncomfortable doing it

they really didn't succeed at making me look "normal" or "natural" just really artificially stiff. it makes me sad because I've seen other autistic people get this way too, just completely still all the time and it's apparent that they have also been shamed out of moving (by ABA therapy or otherwise) we didn't learn to move "correctly" we just learned that our movement was "wrong" so we stopped it.

[ok to reblog]

[1863-project]

I find it difficult sometimes to talk about ableism in fandom spaces because of the defensiveness people have when you explain it (which I've also seen happen to people pointing out racism, sexism, etc. in fandom, too).

But I also think it's important to understand that yeah, this shit happens in real life and it's often someone's real lived experience. When I worked at a public library as a reference librarian, I got both ends of the autism stick from patrons. Some treated me like a literal child, and some recoiled from me and told me I was weird to my face. I have specific examples of both.

So imagine for a moment that you're an autistic person out in the world, and you find a character who's a lot like you, so you go to see if other people like them too, only to find that the fandom is either treating them like a baby or acting like they're unhinged and scary.

Your lived reality is now in fandom, the place you were hoping to escape for a little while to.

And it hurts.

[angelshizuka]

I'm almost done with Via for Autism Acceptance Month and feel pretty confident in the traits/examples I chose.

And I'm currently trying to work on Stolas, but holy hell... if anything there's too much to work with for him?! Both in the amount of autistic traits he portrays and the amount of on screen examples each of those traits have. That is one autistic man if I've ever seen one. At this point the hardest part is going to be figuring out how to make it work within the format I'm working with...

(I haven't figured out how to do Blitz yet, though...)

[sorin-sunchild]

Me, as an Autistic kid: *shows enjoyment and enthusiasm for things I like*

NT adults: "Woah calm down!" *Clearly think I'm annoying, some even punishing me for it*

NT kids: "Wow, you're so annoying!" *Bullies me for it*

Me, an Autistic adult now: *learnt to be neutral about everything, taking us as little space as possible, learnt that enjoyment=vulnerability because people will mock your interests and how much you like them*

NT people: "Why don't you like things? Do you even have interests? Oh you're enjoying yourself well can you tell your face that? Why do you never enjoy things? Why are you so boring? Why are you so shy? You just need to come out of your shell."

Me: *tentatively starts showing my interests and enjoyment at things I like*

NT people: "No, not like that."

[pigeon-cave]

Spectrum of overwhelm, now in triangle form due to popular demand

[Image description: A triangle chart titled, ‘Spectrum of Overwhelm.’ The three points are ‘404 Error,’ showing a person with an empty thought bubble; ‘wet beast,’ showing a person sweating and sobbing; and ‘rage beast’ showing a person clenching their fists in an outline of orange fire. The peak is the ‘404 error’ vertex, and the inside of the triangle here is coloured beige and labelled, ‘shutdown.’ The lower half is labelled ‘meltdown’ and is red on the rage beast side and blue on the wet beast side. \End description]

[theconcealedweapon]

Things that society considers autism an excuse for

Nazi salutes

sexual assault

Things that society considers autism not an excuse for and things that people think children who do should be met with violence

using the wrong tone

showing too much or too little emotion

asking questions and having an authority figure take it as "arguing"

[defectivegembrain]

It's unfortunate how often the solution to a problem is just talking to people. You'd think it could be something easier like making a comprehensive chart or list, or reading everything you can find on the subject, but no, so often you can do all that and you still have to talk to people.

[autie-j]

Accommodation I should have: someone to follow me around and whisper in my ear, medieval court advisor style, how to correctly respond when presented with different social situations

"My liege, that was a rhetorical question you just heard. Do not answer it."

[aw-tysm]

"All autistics have low empathy" - This statement is wrong.

"Autistics having low empathy is a MYTH, we actually have HIGH empathy!" - This statement is ALSO wrong.

Autistics can have low empathy, they can have high empathy, they can have learned empathy. The myth would be that all autistics only experience one end of the empathy spectrum.

In spreading around misinformation that autistics actually have high empathy, you are disregarding the autistics who do have low empathy. And vice versa.

[ka3l]