Search results for tag #autism
... [SENSITIVE CONTENT]
I also talked about monotropism; the distinctive depth and narrowness of autistic attention.
The tendency to go very deep, to struggle with switching, to get overwhelmed by competing demands - and to experience the world with such a particular intensity.
Again: not just ‘life is hard’, but a very specific way of processing and experiencing.
So no. Autistic people are not ‘just making it up because society is crap’.
The reality is more like this:
Society is often crap, and autistic people are then forced to explain their real differences through a diagnostic system built around pathology, gatekeeping, and disbelief.
End of 🧵
CW: invalidating views about autism and identity [SENSITIVE CONTENT]
Subject: "Are autistic people just making it up?"
When I was questioned in this podcast, the gist of what was being said about autistic people was:
‘Maybe these people are not recognising a real pattern in themselves — maybe they’re just reaching for a label because society is crap.’
That was the implication.
(Minute 35:33)
https://neurosense.substack.com/p/why-we-need-to-reframe-autism-with
I answered ⬇️
Hey hey fellow ADHD folks and anyone else who regularly needs post-its or other written reminders! YouTube just put this in front of me. It's a band you can write on with a ball point pen, wipe off using friction (water won't remove it), and it snaps to your wrist.
It was originally designed for nurses in Japan who write notes on their wrists. But I can imagine about a thousand ways that a person who struggles with executive function could use something like this!
The website for the company is wemo.earth, and you can buy the bands on Amazon if you need that convenience, or also at japantrendshop.com as an Amazon alternative (they ship worldwide). They're about $18 USD.
Last night I had a very broken night's sleep, culminating in waking early and not being able to get back to sleep. I tried to make up for it with an afternoon nap, but that too wasn't great. But then, for a while now my sleep has been disturbed, well, even more so than normal. Not the dreams themselves, more the feel of them. They have been like endless scenes from a film, of some perfectly normal and every day activity, but with the background music being all suspenseful and foreboding. Although, without any clear reason why.
Well, today I realised why. I don't know how common this is for autistic's, or whether it is more of a late realised thing, brought about by decades of our experience and ways of understanding something, especially of a deeply personal, or emotional nature, being denied and in many ways gaslit as inappropriate, or just plain wrong. But when I am dealing with things like this I tend to do a lot of the processing in my mind behind closed doors, so to speak. Only when certain conclusions and consequences become obvious do they begin to creep out into my conscious mind, often, at first, into my dreams.
In this case it has been the understanding that I am far more disabled now, than I was before Christmas and my back collapse and that this isn't going to improve. I have accepted, for some time now, that I am disabled. Both by simply being autistic in this world, but also because of the physical limitations of my back and chest (asthma/COPD, if you are unaware). But, to have to face the fact that it could suddenly get worse, especially without any apparent cause, as my back did over Christmas, is somewhat of a bitter pill to take. It introduces a level of uncertainty and lack of control, which is difficult for me as an autistic.
But, I also know that it is the nature of being a spoonie and what my mind has been trying to get me to accept. That if a good day is suddenly reduced to being able to do a load of washing and because I could actually get dressed, sitting in the sun for a while, as mine was today, because that's all my spoons would manage. As opposed to being so much more active, as I was used to being. Then that is the nature of the beast and that is what I'll have to get used to and begin to think about, as I plan my days and time spent.
It may not be ideal, or preferred. But, anyone can become disabled, at any time and it's rarely a stable, or static, condition. Ignoring that, or judging yourself by the standards of yesterday, does no one any good, least of all yourself. Or, at least, that is what I'm trying to tell myself (through writing this, as much as anything). That this is the new normal of my life now and I have to come to terms with that.
I'm seeing a lot of very bleak messages here at the moment from people saying "I just can't take any more." As someone who has suffered depression and burnout for the last half-century (thanks, #autism ) all I can say is: you are not alone. Don't give up. Those feelings mean that you're a decent person, and the world needs people like you more than ever right now.
My credo, as ever, is simple. When things fall apart, make art. It helps. It really does.
This is one of the best illustrations of sensory overload I've seen.
(As a warning - if you are sensitive to sound and visual overload, this video really might be too much for you.)
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2P4Ed6G3gw
just saw this and wanted to share #time #Takiwatanga #Māori #Autism
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word meme - The Māori word for Autism is Takiwatanga - It means "In their own time and space."
Many autism therapies have as their goal to make autistic children “normal,” or “indistinguishable from their peers.” 1/3
#Autism #autistic #ActuallyAutistic #AutismAcceptance #Acceptance #autismacceptancemonth
Today is officially #WorldAutismAwarenessDay, designated by the United Nations as day of recognition and appreciation. This kicks off #AutismAwarenessMonth, which many of us call #AutismBewarenessMonth because it's always much more about "here's how bad autism is" than "here's how to make autistic people's lives better". When we want to be more positive than snarky, we call it #AutismAcceptanceMonth, because it's better to be accepted than for people to be aware of us mainly as a set of problems.
The problem with the above is that all that awareness and acceptance is something that allistic people are supposed to do, so the occasion centers allistic people instead of autistic people. The whole month is about how allistic people think and feel about us – it's not actually about us at all!
But over on Bluesky, Aslynn (`@audhd-psychnp.com`) hit on some better branding: Autistic People's Month! I really like this, as it centers us in our own celebration. #AutisticPeoplesMonth is not about how anyone else feels about us, but about our own existence, accomplishments, problems, and all the rest. I hope this catches on, so doing my part to make it happen. April is now ours!
