#aba therapy stand for

[some-triangles]

I am now at a level of obsession with Disco Elysium where I am watching at least a little bit of every playthrough I come across. Last time this happened was with Undertale almost a decade ago. With UT this helped me get a very thorough handle on the way the game was designed and with the subtler bits of player manipulation. DE is not subtle about anything and so instead I'm getting insights into the people playing it, particularly as it spreads beyond the youtube leftist bubble.

The one I'm having the most fun with right now is by this guy named Brady, who is a therapist specializing in addiction. The fun part is not so much his insight into Harry as an addict - again, the game is not subtle - but his absolute discomfort with politics. He refuses to engage with any of the ideological choices, and that makes the game a bit of a bumpy ride for him. It's particularly striking because he's willing to read into everything else that goes on in Harry's brain - he breaks out his Johari windows and his CBT flowcharts and pins the butterfly right to the corkboard - but he shuts down when the game asks him to pick a side.

To extrapolate wildly from one dude's hangups, I think this is just part of the deal with therapy. The aim of a therapist is to make the subject more functional (particularly these days, when if you're lucky insurance will pay for ten sessions, and you better document exactly what worksheets you made your patients fill out) - and being functional means being able to be happy and productive in the society you're currently living in. If I go to a therapist and say I'm bummed out about all the murdering my government is doing they will suggest I stop watching the news, or, if I'm lucky, they'll try to help me figure out why I feel guilt about things I can't control. Delving into the whys and hows of said murdering is actively counterproductive.

This is not to say that therapy is inherently bad, or, like, counterrevolutionary, because making you a more functional person does help with a lot of things, including your ability to help others. It's just a useful thing to keep in mind when therapy and politics bump into each other. I read this paper when I was googling ABA for podcast reasons and it stuck with me. The thesis boils down to: because the world is imperfect and people need skills to live in it we should continue to torture children, and we don't have enough research to conclude that torture could be traumatic. This is on one level reasonable and on one level insane. It depends where you stand, and whether you think "ability to express affection towards parents" is worth that kind of intervention. But the authors wouldn't construe this as a political argument.

Anyway: with all this in mind, I very much recommend reading "The Saint of Bright Doors", which we will be covering on wizards vs lesbians soon.

[darlinguistics]

tysm!! these look really helpful

i will keep you guys updated on this mission 🫡

calling autistic people willing to share and/or psych or slp studyblrs ! cw: aba therapy

im in a communication disorders class and we have a week on asd. theres a section where she teaches about aba therapy and its presented fully as just an effective 'treatment' method, she goes into detail on the different techniques used in it and the goals of it but doesnt ever bring up like. any of the bad stuff or any alternative viewpoints. my school/program is already so weird when it comes to aba therapy and i really resent that my education here is so not from real neurodivergent perspectives and now that im finally facing it so head on in actual class material i feel so icky and like i need to do SOMETHING

so does anyone have recs on good resources to learn about other povs on aba therapy or about autism and communication disorders in general, since i feel like i need to teach myself atp cuz i really dont trust this curriculum now? or any recs on like if/how i should maybe ask the prof about it herself, is that a conversation worth having? for what its worth i am not autistic myself, just adhd and very into developmental psychology lol. i always cringe internally when aba therapy comes up but up till now ive never felt well versed enough in the topic to genuinely challenge anyone on it, but i want to change that now cuz im getting too far into my education to Not be opinionated on this i feel.

i genuinely really appreciate any feedback yall, thanks for reading <3

[wheelie-sick]

-> TW for in depth discussion of suicide <-

a lot of people look at anti psychiatry and say "well these aspects of psychiatry helped/saved my life!" and that's not the point. the point isn't that no one can ever find psychiatry helpful the point is that the system abuses its patients

I have been uncontrollably suicidal at many points in my life but 3 stick out to me and those 3 were my full suicide attempts (rather than my suicide near attempts i.e standing at the ledge of a cliff with the intent to jump, something I have done so many times I cannot possibly count them) I have been so desperate to die that despite having every possible lethal mean removed from the house I lived in I tried to drown myself in a bathtub. I tried this twice. there is nothing more desperate than frantically shoving your head under the water face down hoping you have the willpower to stay there until you black out and inevitably die. I remember these things viscerally and painfully. suicide is not unfamiliar to me.

but no one could have forced my recovery. recovery is a decision I had to consciously make. trying to force my hand would only have traumatized me further. I am all too familiar with forced recovery, I have been in ABA therapy against my will and had an awful experience. I would sob and beg to leave the system. I was in ABA partially because my mental illness was classified as severe, not just because I had moderate autism. my family admits a large driver of it was the fact that the support I was receiving from my incompetent therapist was not helping and they hoped ABA would. in the end it only made me worse by providing me more trauma on top of the existing trauma I already had.

