traversingmyautisticlife-blog

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

i’m Tired of neurodivergent-coded characters. give me canon neurodivergent characters you cowards

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

Hey I posted this on wrongplanet earlier and figured I’d link it here too so I could maybe get more advice. Thanks!

How to not “run away” from friendships?

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

The program I help teach got a letter from the parent of one of our kids, thanking us profusely for being so wonderful with the kid (he has autism) and talking about how grateful they are that we are nice to him and encourage him, seeing as how he’s “different” and how we give him such special care.

Which is great! I’m so glad that we could help people!

But all we did was give him a tiny little bit of extra time to do things and let him leave when he was upset and talk to him about his SpIns? I mean we just showed him the same consideration we showed every other kid. Personally speaking, dealing with some of the neurotypical kids is much more difficult to do than dealing with him. 

But because apparently it’s unusual for people to show basic consideration to people who are neurodivergent, I get treated like a saint for acting like a decent human. And again, I’m so glad I could help and I appreciate their appreciation!

But still-

I can’t wait for the day when making basic accommodations for neurodivergent people is seen as the norm and not as something amazing and extraordinary. Yes it is good but it should be the norm not something remarkable! I know that day is a long way off but I can’t wait.

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

GUISE

GUISE

IF YOU HIT “X+C” IT SHUTS OFF EVERY GIF ON YOUR DASH

EVERY SINGLE ONE TURNS TO A LITTLE GREY BOX WITH A LOCK

GUISE

TUMBLR HAS MADE ITSELF SAFE FOR EPILEPTICS

PASS IT ON

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

I learned that I have to tell people that I need to leave for a while and then just go be by myself until I calm down and have time to script responses so it’s a bit easier to deal with the situation when I come back. Also, I tell people “yes I know this is silly I’m just being hormonal I’m not actually super sad/angry/whatever” (even if I have to say it through tears) and that seems to help people understand that I’m not really mentally overreacting it’s just emotional. And I make sure to tell people that I’m not actually upset with them bc if they think I’m actually upset with them then they get more upset in return.

If you go semiverbal when shutting down, then printing notecards that say the above things might be helpful, to show people.

Those are what I’ve found helpful but I’m still looking for a better actual solution :/ 

Good luck! I know what you’re dealing with and I agree, it’s the worst.

Anytime someone yells ot snaps at me I start to cry and shut down. Even if I know that everything is ok or it doesn't mean anything. Do you have any advice for ways that I can prevent myself from shutting down?

I relate to this a lot. Unfortunately, I don’t really have any advice for preventing shutdowns.

-Sabrina

Followers, does anyone have any advice?

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

Looking for people to follow!

I need some more people to follow! So, if you post things about any of this, like/reblog and I’ll follow you!

Borderline Personality Disorder

Autism

Psychosis

Nonbinary

Vulture Culture

Dissociation

Fallout 4 (it’s my special interest!)

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

Autism thing:

*gets injury typically considered very painful* Oh I’m fine haha! It doesn’t hurt much!

*wears a slightly itchy sweater* I am DYING this is TORTURE why WHY WHY

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me: i really want to do this thing!!!

my brain: but there are much better, easier things you could be doing right at this minute… like, say, staring at a screen for hours on end

me: …

me: fair point. can’t really argue with that

*several hours later*

me: …damnit

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

Listen up. There is literally an app that can help you avoid self harm and I don’t know why we aren’t talking about it.

Calm Harm can be tailored to your needs and will provide strategies to help you get past those crucial moments of wanting to harm.

It’s also totally FREE.

once again, it’s called CALM HARM

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

Circus Tree: Six individual sycamore trees were shaped, bent, and braided to form this.

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

People seem to be sharing these so:

Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 151 of 200 Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 87 of 200 You are very likely neurodiverse (Aspie)

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

problem with therapy: teaching people they are always being watched and scrutinized, and that other people’s opinions define whether things like their body language feelings etc are right or wrong can fuck people up no matter what your opinions are, even if your opinion is that it is not wrong 

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

Jsyk why these terms are ableist:

“High-functioning” is used to deny disabled persons support and resources they need to survive because they don’t “look disabled”.

“Low-functioning” is used to deny disabled persons their rights as human beings because they don’t “act like human beings”.

“Mental age” is used to deny disabled adults their dignity and freedom because people seem to think that “age=social aptitude” instead of the accurate “age=experience as a breathing organism on this planet”.

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

I have a dog that all my family agrees looks eerily like these voles, and I find her adorable (if occasionally mildly horrifying when I walk in a dark room and see her bug-eyes peering up at me from a shadow, as she crouches, hunched in a vulture pose) so yeah, I think voles are cute!

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

Anything Autistic Goes In Private

Now of course it’s okay to be autistic wherever you are, but often times when we do it in public there are negative consequences.  People may bully you, shun you, infantalize you, have anxiety reactions…. Well you get the picture.

As this, and far more direct training, happens over the years we start to feel like being autistic is wrong or bad, and develop an aversion to it.

But the thing is, when you’re in private, that’s your fucking space, you can do whatever the fuck you want, and no one will ever know.

You a 35 year old male that likes looking at videos of miniature ponies?  Fucking do it.  

You need to wrap your weighted blanket around your body and a towel around your head with just a tiny opening for your eyes cause that’s how much you can’t deal with sensory shit right now?  Fucking do it. 

And the great thing is NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW.  

I think because of our theory of mind issues, and maybe because we are often very easy to read sometimes, we think everyone around us knows everything about us.  Well they don’t, certainly not the specifics.

So in private, be your natural autistic self.  It’s so freeing and recharging.  And it’s just about the biggest fuck you to the man there is. 

The other great thing is once you do it in private, you can extend it out to your closets friends and family.  Then you can be yourself around people. 

Shocking, I know.  But it’s totally possible.  So fuck the man, in private.

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

Christmas with autism

#1 OPENING PRESENTS IN FRONT OF PEOPLE - how are you meant to react??? It’s so hard to look extremely pleased??? It’s not that you’re not grateful, maybe you absolutely LOVE the gift but saying “thanks” isn’t enough but also it’s not in your capacity to scream OMG THANK YOU without it feeling staged. The worst anxiety of the year

#2 buying people presents - it’s so hard to figure out what somebody else might like, maybe you only get them small presents - then they give you a big box. What if they are disappointed?? what if you didn’t get them enough/the right thing/something they wanted/something they don’t already have??

#3 people opening their presents in front of you - this follows on from #2 but what if they are disappointed, or they already have the gift you got them, or they got you something better and you feel like you didn’t put enough in

#4 food - christmas is so full of food with loads of different flavours/textures, it’s either that or lots of sweets/chocolate

#5 matching gifts - counting exactly how many gifts people in your family have and trying to match it so everything is in order/equal on the day

#6 so little routine! - family and friends appearing out of nowhere, you eat at weird times, you’re not in school/work and basically your entire routine is thrown out of whack

#7 everyone and everything is so busy all the time! even in the run up to christmas - everyone is stressed, busy and rushing around

#8 everyone wants to SEE you - you have to be around so many people, people want to see you open your gifts/want to spend time with you, everyone is in large groups and fitting all of this around a routine is so exhausting!

[traversingmyautisticlife-blog]

trying to finish an assignment like