#ActuallyAutistic #autistic #autism #neurodiversity
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Screnshot of post from Bluesky:
(round user picture of a white woman with long brown hair looking over her shoulder) aslynn is autistic actually / @audhd-psychnp.com
(thumbs down) Autism Awareness Month (1970)
(rainbow) Autistic People's Month (2026)
6:29 AM - Mar 28, 2026 - Everybody can reply
adhd havers out there: can you give me advice on how to better incorporate easier task switching into my life?
right now if i'm fixated on getting a thing done i'll keep working on it well beyond the point that i'm even happy about it anymore. this can also come at the cost of taking care of my body - eating and sleeping in particular. this probably contributed towards my burnout from work years ago
"Only the wealth of the soul is true wealth. Everything else brings more."
"Inconveniences that gain."
Lucian (Epigrams 12)
(And I always say that the wretch who has no wealth in his inner life, who cannot enjoy himself in solitude, is the one who constantly needs attention and socialization.)
It's great to see such a huge turnout for this past weekend's No Kings Rally. However, at the end of the #weekend, a friend (who works in healthcare) asked me which rally I went to. I told him I didn't attend any due to caregiving responsibilities. He asked what was so difficult about bringing our son to a rally.
So...I want to talk about #caregiving for a bit. I've mentioned here before my son is fully #disabled with severe spastic #quadriplegic cerebral palsy, is #actuallyautistic, and has significant #sensory #needs. Caregiving is physically and emotionally #brutal. It's a significant #life change that, unfortunately, a lot of #people simple do not and cannot fathom - unless it happens to them.
The best way I can describe *my* #experience is it's real time #multivariable #calculus with known, unknown, and constantly changing variables. It requires high level non-linear systems-based thinking to solve #problems, #chaos #management, and constantly being on high alert.
#Burnout is inevitable, the #physical and #emotional #labor is genuinely exhausting on a cellular level, and #time and #access to self care is rare. It's also incredibly #socially #isolating.
In addition to the #social #isolation, navigating the outside world isn't just unnecessarily difficult it's a #failure of the #system. The uncomfortable #reality is most places are NOT #accessible, including #bathrooms. #Toileting is a basic #human #right! My son is too large and heavy for the baby changing stations in "#family #restrooms." We need to put him on a #dirty bathroom floor in order to change his #diaper. Where is the #humanity and #dignity in *that*?
I feel like a broken record explaining this to him for the past six years. It's honestly mind blowing and exhausting.
Most autistic people, despite everything, actually like being autistic.
Not all, of course. But most of us.
And I don’t just mean ‘making peace with it’.
I mean: it's bound up with who we are.
A thread 🧵
1/11
(refs at the end)
#Autism #ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent
That idea – that there’s a separable ‘pure self’ – is basically not one that's shared by us.
But it's very popular elsewhere!
Many millions are poured into #autism research every year, in the areas of treatment, intervention, prevention, and the hunt for biomarkers.
💰💰💰
3/11
Then, as we’re not listened to, society's understanding of autism develops without us.🤷🏽♀️
That flawed understanding is then used to overrule us, again.
Strange little loop. ➰
6/11
I am happy with this DECSystem-10 MUD system for now; it's been a 35-year task.
If anyone is bored enough to be curious!
31 January 1991: Essex University's DECSystem-10 closes, meaning that MIST and ROCK, and the dodgy version of MUD we had on there, had to close. I had a mostly working VMS system that would run it with some extra programming, but I'd already sent out AberMUD to Vijay, and he'd sent it out to the world, and TinyMUDs were becoming common. MIST was losing its captive audience, and it needed that level of addiction and co-dependence to run, so I decided to let it die in its prime, rather than become a sad old relic that nobody played.
2003 and the next 20 years: I decided to build a TOPS-10 system on a VMS machine and install MIST/MUD and ROCK. Got quite a long way, and then discovered there was no BCPL compiler existing anywhere in the known world. A few years later, Richard Bartle told me that Paul Allen (I think) had found one. So this became possible, and Quentin (dot-co-dot-uk) took a great stab at it with some really old code, and Viktor Toth had BL running, so I figured that was enough. Sometime in this period, Bletchley Park got something that looked like a PDP-10, and they suggested that I go and put MUD onto it for the museum. It wasn't a PDP-10, but I did look into putting it onto a VAX for a while, but the management of Bletchley, as it turned into The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC), was getting more corporate and boring, so I gave up bothering.
19th Feb to 22nd Feb, 2026: I decided to build a PRIMOS machine on a Simh emulator for no apparent reason. It went fairly smoothly, so I wondered again about a DEC-10. I was missing TOPS-10 anyway, so why not? Proof of concept, setting up some test systems, seeing where TOPS-10 emulators were at these days and seeing how far Quentin had really got and how much extra work was needed. Realised I am going to have to start from scratch, mostly, using a prebuilt Steuben distro of TOPS-10 7.03 as the base.
Took a couple of weeks off to ponder whether the rest was worth it, but decided my $200 a month ChatGPT Pro subscription may as well pay for itself with background research, so I decided to go ahead.