with that said full recovery is something I will never experience but that does not mean I cannot be supported in ways that do not remove my personhood. I am bipolar, bipolar disorder is lifelong. it has been one of the main contributors to my suicide attempts as it started creeping into my life at 10 years old. I have, since my last suicide attempt, strongly considered trying again. there were points where I considered willingly going to a psychiatric hospital. something pushed me away- both from the ledge and from a psychiatric hospital.

there's a theme with when all my suicide attempts happened. my first was at the age of 12 and my last was at the age of 14. I was isolated. I was living with an incredibly abusive father and a mom who just couldn't keep up. I had very few to no friends. around 14 I started to gain community and mend the relationship with my mom. I had support. my latest near miss was only a couple of months ago, it was during a manic episode and the impulse arose and I barely had the self control to stop it. manic episodes are when bipolar people are at greatest risk of suicide. again, what saved me was having support. people saw what was going on and intervened- not through hospitalization against my will but through peer to peer support.

a psychiatric hospital would not have helped me. psychiatric hospitals are traumatizing experiences. trauma is a large influence on my life as is. the trauma of going to a psychiatric hospital outweighed the danger of me at my lowest staring at a bottle of opioids with intent to take them.

the thing about anti psychiatry is that it's not anti treatment it's anti abuse. if there was an alternative to psychiatric hospitals that did not revoke my autonomy, that would not have traumatized me, I would have gone. I don't believe that live-in alternatives are the answer for everyone, it looks different for different people, but I do believe everyone has a right to autonomy in their treatment.

I am happy I am alive and I am happy I survived my attempts but what I needed was not a traumatic experience at a psychiatric hospital what I needed was support that respected my autonomy and personhood.

a lot of people assume that anti psychiatry people just don't understand the experience of mental illness but I'd argue the contrary- most of us are classified as "seriously mentally ill" and most of us have become anti psychiatry through negative experiences with the psychiatric industry. we want autonomy for mentally ill people, not abandonment.

[uglyfruit]

what’s aba

ABA stands for applied behavior analysis. It’s a super common and pervasive “treatment”/“intervention” for autistic children-- because they're showing "disruptive" distress behaviors, because their autistic traits are seen as needing to be assimilated to fit into capitalist society, because it's just seen as the thing you do with autistic kids

Basically it tries to change someone’s outward behavior using rewards or punishments. When it was first invented (by the guy also involved in creating conversion therapy!), these included slaps and electric shocks. Today, most of the methods have been made much “friendlier”, but still arguably work to make an autistic child’s behavior easier to deal with, more “normal”, more compliant.

While it often /is/ effective in changing outward behaviors, that says nothing of its potential to teach shame, masking of autistic traits, reliance upon prompts/rewards to do things, teaching that you must always obey authority figures, that your internal feelings are unimportant, the trauma of potentially aversive punishments, the fact that kids as young as 2 get recommended to spend up to 40hours a week in intensive ABA, the fact that it rarely addresses (or even worsens) the actual issues underlying distress behaviors…. and ultimately the message is that disabled people must be changed to fit into abled society, rather than abled society changing.

As that post I reblogged said, it's important to nuance to the discussion beyond "ABA=abuse", especially regarding how so many social forces shape the reality and power and experience of ABA, incl the absence of better types of care.

[clownrecess]

(TW: Talk of ABA, trauma, abuse, self offing, etc.)

ABA is abusive whether you want to admit it or not. It just is.

It doesn't "depend on the therapist", it is abusive by nature. The abuse and trauma inducing experiences are deeply rooted in it.

"Oh, well ours is basically just some OT and speech", that's not ABA, then. Whilst yes, OT and speech do very much have the ability to be abusive, ABA always is. A combination of some in home OT and speech is not ABA.

So what is ABA? ABA stands for applied behavioural analysis. It is a "therapy" that parents of autistic people are usually pushed to do. And often times, the parents agree! Whether that's because the insurance covers it, or because the school told them to, or whatever, they tend to accept it.

I was one of the people who's parents accepted it.

I was in ABA for a little over a year, I would have been in it much longer but eventually I was taken out because I threatened to off myself if I remained in it. And this didnt work immediately, I had been threatening this for months. I'm not sure why it finally worked.

ABA likes to trick you at the start. My therapists in particular referred to this tricking as the "honeymoon phase". In this phase, they would act like my friends. They made me trust them.

We would talk about our interests, and play games together.

It felt safe, and I liked it!

Until it changed, that is. About two months into ABA, they stopped being like my friends.

It went from me happily playing chess with him, to him yelling at me, a child hiding under a table, because I didn't say what he wanted me to say.

And this of course evolved too. And I was further traumatized.

I was tricked, and then abused by the hands of so called therapists.

It has been around 2, almost 3 years since this. I am still extremely frightened by anything remotely related to those experiences.

I had a panic attack in a water park because somebody looked **slightly** like one of them.

