@verdantsquare This also applies to #ABA (so-called "applied behavior analysis") for #autism: it is abuse and torture. It should never be legal. It is conversion therapy for #autistics: an attempt to turn us into #neurotypicals by violent coercion.
https://thinkingautismguide.com/2018/09/on-aba-they-hate-you-yes-you.html
Neurodivergence Healing vs. Aligning
Neurodivergence Healing vs. Aligning
Neurodivergence & How to Avoid Living With Regrets
Lots of thoughts, lots of anger. Distilling for own sanity.
I'm me, i'm not diseased,
I know i'm wired differently,
like my children,
and many, many more,
definitely outnumbering large groups,
like, say, political parties,
just as an example.
But I digress, as is my habit,
back to my children.
I speak to them,
checking them for signs,
symptoms,
all I can find are morals,
tuned correctly to decency,
kindness,
ethically concious.
I can't find anything i'd cure,
as then they might change,
and be like those,
who invented the cause.
Look, we all know the real reason #Autistics exist and why #Autism rates are increasing.
It's not vaccines or paracetamol...
It's cos we be fucking 😈
Will ANYONE who was not ALREADY an antivaxer believe a single word about #vaccines, #acetaminophen, or #autism from #SprayTanHitler, or from #BrainWormsJr and his handpicked kangaroo-court #ACIP? Or change a single decision they'll be making? I seriously doubt it.
This isn't about using authority to change people's minds. It's about using authority to declare open season on #autistics, on drug and vaccine makers, and on biomedical scientists who tell the truth on these topics. It's giving permission to use legal constraints AND illegal violence against all of these people. It's a writ of proscription.
@KatyElphinstone @wakame @darrellpf @TanekRune @autistics
Such a fantastic thread. I know this feeling. I can't be myself with someone else there
But but but ... I know I *need* other people to be around
It's impossible: I need people to be there but not there
I am so grateful for the people who can be there but not there but, sadly, there are not that many of them
#American #Autistics: let's not take the bate on #Trump & #RFK 's Tylenol gambit. They are waiting for the uproar in the medical establishment, calling for the recognition of #Autism as a genetic condition. They will then do a self-correct, at which point they will call for forced sterilizations.
I saw something happen in a thread the other day that made me really sad.
Person A called Person B out for using #AI to #write their posts and replies.
Turns out Person B was using a #translation layer to write in English, and unfortunately, the output of that product feels very #LLM like - and probably is.
Don't jump to conclusions folks. #Autistics have also been accused of writing like AI. This is going to get ugly and we need more love in the world.
On the trip I took last weekend to the retreat I realize now that a lot of my discomfort had to do with the fact that I had to mask again. Not as in Covid masking, which I still do, but mask as an autism masking.
Part of it was because I was wearing an actual face mask, and when I wear an actual face mask, I often exaggerate my reactions with my body, hands and eyes so that people understand that I am listening and have heard what they have said. But I think I go a little bit overboard with that, a little too theatrical, as is my training.
I only had about a two hour window in which I could actually just be myself aroubd others, and that's when I was hanging around on the other side of the property where some hammocks were hung up with my two poet friends from here. That was a nice interlude!
I am going to go back, or at least I'm planning on it anyway. They retreats happen every six months, and like one of my friends said, it's way cheaper than an Airbnb -- and they feed you.
I also now know what I am "up against" as far as mixing with a population of people who maybe are on the surface somewhat like me, but in reality they are incredibly unlike me. One friend politely described them as "sheltered" and I get where she was coming from on that.
I perceived the other attendees as quite fierce and very strong in not only their practices but their convictions. I did not perceive them as overly proselytizing, which was actually really good. We were at a Christian camp in the Ozarks, but the retreat is not specifically Christian (I would not attend if it was, because I am not a Christian).
I do hope at least one of my poetry friends attends again when I go. It was nice to have them there as well nice as get to know them better in a less-structured and longer-lasting setting. One of them called our little group from here "The Witches of Neosho" lol. We did have some animated text discussions about tarot.