9th March 9 to 18th March, 2026: A long spring, and I mostly got it all working. 92 hours of concentrated swearing and about 15 hours of destroying the planet with GPT Deep Research mode later (*), after at least 2 false starts and complete wipes. I got a system I am relatively happy with. Somewhere in there is about 4 hours of relearning TECO and fighting with getting ROCK working on code it was never meant to work on. There's still more to do, but that's just maintenance now.
BUT I FOUND ROCK! I thought it was lost forever. Somehow, that's my major victory in all this. Building the setup was hard, tedious, and very frustrating work. It probably did need somebody who knew a lot about both DEC and Unix systems management, and the MUD engine, to guide it, but it was still mostly a matter of putting together things that already existed and forcing them to work together. ROCK, though, I genuinely thought was 100% lost.
It's taken a hundred plus concentrated hours, two new dedicated hosts, a small town's water supply, and probably a few megawatts of power in the background. But this is the final re-creation of the systems I closed at the start of the 1990s.
MIST (and MUD and ROCK) will still probably end up as relics that nobody properly plays, but this project is not pretending to be anything other than an interesting throwback and museum piece now, which, 35 years after I closed it down, seems a fitting end. It also means I can resurrect Duncan Rogerson's arch-wizard, and that seems right, somehow. I will leave it up and running now.
(*) Since someone whined about my use of GPT - I could not have mentioned it, but I did because, for some tasks like this one, it saved me hundreds of hours and a lot of Googling. If I have to pick (which I do!) I'd rather use GPT than Google still. One of the useful things you can do with Deep Research is to give it a topic you want to aggregate information on (like ACCESS.USR usage) and send it away to make a summary PDF of the key points of what's useful, but triple-checked and sourced. I have read the Original TOPS-10 manuals that are wonderfully hosted on @bitsavers many times, I could knock up a perfect ACCESS.USR in a drunken stupor, whilst half asleep once, but these days I barely remember the 3-part octal protections, so I am happy to have a reference I don't need to read 10 parts of 3 different manuals to make. That's why I use AI, and I am perfectly comfortable with that. Since I work in AI Ethics and actually put into practice what I preach, I am comfortable with my use of AI, and I always disclose it :P
#history #digital #retrogaming #retrocomputing #games #mud #muds #mist #rock #computers #emulation #emulators #vms #tops10 #museum #history #bletchleypark #simh #essex #uk #computinghistory #36bit #engineering #Linux #Security #TNMOC #blog #ADHD #Autism
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Old Man Yells At Cloud (Abe Simpson shaking his fist at the world)
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A 1970 brochure showing the typical layout of a DECSystem 10. Showing 17 large cabinets, and a console. There's no chair or hatstand in here to throw the tape rings at, it doesn't seem realistic.
Today I took a nap with the earplugs I recently bought. I slept for three hours in the most complete and beautiful silence. These things are a one-way trip; I didn't want to take them off. It was a great relief for my brain and greatly reduced my tinnitus.
#actuallyautistic #autism #hypersensitivity #tinnitus #auditoryproceessingdisorder
During the course of my 6 decades revolving around the sun, there have been a lot of changes to the way autism is understood and recognised. But, as welcome as the advances that have been made are, even though there is still far to go, the way things were, go a long way to explain how I, and I suspect so may of us, were able to fly under the radar and not even consider the possibility that we were autistic for as long as we did.
For example, as a kid in the late sixties I turned up at school waving so many red flags for, this kid is autistic, it would be considered impossible for it not to be picked up on now. Chiefly, I couldn't make eye contact, I was speech delayed and had poor social skills, or apparently any desire to become social or make friends. But back then, everyone knew that autistics had to have even more extreme behavioural issues than just this and were, well back then they used a horrendous word beginning with R, so learning disabled. Which I clearly wasn't.
So call high functioning, or Asperger's, didn't really appear on the horizon until the early eighties, at least here in the UK, and even then it was often misread as a certain type of person only, the gifted, highly intelligent outsider and introvert. So, not a great help for a lot of us, and even less for me, given that I was already in university by then and masking like a good one.
Of course, it was even less helpful if you were female presenting. The myth that autism was only something that affected males and far too often that actually meant, white middle class males at least, still has its roots in far too many places. So that, even today, if you are a POC, or female presenting, or, god forbid, poor, it is far harder to get a correct diagnosis. Not when there are so many other diagnoses that they can throw at you. Despite the fact that they aren't accurate and don't help. And in fact, all too often, come with horribly negative consequences for being diagnosed with them.
That, I realise now, has been the common thread through all my years, that it has always been about how autism was considered to present, at least to the outsider. And all too often that meant how negatively we presented. What we couldn't do, how far we fell short of their standards, our deficits, at least to their minds, and rarely, if ever, our strengths. In fact these, if they were recognised at all, were all too often seen as mysterious savant like skills emerging from an otherwise empty or damaged facade. Think rain man. All the stereotypes that grew from the various attempts to define us and which still plague us today. In fact, these are often our biggest hurdles to realising that we could be autistic. All the, well I can't be autistic because, I can make eye contact, make friends, have a good job, marry and perhaps the most corrosive of all, are capable of empathy.
It is the stereotypes that mean that all too often we are used to seeing our autistic traits presented on TV and film, by the unfeeling robot, or android, the flawed, socially blind, genius. Or the hero who has to be shepherded through the social world by their allistic partner, whilst they solve the crimes, or save the day. The truth is that we are all different. Some of us struggle with something's, but not others. And how we struggle, or present those things can also differ. Above all, of course, they differ from how the world thinks we should be.