Please don't put your kid in ABA. I don't care how helpful you think it'll be.

[sophieinwonderland]

I wonder if there's a conflating of psychiatry and psychology happening in the beef anti-psych-pro-endo is having with you.

Like, one is a study of human cognition and behavior, the other is medical treatment of that subject.

Being anti-psych ourselves, we absolutely want to see the abolishing of psychiatry as it stands now, in favor of more durable and equitable systems of care. But the study you mused on could exist in such a world.

Idk what kind of world produces compassionate and consensual mental health support without having a robust psychology field. How does a community reduce harm unless they know what is and isn't harmful, or know what is and isn't harm? Thinking here of bigots weaponizing pseudoscience and inclusive language to promote and defend their bigotry. Or even just folks denying supports because they don't understand the need for said supports.

Maybe we're just fundamentally misunderstanding the two fields or the conversation or something. But it irks us that the anti-psych position is being anti-science.

This is a good point.

Anti-psych, as I understand, is generally short for anti-psychiatry not anti-psychology. And they seem to be pretty heavily conflating the two.

For context, I'm going to link to their own explanation of their views on psychology and psychiatry so I don't end up misconstruing anything.

I know that psychiatry is typically defined as involving medication as well as general "mental health", while psychology is more typically only things like therapy and other non-medicinal approaches to "mental health". In my opinion, however, anti-psych covers both, because both are used to harm neurodivergent people. Medication is both coercively prescribed under threat of institutionalization and withheld, and patients are not educated on the full scope of how the medication can both help and harm their bodyminds. Therapy is used to force neuroconformity - from well-known harmful examples such as ABA therapy, to lesser acknowledged examples such as CBT being used to condition patients into exhibiting "socially acceptable" thought and behavior patterns at the expense of their mental health; typically also blaming and punishing the patient when they fall short of the intended goals due to their own symptoms.

Now, maybe there can be some truth to this if we're solely discussing clinical psychology.

But psychology is a pretty broad field that goes way beyond "mental health."

There are experimental psychologists, neuropsychologists, forensic psychologists, engineering psychologists, educational psychologists, developmental psychologists, and many others.

Psychology is a massive field of study. I would even go so far as to say that most psychology ISN'T about mental health at all.

And most of the psychologists at this hypothetical school wouldn't be clinical psychologists. They would be developmental psychologists to study the development of the children in this environment.

This isn't really psychiatry, nor is it clinical psychology. It's just research. It's studying children in a unique environment with a different culture that doesn't exist anywhere else.

And I really agree with the point about pseudoscience. If you get in the way of research and prevent studies from being conducted, then that's all that you'll be left with. And if you take a position that children can't be studied because they can't possible be able to consent to the study, then that means we'll lack valuable data that can be used to help children.

Speaking of conducting psychological experiments on children, there was actually a really cool one conducted on children (with parents consent) showing they could create imaginary companions intentionally, and that those imaginary companions

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/icd.2390

And this study directly references tulpas as something to compare with in future studies.

These are cool findings that wouldn't be possible if we just decided children shouldn't be studied.

I need to do a more in-depth post on that study later.

[filthforfriends]

The Puzzle Piece Problem

We have to talk about it again. I started this conversation a year ago, when Damiano posted an image of his mom at the Run for Autism. Progetto Filippide is a highly respected organization that does meaningful work for autism and other disabilities. However this iconography is insulting as fuck and seeing Damiano rep it personally in 2023 makes me sick.

Previously, I also expressed concern about the language choices on Progetto Filippide's website. This post is going to focus on the puzzle piece iconography in general, but I do stand by those concerns.

"Ritardo mentale" (mental retardation) which I've since learned is also offensive in Italian when used in this context. "Riabilitativo" (rehabilitation) of autism is not possible. Referring to autism as "diagnosi certificata" (certified) or "conclamata sindrome autistica"(full blown autistic syndrome) excludes people who can't afford or can't access a diagnosis. Also autistics and allistics aren't "affrontando le stesse fatiche, condividendo le stesse emozioni" (facing the same hardships, sharing the same emotions) because one of us is neurodivergent. Sameness isn't the goal.

Here is a closer look at the graphic. As you can see, the text and the logo are made out of puzzle pieces. The majority of the autistic community find puzzle pieces as a symbol for autism offensive and many even find it hateful. We have proudly used our own emblem since 2005, a rainbow infinity symbol for neurodiversity.

"For many years adults have openly, publicly discussed their desires for autism awareness to shift to an approach aimed at creating acceptance for us in society. Continuing to ignore our wishes, to use symbols which may remind us of our discrimination in society or that people sometimes do kill us because of our autism, IS disrespectful."

Paula Jessop, All Together Autism (New Zealand)

The original puzzle piece logo was created by Gerald Gasson for the National Autism Society (U.K.) in 1963. The crying child represents the tragedy of autism and the shape represents how "puzzling" Gasson found our condition. To avoid the association, the NAS have since changed their name, scrapped the logo (in 1999), and the whole site is rainbow (like our emblem). That's how embarrassing it is to have used puzzle pieces for autism.