I don't think I'll need to take my support dog next time. It was actually kind of disruptive to have him with me; he didn't like the car rides and he did not do well being there. I'll have to think about it. He hasn't been without me since I got him. I'm not sure what would be the least stressful choice for him. I guess possibly having somebody physically pet sit at my house, but this time leave the dogs here?
@VulcanTourist @melindrea @actuallyautistic When I was a college instructor, I observed that most students are far more articulate in speech than in writing. I suspect that the opposite is generally true for #autistics.
@PatternChaser @pathfinder Indeed. Generalizing your point: far too many "symptoms" (and even characteristics described more neutrally) attributed to #autistics as our intrinsic properties, are really properties of the interaction between a person and the world. Since the world's social structures, and even physical artifacts, are usually made for #neurotypicals, it's easy to find pathologized (or even undeniably pathological) interactions that we have with those structures and artifacts. But there's no reason to think #neurotypicals would fare any better in a world made for #autistics. The "double empathy problem" is a special case of this phenomenon.
@JoBlakely @pathfinder @PatternChaser Even at 14, I was reading things that were widely read by others AND things that were not. I mention the interests shared with the world at large to refute the claim that we #autistics are ONLY interested in our idiosyncratic "special interests" and not in "normal" topics. I had no problem with getting into the kinds of interests the world would expect of a 14-year-old boy — only with being LIMITED to those things.
@melindrea @actuallyautistic I also agree with @pathfinder's comment about the likely connection between #hypersexuality and sensation seeking in general. On balance I'm very much a sensation seeker rather than a sensation avoider. And that, too, may place me as an exception to the exception, a minority within a minority. To me #hypersexuality is very much of a piece with my love for elderflower and violet liqueurs, menthol, and rose candies. Maybe if you looked at female #autistics who are sensation seekers in general, you might indeed find #hypersexuality.
@melindrea @actuallyautistic Since I'm male AND very new to self-recognition as #autistic, I may not be the most qualified to comment, but I've only heard of this once, and not as a truth, but as a literal JOKE.
My impression so far from observing the community here is that #autistics, both male and female, are far more likely to be #ace / #aro / #demi than to be in any way #hypersexual. So much so that, as a cishet male with at least some tendencies toward #hypersexuality, I now often feel like an exception to the exception, a minority within a minority.
Question to Fellow Autistics #Autistics #SchoolAccommodations… https://ift.tt/bXHvWJ4
@eniko There are also cases where the problem *IS* known to medical science, *AND* the doctor is making a serious good-faith effort to diagnose it — but they can't, because the scientific knowledge hasn't yet propagated to common clinical practice.
Misdiagnosis of #autism as other mental-health conditions would fall in this category. Before my self-diagnosis of autism at age 67, less than a year ago, I had an extensive history with the mental health system, mostly for depression. None of the numerous psychologists and psychiatrists I saw ever considered autism as a diagnosis, even though I'm low-masking. One misdiagnosed me as #bipolar; I've since learned from other #autistics here on Mastodon that misdiagnosis of autism as bipolar disorder is almost a cliché, and that more generally, misdiagnosis of autism as other mental health conditions is very common indeed, especially for autistics who don't fit the stereotype of a white male toddler with a low IQ and high support needs.
But similar things happen in physical medicine. A quarter-century ago, I went to a physician to be evaluated for sleep #apnea, after my wife told me she had been awakened from sleep by my #snoring. The physician was openly skeptical; I have never been morbidly obese, and at the time the prevalence of sleep apnea was not fully understood in clinical practice. Also, just as with my autism, my ability to compensate and function well probably led the physician astray; he might have taken my inquiry more seriously if I had been obviously impaired. To his credit, he did refer me for polysomnography — and the results showed clear evidence of apnea. I am now a regular user of #CPAP, and my life has been better for it.