So, just because we are not reacting the way we're supposed to, doesn't mean that we aren't reacting. For many of us, for example, our empathy can come out as a need to problem-solve and not, immediately anyway, just providing emotional support. That we may need to hide from the news of the world, especially as it is at the moment, or carry on with our normal posts, as if nothing was changing. Isn't because we can't see or can't, or don't, care about it, but because we've had to learn to shield ourselves from so much, from our own, often, hyper-empathic and justice driven natures. From the pain and hurt of being judged and judging ourselves, from the expectations of what we should be and how we should behave. From all the stereotypes and definitions that have never defined us, but only ever hurt us.
For there are many reasons why we behave and react the way we do and they are all autistic, because we are, and that is the one thing that I really wish the world could come to learn and to define us by.
This is soooo relatable!
Epistemic Injustice: The Great #Gaslighting of #Autistic Lives
When others overrule autistic self‑knowledge, the result is not better care.
Updated March 9, 2026
Excerpt: "Autistic people and epistemic injustice
Epistemic injustice sounds abstract, but for many in the autistic community, this is the story of being told, over and over, “We know you better than you know yourself.”
Take one autistic life, roughly sketched.
Childhood: You say, “It’s too loud, it hurts.” Adults say, “You’re being difficult.” You show them the problem; they decide you are the problem.
School: You say, “I can’t focus in groups; I do better working alone.” School writes, “refuses to cooperate, poor social skills.” You offer information; it’s turned into evidence against you.
Work: You say, “If we have meetings with clear agendas sent in advance, I can do my best work.” The organization hears, “high‑maintenance, not a team player.” You suggest how to fix the issue; they label your nervous system the issue.
Healthcare: You say, “This pain is new; something is wrong.” You get, “No, that would be unusual.” Your body raises an alarm; your experience doesn’t make it into the chart.
By midlife, you’ve been interrupted, corrected, patronized, or flat‑out disbelieved thousands of times. It eats away at your sense that your own mind and body can be trusted. It happens to those diagnosed early and to those diagnosed late, even if the mechanisms are somewhat different."
RE: https://aus.social/@oscarjiminy/116270804786199238
I was thinking about autism. I score low on the biased "theory of mind" tests - which seem to be all about reading faces and intuiting other people's inner thoughts.
Well, I have spent a life masking hard. I have tried really hard to make sure that people can't see my difference or how I'm feeling. That's the universe I know.
Also, I'm not too clear about how I am feeling. I have a few theories but I can never resolve them. When it comes to other people, I don't have a Theory of of Mind (singular) I have Theories of Minds. Other people's feeling are an infinity of possibilities.
It's exhausting and I often check out and just let people's worlds be their own. If they want me to know how they are feeling, they can tell me, right?
Those two things are related. Because I mask even when I am alone, I have a poor understanding of my own mental state. Because I mask, and have the experience of not being understood, and of being understood being a threat, so I don't assume I can understand people from their external behavior.
That's what those "empathy tests" are testing for - the unquestioned assumption other people are "like me".
#actuallyAutistic #autism #science #psychology
St. Chris boostedwhat we thought we knew about autism and... whatnot
'For decades, researchers had been measuring the wrong thing. Conflating communication style differences with empathy deficits produced dramatically inflated effect sizes and an illusion of empathy impairment'
what we thought we knew about autism and... whatnot
'For decades, researchers had been measuring the wrong thing. Conflating communication style differences with empathy deficits produced dramatically inflated effect sizes and an illusion of empathy impairment'
University of Exeter: Online spaces can provide bodily comfort, relief and inclusion for some autistic people, study says. “Researchers say online communities – including communication apps, social media, and gaming platforms – can provide enriching, authentic and comfortable forms of self-expression and connection for some autistic adults, including a physical ease that is not always […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/03/17/university-of-exeter-online-spaces-can-provide-bodily-comfort-relief-and-inclusion-for-some-autistic-people-study-says/"oh, you have The Forgetting Syndrome™️? that's easily fixed.. just remember to take this little pill every day."
"I'm tired,
I'm tired of being tired."
All too often I can't help thinking that this should be our motto, or legend written on our flag, were we ever to raise one over a land of our own. And it's hardly surprising really, given how exhausting just being autistic is in the human world.
We are constantly having to try and understand and translate what allistics are saying and trying to communicate, whether that be through speech or the written word, or ads, or everything really, into something that we can at least vaguely understand. But that, to say the least, is always an uphill and somewhat fruitless endeavour. Their speech is filled with so many allusions and stuff "we should just know and understand", givens and common understandings, that only really work if you actually ever fucking understood them in the first place. With meanings that are meant to be perceived, or invoke an emotive response, or show the important things, at least to them, of their existence and relationship to you, like status and position, power and authority. All the things that are so often lost on us, because it's not the way we see, or think about the world and yet without which make their words lack the meaning or substance that can actually make them useful. And then, of course, we are in the wrong, or just wilful, or just rude when we ask for an explanation, or fail to understand.