The depiction of autism as a tragedy and sickness resulted in decades of efforts to cure and prevent it. Horrific abuse was suffered at the hands of caregivers, therapists, and physicians who treated autism like a cancer. The puzzle piece itself represents the deficit lens through which autistic people are viewed. We have a piece of the puzzle. We are a fraction of of a person. So the implication is that not being autistic makes you whole. Not being autistic makes you normal. Therefore, autism is inherently inferior. When an autistic person's behavior is measured as good (allistic) or bad (autistic), it's just a measure of how well they can conceal themselves and traits allistics might find "puzzling."

While the NAS invented it, Autism Speaks (U.S.) made the puzzle piece a global symbol through giant, heinous campaigns that seek to silence and eradicate autistic people. Autism Speaks was founded to help families of autistics manage their child, rather than help the child manage their neurodivergence. The most infamous campaigns are Autism Every Day, (> 13 mins long so I've edited together a few clips) and I Am Autism.

Even worse than these campaigns is Autism Speaks' much beloved Applied Behavioral Analysis. It began with Dr. O. Ivaar Lovaas using electroshock on intellectually disabled patients to stop self harm. The issue with compliance training, is that non-verbal folks communicate through their behavior. Understanding should be the first thing you reach for, and ABA the last since the use of that therapy makes an autistic person 86% more likely to develop PTSD.

I could keep going, but we've established that Autism Speaks is a monster. Yet, the only puzzle pieces we see in their merchandise is their logo. The puzzle piece is their entire brand, their legacy, and Autism Speaks is limiting exposure. Two of the shittest autism organizations in the history of man (the creators of the puzzle piece!!) have very intentionally moved away from that iconography and towards our chosen emblem.

So what the fuck is this?? No, the fact that its a complete puzzle doesn't negate the insult. I am not a puzzle at all! The fact that they think that comparison is fitting says something about how Progetto Filippide view its clientele. Sorry, not sorry.

Autistic people look like puzzles because we're punished for being neurodivergent. We're forced to take ourselves apart, do some curating, and put ourselves back together in a way that appears allistic, but that is not who we are. My autism is not a puzzle. Your society is a puzzle.

This is what neurodivergence is: the potential for an infinite number of unique ways to process the world around us. If you want to support autism in particular, use the gold infinity sign, but either is great! Do you see the giant chasm between how the world views us vs. how we view ourselves?

"Neurodiversity describes the idea that people experience and interact with the world around them in many different ways; there is no one "right" way of thinking, learning, and behaving, and differences are not viewed as deficits."

Dr. Nicole Braumer & Julia Frueh

When you say "well its a great organization" do you think this is what happens? "I'm sure he didn't mean it like that." "If he'd known, he wouldn't have worn it." No. they're still wearing puzzle piece shirts.

Autistics spend their childhoods and adolescence surrounded by people who’d like them to shut up. We’re called annoying, weird, unlikable. We are told nobody wants to be our friend, or likes us, or wants to hear what we have to say. Not only is it really hard for autistics to speak up for themselves because of this, but we’re also waiting in fear of an allistic person who says things the right way, coming along and usurping the conversation. So just listen please.

I won't be debating or defending anything. Feel free to be supportive or ask a question. Nicely.

[babyspacebatclone]

I can’t believe it.

I can’t believe it.

I found it.

I found the fucking ABA textbook.

I found the thing that convinced me as a psychology undergrad that ABA was insane.

I can’t….

I can’t.

You don’t understand.

I’d almost convinced myself I was crazy, that I’d exaggerated this after a decade

But it exists, it was real.

This really was in the first fucking chapter. Of a book. Published in 2013.

This.

(This becomes a ramble, and not a cute raccoon version. Let’s add a cut for sanity.)

Edit: Let’s also move things around so this is discussable.

Please bear with me - this experience hurt me.

Context: Here is the Amazon ratings for this textbook:

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Reviews talk about its breezy, conversational nature, and how simply it breaks down behavioral principles.

This is true, and when I first encountered the book (then the 6th edition) in 2012 I was stymied.

The behavioral stuff made sense, and I could see the applications.

But the tone….. From that first chapter bashing Freud in the 2010s as though that were evidence about the efficacy of ABA, the philosophy of the textbook felt - arrogant, egotistical, dismissive of any other viewpoint in a way that was anathema to my personal therapy philosophy.

Then I realized the author had been 75 as I was reading it, and just chalked it up to him fighting a decades long fight he didn’t realize had been over - the need for scientific rigor in psychology - for decades.

Which made me confused as to why it was still being used without comment on the author’s… underlying batshitness, but I again chalked that up to the fact the grad assistant had to take over the course a third of the way through.