And then there is the sensory hell of the world they live in. All the noise and lights and smells that they just take for granted and seem to consider normal. So normal, in fact, that complaining or trying to protect yourself from them, is also often considered rude, or weird and certainly nothing you can explain to them with any hope of them really understanding. In fact trying to explain pretty much anything to them, or trying to get them to understand your needs and experiences, the way you need people to communicate with you for it to work, or the environment that you can live in, is so often a fruitless enterprise, or, at worst, the sort of encounter that ends up making you want to bash your head repeatedly against a brick wall until something, literally fucking anything, no matter how small, can make sense. Because rarely what we try to communicate to them, normally because of bitter experience, is that difficult or demands that much effort and yet still it still seems to be beyond them.
All too often, to a lesser or greater extent, this is the story of our lives. Masking can help, but that is its own energy drain. Being able to surround ourselves with the right people can help more, as can stubbornly looking after your own needs. But the wider world is always there, like an opinionated black hole, always ready to drain so much away. Getting older doesn't help with all this, as the natural wear and tear and the struggle of the years begin to gang up on us. As the energy reservoirs become less and less what they used to be, or fill back up with anything like the vigour of our youth. Everything becomes its own kind of harder. So perhaps is it any wonder that burnout dogs our ageing footsteps like an over eager puppy just waiting for the chance to trip us up and slobber all over us. In fact, you could almost argue that it is an inevitability, especially for those of us who expanded so much masking and uncertain and not realising that we were autistic for so long and didn't know all the things we could do to help ourselves, as little as they can sometimes be.
So perhaps it is no wonder that tiredness is so often our default state. We live in a world that all too often makes little or no sense, that can be hateful and harmful and care not a wit for us, or our needs. Why we spend so much time trying to understand how many spoons, or spell spots, or however we like to think about it, things will cost us and how much we can afford to spend. How we can be like paupers counting their small change, over and over again, in the vague hope that we can afford the simplest things that we desire.
So yes, all this and more is why I'm tired and tired of being tired, but then that just means I'm alive and still going. That I am still struggling and fighting and paying the price to just live in this world and if you think about it, that is no small thing.
Uta Frith's views on autism 😱 [SENSITIVE CONTENT]
Replying to Uta Frith's views, one by one.
With thanks to all the members of the autistic community who've informed me & inspired me to write this thread.
For those lucky not to know about her article in The Times, and various other related statements, links at the end.
CW: it's upsetting 😟
A thread 🧵
#UtaFrith #Research #Autism #Autistic #ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent
6 Ways ADHD Hides Autism (And What AuDHD Really Looks Like)
A long article with a visual guide at the end for a visual and abbreviated version of it, by Dr Neff an AuDHD psychologist.
I feel so much seen in the 6) in the guide! 😆
Just found out that the person I was working with, who helps Autistic folks find jobs, will lose their job effective March 31.
Because of provincial budget cuts.
But a high-end yacht race got a million bucks in funding so I guess it's not all bad news. 😡
Is empathy political?
An article on autistic empathy.
#Autism #ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent #AuDHD #Neurodiversity #Empathy #DoubleEmpathy
I appreciate this video from #SciShow about some autism research that actually seems non-ableist and grounded in reality. And nice that the presenter #SavannahGeary (they/them) identifies themself as autistic in the intro (funny how they are my favorite SciShow host).
TLDR: Neurodiversity is the thing that makes humans humans (what I have been saying for a while)
Now that we see SciShow can make a good autism video, can we get them to take down that terrible autism video from April two years ago and have Hank Green apologize for promoting ABA?
#ActuallyAutistic #autism #autistic #neurodiversity
https://youtu.be/0mffmUA7d_4
#Autism researchers say "F*** you" to #RFKJr, form independent coordinating group. https://www.ajmc.com/view/autism-research-leaders-launch-independent-committee-to-counter-rfk-s-panel
New study highlights the day-to-day importance of autistic flow
Work by Daniella Wain and colleagues details a non-pathologising view of flow states in autistic individuals, and how they maintain wellbeing
https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/new-study-highlights-day-day-importance-autistic-flow
#ActuallyAutistic #autism #asd #autistic #autisticHealth #weebeing #flow
My favorite "sign" of the day was this guy's shirt about RFK Jr's bullshit with tylenol and #autism. I of course made sure there was a huge Ukrainian flag on the bridge, and we had plenty of anti-ICE and "release the files" signs.
Because fuck everything they're doing.
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A man is standing in the sun on a bridge with a red T shirt that says "Extra Autism TYLENOL: Pain Reliever * Autism causer * Acetaminophen"
Autism implies the existence of homoutism, heteroutism, biutism, panutism, polyutism, and demiutism.#Autism
It constantly amazes me how big of a difference it can make to release even a little self-blame and self-judgment. And how big of a difference tiny changes can make when you keep making more and more of them.
This is how I think, exactly this (first pic)
Except in my head I use the over activated default-mode network to remember each and every one of them with voices on a loop that I can set the same as DeadMau5 with a sampling pad.
It's the same thing just in sound form. I use visuals just to connect the loops as groups, branches, cells hence the TOWN SQUARE metaphor. Imagine the sounds in a tridimensional space that resembles (and yes it is a place) any rectangular town square with the town hall in the centre where the scheduler control who's turn is next.
That's what having these 3 is for me 👇
Child, I said no such thing, I thought no such thing, I desired no such thing, because I am not like you people 😠
.