I just double checked, and the 3 ABA courses I took had been mandatory for my degree and not just recommended electives after the first because wow this fucking shit.

Anyway, my second of the ABA courses had been taught by an adjunct (someone who works in the field and teaches applicable courses), and made sense.

There was still some “everything’s programmed responses to external input” vibes, but that’s behaviorism and it felt more like a different philosophy I could respect but choose a different branch instead of a…. absolute that viewed me as an inferior being if I didn’t submit to their regal superiority.

In conclusion, I think the cognitive motivational theorists do psychology a service by raising the issue of avoidance contingencies in human affairs, but I think they get it almost completely wrong in stressing the suppressive effects of passive avoidance or punishment contingencies and generally ignoring the beneficial effects of active avoidance. In addition, I think they do our field a service by formally raising the issue of intrinsic reinforcers in human affairs, but again I think they get it almost completely wrong in suggesting that intrinsic reinforcers are all we need.

At the end of my rants, I like to add: Of course, this is only my opinion; and I could be wrong, but probably not. [emphasis added]

That is the actual fucking close of an actual fucking article Malott wrote in the early 2000s slamming on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

My mild misgiving about misunderstanding the intention of the textbook and the author???

Thrown out the fucking window in my third (and I repeat require course for my degree).

Which was taught by an equality elderly good personal friend of the author.

…

I have more I could add.

But I shall end this here.

This author is still treated as a member in good standing in respected ABA organizations.

After…. this bullshit just four years after the 7th edition of this “wonderful” textbook was published.

OG post below, only read the quoted section if you want to laugh, it’s fucking mid and doesn’t express why this individual is a piece of shit who should never have been allowed to fucking influence anyone, let alone be responsible for Autistic children, let alone teach people to fucking hate anyone not “perfectly logical” like oh so holy and superior them.

[begin quoted section]

WHY JUST A BEHAVIORAL VIEW?

Sid’s Seminar

MAX: I’ve been reading ahead, and it looks as if this book deals mainly with behavior analysis. It doesn’t say much about other approaches to psychology. Why not psychoanalysis, Freud, Piaget, information processing, cognitive psychology, humanistic psychology?

JOE: What do you expect? The title of the book is Principles of Behavior.

TOM: That may be the title of the book, but shouldn’t we be getting a broader view of the various psychological theories in this class?

SID: An interesting point. Psychology sure isn’t short on theories. We have Freud, Jung, Piaget, cognitive psychology, humanistic psychology, gestalt psychology...

JOE: The people in California produce a new pop theory almost every week.

SID: Here’s what I’ve found in teaching this course. I tried to cover all the theories, but the students were shortchanged. They didn’t learn enough about any one theory to really understand it, let alone make use of it. At best, they learned a few clichés they could use in making small talk. They didn’t appreciate or understand the theories. They gained no solid knowledge. They learned no useful skills. On the other hand, when I devote a whole course to a single approach, the students understand and appreciate that approach—both its strengths and its weaknesses.

TOM: OK, but why behavior analysis? Why not Freud?

SID: Because I’m a professional behavior analyst. Behavior analysis is what I teach best. However, I used to assign a chapter on Freud that I was excited about but my students couldn’t get into Freud. (To see the Freud chapter, go to DickMalott.com.)

JOE: Also, behavior analysis has more scientific data supporting it and can be applied to more areas than any other approach.

SUE: Professor Harper said if you want to study Freud, you have to go to the English department. He said almost no major psychology department in North America takes Freud too seriously any more.

SID: Here’s one more reason I concentrate on behavior analysis, rather than an eclectic approach. With a bachelor’s degree in general psych, there’s almost no job you can get using what you’ve learned about psychology. But, if you’ve had some training in behavior analysis, like what you’ll get in this course, you can get a job as soon as you graduate, using applied behavior analysis, if you’re willing to go where the jobs are; and they’re all around the country and starting to be all around the world. Most of these bachelor’s jobs involve working with children classified as autistic, people classified as mentally impaired, and people with brain injuries. (To find more about behavior-analysis job opportunities, go to DickMalott.com.) And we’ll study more about working with these clients throughout this course.

[end quoted section, available here to read in the context of the chapter it appeared in, the link is “POB Chapter 1”]

The entire. Fucking. Book. Was written with that insufferable ego.

This was my textbook for a 400 level course.

It counted as a prereq for the Masters levels.

Written by a man who…

…..

Wait one second, I just opened the author’s Wikipedia page and…

….

Fuck.

Did not know that.

If you don’t know this place:

There have been repeated attempts to shut down the [Judge Rotenberg] center by autism rights advocates, disability rights advocates, and human rights advocates. Other notable people who have opposed the center include Ari Ne'eman, Shain Neumeier and Lydia Brown. Organizations that oppose the center include the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Disability Rights International, and Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth.

……….