#ActuallyAutistic #ND #Autism @autistics
#jouRapNal #book18 day 67
20260218Wed
#3goodThings #autism #adhd #jcole #threeGoodThings
#dr #note #increase
https://www.setlist.fm/upcoming/j-cole/2026/scotiabank-arena-toronto-on-canada-4b4b633a.html
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(illustration of a Dr's note)
Az got a note to escape the rest of this physics, algebra, & chemistry semester
Yt increased meds for ADHD but will monitor any trouble falling asleep.
Yk called so excited that the 10yr jcole album they already memorized 40tracks of will be performed in their presence live in jermaine's final toronto show of his career
NEW: For years, the #FDA website warned of products and remedies claiming to treat #autism that were being marketed deceptively and can be harmful.
Just a few:
•hyperbaric oxygen therapies
•chlorine dioxide
•raw camel milk.
Now, under RFK Jr, that advisory is gone.
https://www.propublica.org/article/rfk-jr-fda-removes-autism-treatments-warning
New Blog - Perimenopause: My HRT Journey
I've been taking HRT for a few months to help manage the effects of Perimenopause. Mostly, it's helped, but progesterone has been problematic.
I feel it's SOOO important that we share experiences on this. After posting here about my last Pg low, the repsonses I got made me want to write this blog asap. Here it is:
https://goingdownwithsundial.com/perimenopause-hrt/
My original post on my perimenopausal journey:
@emily_rugburn @autistics
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What if the question were, What do you THINK about it? You can probably identify thoughts first and then feelings. NT folks seem to skip that step, having all these feelings about things they haven’t processed at all. I think you have to know what’s going on before you can know what you feel, and if you work through the mental part, what it MEANS, then you’ll maybe find the feelings for it?
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I’m sorry. Like in all things, I don’t like the popular versions, definitions. “Alexythemia,” is maybe the norm and instant emotional reactions are the disorder. It’s sure what I thought as a child, with some volatile siblings. 💜
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#ND #ActuallyAutistic #Autism
Neuroscientists find evidence that autistic patients have trouble understanding others' intentions
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-01-autistic-mind.html
> A study from MIT neuroscientists reveals that high-functioning autistic adults appear to have trouble using theory of mind to make moral judgments in certain situations.
@KatyElphinstone
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Thing is, when I as an Autistic blame someone or something, I’m just identifying the causal chain of events - there’s nothing “moral,” about it.
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It’s a “moral,” matter when you’re planning to punish who or whatever caused the problem. As a lifelong God’s fool sort of Autistic, that isn’t automatic, in fact I try to never punish anyone for anything.
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So “blame,” is a word that means different things to different neurotypes, making these tests faulty from the start. We’re suppose to lack empathy because for them, blaming Sally means hurting Sally, which it doesn’t for me.
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Worse, their version includes punishment, and they think that’s Human Nature and true for everyone so they don’t even try to compensate for that confound.
🤨😇💜
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#ND #ActuallyAutistic #Autism @autistics
I came across this article in a post and wanted to share with the group. I'm really digging how the #Māori view #Neurodiversity and #Autism! @autistics
More Than a Diagnosis: Reclaiming Neurodiversity in #TeAoMāori
Aug 28, 2025 by Aroha Tamihana
"Neurodiversity is often framed through a deficit lens, defined by what someone lacks or what makes them 'different' from the so-called norm. But within te ao Māori, there’s a growing movement to reframe takiwātanga (Autism), aroreretini (#ADHD), and other neurodiverse traits as taonga: unique ways of being that carry their own mana, strengths, and gifts."
Some reo Māori terms:
- takiwātanga / takiwaatanga – Autism (from tōna anō takiwā – “in their own time/space”)
- aroreretini – ADHD (“attention goes to many things”)
Read more:
https://maimoa.nz/blogs/news/more-than-a-diagnosis-reclaiming-neurodiversity-in-te-ao-maori
Have you wondered where the claim that autistic people lack empathy came from?
The “jellyfish” study (2011) was influential in this, as it concluded that autistic people lacked Theory of Mind & capacity for moral reasoning.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-01-autistic-mind.html
In the fictional scenario given to participants, Sally tells a friend it’s safe to swim with jellyfish. She believes they’re harmless. The friend is stung and dies.
⬇️
#Autism #Empathy #Neurodiversity #Psychology #TheoryofMind #ActuallyAutistic
RE: https://flipboard.com/@cbcnews/politics-2qr4m137z/-/a-FDDQSY6CTg2JLoNlTOk3dA%3Aa%3A107108217-%2F0
#ElectionsCanada gets an object lesson on why it is essential for organizations whose work demands procedural exactitude to hire workers and leaders whose #neurodivergence makes them specialists in that aptitude.
Election workers; nuclear reactor operators; scrub technicians, EVS technicians, and MDRTs; pharmacists; aircraft mechanics and engineers; avionics maintenance technicians and QC inspectors; financial auditors; regulatory compliance officers; quality control inspectors; laboratory technicians; occupational health and safety officers; software quality assurance testers; powerline technicians; environmental and industrial inspectors: All these and many more occupations draw on common (albeit neither universal nor exclusive) distinct #Autistic strengths.
Organizational diversity is strength. Neurodiversity (meaning, variety of neurotypes) is one essential dimension of which. Of course, inclusion is necessary and insufficient. Ensuring sensory, psychological, and social safety of these workers ensures organizations attain the most benefit from their work.