I’m going to go chug some Diet Dr. Pepper, since I don’t drink alcohol because of the medication I take.

[kidfur]

read a bunch of articles abt how to make showering less uncomfortable as an autistic person (a lot of them were kinda Ugh, written by aba therapy centers and very obviously targeted towards caregivers and parents of children, but they still had some useful info)

and i was brave n asked dad to buy a shower mat for the shower so i dont have to stand on the icky wood (our shower floor kind of collapsed LOL so the wood is a temporary fix) and i also just scrubbed the shower for 15 minutes straight and the water was Brown. yuck.. but hopefully showering wont feel as bad now

[angelasscribbles]

I have a question about ABA. Is repetitive behavior correction part of therapy considered ABA? For few years (2012-2017) I was taught to identify triggers for repetitive behaviors and how to alter the behaviors to less obvious ones. Is that ABA?

ABA stands for applied behavior analysis, and its stated goal is to lessen “problematic behavior” so yes, I would say that repetitive behavior correction sounds exactly like ABA therapy. Any therapy designed to change you from autistic to neurotypical is problematic as Autism isn’t a thing that can or needs to be cured. The comparison I like best is that it’s just a different operating system. Not wrong, just different.

ABA therapy is designed to decrease behaviors we have that disturb neurotypical people. Adults who suffered through ABA therapy as children are now speaking out against it. (It's basically conversion therapy) If you google it, you’ll find so many horror stories. One of the most recent I’ve heard from a friend was the therapist telling her to withhold food from her toddler until he complied with her verbal directions (she withdrew him from therapy thankfully).

That said, sure when my kid was chewing holes in their clothing, I gave him chewlery hoping that would satisfy the need to chew and save the clothing, but I did not try and decrease the chewing itself. That was a stim that he needed and one that I myself needed well into my teenage years (RIP to every pen cap I ever had).

If you look up the legal definition of child abuse, it clearly states that abuse is defined by the effect on the victim and not by the intent of the perpetrator. So even if the adults in charge meant well and thought they were helping, if the therapy traumatized you, it was abusive and you are entitled to feel however you feel about that.

[k4saneterritory]

I hate the narrative that calling out "fakers" is protection for "real disabled people" or victims of munchausens via proxy.

i've had a doctor accuse me of purposefully dislocating my own joints for attention and my autism was heavily contested by teachers who believed me to be faking it (despite professional diagnosis), which resulted in me being forced into an incompetent version of ABA therapy. often, the idea of the "faker" relies upon stereotypes - so-called fake disorder cringe often relies upon the idea that people perceived as women with dyed hair and pronoun pins can't really have xyz condition. an extreme minority of people are deliberately faking (more people are mistaken about what their condition is, but mistaken self-diagnosis is a first step to a correct self- or professional diagnosis).

in cases of munchausens via proxy, keyboard warriors aren't who should be raising flags in the absence of indisputable evidence (because they don't know a situation fully) unless called upon by someone else with that knowledge. doctors or social workers are much more likely to make the correct call with all the records and paperwork in front of them, perhaps based on calls from family friends or neighbours or other people with a personal connection to the case. you are not dr house or sherlock holmes.

another false idea is that faking has all these benefits - financial compensation, "pity points", attention, social media clout. Financial compensation is ludicrously hard to access and takes a long time, pity isn't actually that nice, the attention is rarely positive and the social media clout (i can say this from personal experience) if it comes, it comes with a deluge of horrid comments.

honestly the minor benefits i get from my (real, some in the diagnostic process still) disabilities just mean i'm not suffering more than someone without those conditions. i get to skip queues at airports or conventions because i can't stand long and they're very distressing for me. i get money from the government, so the cost of my medical extras doesn't bankrupt me - someone without these conditions would not incur these costs.

[madam-libraaarian]

I always end up being a little late for these things, but I wanted to do something real quick for Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month. I myself am neurotypical, but as a writer, I'm making an effort to diversify my characters as much as possible, so I'd like to introduce two of my characters who are both on the autism spectrum. This is Damien and Katie. They're step siblings, and even though I'm still learning how to portray them accurately, I think they're a great example of how people with autism aren't all the same.

Damien's autism is displayed much more openly than his sister's. He was diagnosed with ASD at a young age and grew up with a strong support system because of that. He has a special interest in baseball and other sports, and he also experiences physical tics due to having comorbid Tourette's. Even though he was well-supported and received ABA therapy that helped him learn how to communicate and regulate himself in a healthy manner, Damien faced a lot of bullying as a child, and Katie often had to stand up for him. Despite this, Damien remained a very happy and lighthearted guy, and as an adult he uses his experience to connect with and help children dealing with the same things he did on the special needs baseball team he volunteers for.

Katie had a very different story. Like many young girls with autism, Katie began masking her symptoms when she was very young. She learned how to imitate reactions and emotions she saw in other people even when she didn't really understand them. Because of this, she remained undiagnosed throughout all of her adolescence, and most people simply interpreted her behavior as her being standoffish or rude. She has a bit of an RBF. She dealt with a lot of turmoil surrounding this, growing frustrated when she struggled to relate with others and manage her own emotions effectively, often describing herself as feeling like an alien trapped on earth. She found an outlet for this frustration in studying boxing which allowed her to stim in a way she had previously not allowed herself to and quickly became a special interest for her. In highschool, she also made a connection with her best friend and partner, Ronnie, who was one of the first people who took the time to connect with her in a way that no one ever had before. Katie felt that Ronnie was the first person to ever get her, and she says she was the first person who ever made her feel "human". It wasn't until her late 20's when, after a particularly revealing conversation with Damien and Ronnie ("Wait? That isn't how everyone feels?"), that Katie received a proper diagnosis and began to properly understand that there was nothing wrong with the way her mind works.

These two are both characters from one of my current WIPs, Diamond in the Rough, and again, I'm obviously still learning. I'm hoping to put a ton of research into this project so that I can give it the accuracy it deserves. I love Katie and Damien very dearly, and I hope I'll be able to do them enough justice that one day people can relate to them and feel as celebrated as they deserve to be.

Happy Autism Awareness Month!

[unwelcome-ozian]

Hello! I have found this most informative blog whilst trying to understand cPTSD and dissociative disorders, but didn’t think the subjects discussed were immeadetly relevant to my own case, thus following infrequently and not really researching anything programming related on my own.

Recently though, I have had a most unusual dream that included an unknown woman - I suspect a generic therapist stand-in or something like that - telling me that I wasn’t imagining [stuff that I realised in the dream and made total sense but can’t recall now, but included triggers like books and hand signs] and that this was done intentionally.

I won’t go into more detail here on since I think it’s irrelevant to my question - do you know about any (presumably medical, esp „development deficiencies“/behavioral therapies/autism „therapies“ like ABA?) programs/programming sites in and around Augsburg (Bavaria, Germany) or even southern Germany as a whole between 1998-2005ish?

I‘m currently trying to get records of the one hospital I know my parents - with whom I’ve gone no contact last year - dragged me to as a kindergartener (Josefinum Hospital, Augsburg) but I know that this wasn’t the only visit and most probably also not the only hospital we’ve been to.

What irks me especially is that I have found a folder with records and stuff years back, but it starts only around 2004 - nothing to be found about the visit I remember for sure, for example.

Thank you so much for your time, kindness and support - I wouldn’t know where else to turn and I’m more than grateful to have this option!

Bra

Bra,

Early versions of ABA included punishment to deter behaviour, modern methodologies have moved away from this approach.

“After repeated cycles in the classroom, the Autistic child begins to develop PTSD because the neurotypical BCBA is focused on the function of behaviour and the compliance of the child, and not what the child is communicating with their behaviour.” Amy Grant from the Therapist Neurodiversity Collective

Ethical Concerns with Applied Behavior Analysis for Autism Spectrum "Disorder"

There are a number of places in Augsburg that would meet with someone who lives with ASD. Often those who think and believe they are assisting are causing more harm.

Oz

[theinaccurateone]

Wasn't able to comment on your question about ABA.

ABA stands for 'Applied Behavioral Analysis', and its abusive. Essentially 'autistic conversion therapy', and was originated by one of the people responsible for the travesty known as 'gay conversion therapy'. ABA is also highly recommended as 'the gold standard' for 'autism treatments', despite 1) evidence that it does not do what it claims, 2) evidence that it actually causes harm, and 3) autism not needing to be 'treated'.

Many defenders of ABA are sucked in by its cult-like environment, being told by society that their child is broken, being told by doctors and school professionals that the only chance little Jimantha has of a 'normal life' is ABA. You want you kid to be able to feed themselves and go to college and have a job, right? Fed a constant diet of fear, with ABA described as a way out.

Some defenders will say that the 'new' ABA isn't abusive, because it no longer uses 'aversives' (even though the ABA practioners' certifying body still allows them and still certifies practitioners who use them). Aversives can be anything from spraying vinegar in a child's mouth to electric shocks to get them to comply.

ABA is compliance training. Obey, or else. Or else you don't get the water you want, because you're only pointing at the water and grabbing for it but you need to grab the card that says 'water' on it AND hand that card to me or else I will have way to know that you want water.

More info here: https://internationalbadassactivists.org/2020/03/31/the-great-big-aba-opposition-resource-list-stop-aba-support-autistics/

Does that help?