Cost of any NT leaders not being ableist trash: free. Cost of leaders not allowing NT colleagues to be ableist trash: a few hours' training, several minutes' feedback per week, and a few sometimes momentarily uncomfortable conversations. Cost of procedural errors in these industries: millions or billions of dollars, and very often, human lives.
AodeRelay boostedSupreme Court invalidates Liberal MP's election win by a single vote
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/terrebonne-tatiana-auguste-supreme-court-result-9.7088850?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypubPosted into Politics @politics-cbcnews
I had friends who supported me against bullies. These students should be lauded, not suspended!
#Maine high school suspends 19 students who stood up to alleged bully targeting #autistic student
Story by Peter Rubinstein, 2/11/2026
"Veronika McKenney, mother of one Oxford Hills student who was not part of the suspended group, maintained that the group was nonviolent. 'They kept their hands off. They used their words,' she told WGME.
"Other students began to follow, eventually forming a crowd around the alleged bully. Only one person in the group spoke to the student accused of kicking the autistic student, the suspended student added.
"When school staff noticed the crowd, they intervened and removed the alleged bully from the middle. Administrators identified the students that had gathered and began notifying their parents.
"Their suspensions ranged from two to five days.
"The story quickly caught attention among school parents on social media, many of whom defended their children's presence in the crowd and condemned the school's decision to suspend them."
#jouRapNal #book18 day 60
202600211Wed
#3goodThings #autism #school #support #threeGoodThings
Alt...
(illustration of a small tech clam)
Ma&Az are getting chrome books for school & we will meet with psychologists to craft an independant education plan for each
Yt in gym played a game with 4 nets - one in each corner - when the 1st 2 teams were eliminated Yt convinced them to help Yt's team win
WTF! I said they would be coming for #Autistic folks (and services) next...
In Case You Missed It: Dr. Oz Puts #Mills on 30-Day Notice Over MaineCare #Autism Billing
By Jon Fetherston, February 9, 2026
WASHINGTON – "Maine is back in the national crosshairs after CMS Administrator Dr. #MehmetOz publicly warned late Friday that Gov. #JanetMills (D) has 30 days to answer federal questions about MaineCare billing tied to autism services, and that 'CMS is ready to take action' if Washington isn’t satisfied with what it sees."
cc: @autistics
Mills: Oz's fraud allegations pull from 'malicious playbook' for targeting #Trump's political foes
Maine Public | By Steve Mistler
Published February 9, 2026
"Gov. #JanetMills says the #Trump administration is using findings from a routine social services audit to drum up allegations of fraud for political purposes. The governor's comments follow threats from a top #Medicaid official to cut off the state's federal funding.
"In the past several days, Centers for #Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator #MehmetOz has made allegations of widespread fraud in Maine's social services programs, at one point drawing comparisons to the scandal unfolding in #Minnesota.
"In a recently posted social media video, the former celebrity TV doctor suggested that Maine could lose its federal Medicaid funding.
" 'If we don't like what we see, CMS will work with Maine to put their house in order. And if we're not satisfied with their progress, we reserve the right to cut off their payments entirely,' he said.
"Those threats follow a recent audit by the Office of Inspector General that found the state made $45.6 million in improper payments to providers for #autism services. That review, initiated during the Biden administration, did not allege fraud, which is different than improper payments. However, the state may have to pay back $28.7 million to the federal government.
"Mills, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, said in a statement Monday that Oz's statements mark another example of the Trump administration's 'malicious playbook' of targeting its political opponents.
" 'Let’s be clear about what this is: Maine is facing a political attack from a president who uses allegations of fraud as a pretense to send (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and other weaponized federal agents into states led by Democrats with devastating consequences,' she said in a statement."
cc: @autistics
Is Autism something to be cured? Or are we people to be eliminated? TBH, I wouldn't believe a word the current administration says about Autism. Especially the way their goons treated #AliyahRahman !
What RFK Jr.’s Unproven #Autism Treatment Could Mean for #Autistic Patients and Their Families
RFK Jr. has stated leucovorin will help "large numbers of children who suffer from autism." Many experts are skeptical about that.
By Ed Cara
Published February 7, 2026
"Last September, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Donald Trump made a big announcement: The federal government had supposedly uncovered a clear link between autism and mothers taking acetaminophen (Tylenol) during their pregnancy. The proclamation was swiftly lambasted by scientists outside the administration, yet it’s only one facet of the Trump administration’s concerning new approach to autism."
@duckduckduckfrog avoid like the pest. You can get the full EXACT outline using ChatGPT which is on itself a very red flag.
Did I make the most of it? Yes.
Can I recommend it? Nope.
Why is it that I lament that I rarely get phone calls from friends.... and then when they do call I get annoyed that they did?
Is it because they take so long between reaching out (I used to reach out all the time, but stopped when I noticed it wasn't reciprocated), or is this an #autism thing?
Honestly, I don't know everything about how my brain works, so this is an actual question, and not a rhetorical one.
Sometimes I really wish I had an official diagnosis of #autism. I know that self diagnosis is valid, and I know that I am #ActuallyAutistic but Impostor Syndrome is real.
I've spent all morning watching YouTube videos with titles like "10 signs you might be autistic!" even though I know all of this very well.
It is just nice sometimes to hear someone describe me while trying to describe an autistic person. *sigh*
PSA: Severe or profound autism DOES NOT exist. It’s autism + co-occurring conditions!