Yeah. Thanks

Also, like, holy hell, That is some fucked up stuff (I know, stating the obvious, but still)

[sophieinwonderland]

We're diagnosed autistic and neutral on transautism because we don't think they have the sway to hurt anyone, and the transx term was originally coined by someone with BIID. We think its much too complex and individual an issue to make a blanket statement on, but we also think that any harm transautistic people could be causing is nowhere near the ableism that comes from people "othering" autistic people as completely unknown creatures that can never be interacted with in an understanding manner. I mean... At least transautistic people are trying to understand, in some sort of way. There's also a chance someone might feel like they can't use the word autistic because of outside ableism about how autistic people are "supposed to act", making "transautism" a helpful transitory term for comfort reasons. I would be more ready to listen to a transautistic person's perspective than someone supporting A$ or ABA "therapy" or calling autistic people "adult children" any day.

Exactly! There's a ton of ableism in the world directed people with autism. And to me, at least someone who is transautistic is more likely to be someone who empathetic and willing to stand up for autism rights.

Personally, I tend to take a view that fighting bigotry is a war. And in war, you need numbers. You need people who are going to be willing to stand with you. And if you're a marginalized community, that means you need allies.

As an autistic person who lives in a world where we'll have to deal with ableism constantly from neurotypicals, I can't really wrap my head around dedicating time and attention towards attacking a community that would be willing to be allies, and could even help normalize autistic traits.

In my opinion, if we want to normalize acceptance of autism and autistic traits, attacking transautistic people is shooting ourselves in the foot. It's distancing ourselves from potential allies turning them into adversaries, and dedicating our attention on this niche community instead of actual societal oppression.

And I can't help but feel that anyone going after the transID community isn't doing so because they genuinely think that's the best use of their time in fighting for disability rights, but because they want the gratification of bullying a smaller more vulnerable group of people.

[girlcalledwhatsername]

I posted 3,712 times in 2022

That's 602 more posts than 2021!

146 posts created (4%)

3,566 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@girlcalledwhatsername

@twice-as-many-stars

@zeawesomebirdie

@sleevesareforlosers

@anarchist-mariner

I tagged 1,334 of my posts in 2022

#art - 29 posts

#mcr - 24 posts

#undescribed - 18 posts

#ableism - 17 posts

#my chemical romance - 16 posts

#asks - 15 posts

#literature - 14 posts

#punk - 11 posts

#poetry - 10 posts

#loki - 10 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#and they are getting ready to uphold psychiatry and gaslight you into thinking you have to hand over your agency and autonomy to them ❤️

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I think comedy peaked with "My name... is James Acaster. Death comes for us all." why are people still trying

87 notes - Posted November 7, 2022

#4

People with miles long DNIs have quite some nerve interacting wily nily with my posts without checking and realising I fall in their dni category like, ten times over. Babe if you need such a huge list of people to not even look your way, one would think you would be more careful about not interacting with such people yourself yet here you are, putting horrid tags on my posts and subjecting me to rancid takes in the dni if I click further.

92 notes - Posted October 9, 2022

#3

It bothers me still that Andy Samberg and Jack Black amongst others fully participated in the Color the Spectrum campaign even though autistic adults who have followed these figures tried to bring to their attention the fact that fundraisers promoting ABA are ableist conversion-therapy funding bullshit that don't even involve any actual autistic people having any say in it. And it bothers me further that supposedly progressive people keep hyping up these figures and these seems little backlash that's big enough for them to even notice. This isn't to shame people who admire these celebrities, there's always going to be some "unproblematic white man" celebrity or another that the internet latches onto, and I'd go so far as to not even immediately assume anything other than ignorance on the part of these two men, but the fact is that the most influence that can be had is from their own fanbase.

I wish the people who post so much about Black and Samberg hyping them up all the time and bring up School of Rock in every other conversation would devote some time at least to join in those autistic voices that had tried to reach out to these very influential men. People like these who are seen as paragons of virtue while having a huge following could make a huge difference in ending the honestly torturous techniques that these ABA therapies are developing. Y'all talk a big game about holding people accountable but it only ever follows after someone already pisses you off and it's always about punishing people rather than trying to change their behaviour in a way that actually benefits marginalised folk.

Calling out ableism isn't just for vague old tweets from some small creator whom you found cringe, it's also for celebrities you actively like whose involvement in these movements has major impacts. Read what autistic people have said about ABA if you aren't aware, but surely if you believe these idols to be the good people that they are, they would be willing to learn to be better? Or do us autistics have to wait for them to do something cringe till you will get mad enough to bring it up?

272 notes - Posted September 2, 2022

#2

Me, hyping myself up to stop zoning out just long enough to get in bed: come on, come on, be brave, come on, we can do this, please, it has been thirty minutes and it's cold, look at the blanket it will be so nice there, come on,

273 notes - Posted January 4, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

🍂This user is always happy to see ao3 surpass their donation goals btw.🍂

This user is glad to see publically-funded archives of all kinds and especially those with a history of standing against censorship, especially fully volunteer-run ones with artists generously sharing their works for free, especially well organised ones that I respect the hell out of.

2,327 notes - Posted October 16, 2022

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