A few different resources about this subject, there are so many, check especially the first one!
https://neurodivergentrebel.substack.com/p/when-i-said-theres-no-such-thing
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10500663/
https://lemonandlively.com/severe-autism/
https://neuroclastic.com/calling-level-3-support-needs-severe-autism-blocks-self-advocacy/
I haven't seen this particular video for years, not since I lost my link to it. So I was very glad it popped up in my feed today. It remains one of the most powerful representations of what it can mean, at least for this autistic, to be non-speaking. It is essentially told in two halves, using her language and ours and whilst she is sadly no-longer with us, this remains as a hell of a legacy and almost a must-see for autistics in my opinion.
When the sweater starts to feel like a thousand spiders crawling all over your body, that's pajama time.
I am crying after reading this initially shared by @acratopege (and sorry for the incoming notifications).
Thank you Rob and Dianne. ❤️
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We invited a man into our home at Christmas and he stayed with us for 45 years
I hate not being able to actually tell the truth about why I need to skip an in office day.
What manager on earth is going to understand that I'm nearing a meltdown/shutdown because I was so overstimulated due to a team lunch on Wednesday? It was threatening to ruin my entire week.
If I'd gone in on Thursday I wouldn't have gotten anything done because my brain would be short circuiting all day. And today I'd be catatonic, which is kind of happening anyway. I fell asleep on the couch sitting up after breakfast this morning for instance even though I slept for 9 hours last night.
Paul Micallef's description of Neurodivergent Love Languages and the ways that autistic people express and receive affection is so helpful.
If your child does the following: Parallel Play, Info Dumping, Penguin Pebbling, Support Swapping, and Deep Pressure... they are telling you they love you!
And you can show your love to them in these ways too. <3
Is there anything more unbearable than company happy hours? I’ve like truly connected with maybe 3 co-workers in 20+ years. There’s nobody I’d rather drink less with than co-workers.
And alcohol, while dulling my autism in the moment, does not eliminate it. In fact it’s like it builds an anxiety dam that breaks when I sober up so drinking around people usually ends with me having a panic attack later.
So instead of going to happy hour I’m getting a lift in. At home. Alone. Then watching one of the shows I’m catching up on and going to bed on time.
New research bolsters evidence that Tylenol doesn’t raise the risk of autism despite Trump’s claims
A new review of studies has found that taking Tylenol during pregnancy doesn’t increase the risk...
https://apnews.com/article/trump-autism-tylenol-adhd-a9854203a8474c58654313ba93e48a67#uspol #autism #research
I will be at LEICESTER comedy festival on 17 th February
https://events.comedy-festival.co.uk/events/robin-ince-let-the-quiet-ones-rise/ #comedy #poetry #leicester #adhd #neurodiversity #neurodivergent #autism
I'm looking into books not just about #ADHD, but specifically about the use of #psychostimulant drugs to treat it. I was hoping to find professional reference books. Instead, what I'm finding, overwhelmingly, are strident denunciations of #ADHD as unreal, and of the drugs as tools of diabolical mind control. The atmosphere of this discourse, the vibe, absolutely creeps me out. It's dismaying. It's worse — much worse! — than anti-addiction drug-war literature; many of THOSE people are surprisingly positive about what they see as responsible, legitimate use of scheduled drugs under prescription. Instead, the anti-#ADHD-drug literature is more reminiscent of the intensely toxic atmosphere of two other social pathologies we've become wearisomely familiar with: #antivax, and the "#autism overdiagnosis" school of thought that tries to deny the very reality of our identity.
Indeed, I suspect that at bottom the motivation behind all three social movements — #antivax, anti-#ADHD, and anti-#autism — is the same: denial of the Other. Whether it's plagues or neurodivergence, these people want above all to deny the reality of anything that would force them to make drastic alterations to their lifestyles. It's one step away from wishing other ethnic groups didn't exist.
#FDA deletes warning on bogus #autism therapies touted by #RFK Jr.‘s allies
For years, the #FDA provided an informational webpage for parents warning them of the dangers of bogus autism treatments, some promoted by anti-vaccine activists & "wellness" companies. The page cited specifics #scams & the "significant #health risks" they pose.
But, under anti-vaccine Health Secretary RFK Jr.—who has numerous ties to the wellness industry—that FDA info webpage is now gone.
Private equity firms acquired more than 500 autism centers in past decade, study shows | Brown University
“It's all about the financial incentives,” Arnold said. “I worry about the same types of revenue-generating strategies seen in other private equity-backed settings. I worry about children receiving more than the clinically appropriate amount of services and worsening disparities in terms of which children have access to services.”
https://www.brown.edu/news/2026-01-07/private-equity-autism-centers
(If he were truly convinced that paying taxes is an indicator of a citizen's usefulness to society, the thing RFK jr should want to prevent isn't #autism but the billionaire class.)
@andrewducker The conclusion is spot on!
“Most critically, they failed to ask autistic people about their inner experiences. They studied autism without genuinely listening to the autistic perspective. For decades, science examined autistic people through a lens of pathology and deficit, rather than dignity, comparing us to animals while missing our humanity. But autistic people don't lack humanity. Research just lacked the humanity to see it.“
#MentalHealth #MentalIllness #Depression #Anxiety #cPTSD #Autism #ActuallyAutistic
Alt...
myriadsubtletiess
The worst part about having mental health
issues is that you're seemingly required to
have a breakdown in order for people to
understand how hard you were trying to
hold yourself together.