My first and instinctive reaction is to take what people say at face value, but that doesn’t mean I won’t process it further. Often, I take things at face value but then process them for a few more seconds/minutes and land upon what the person really meant. 1/2
I might initially interpret a sarcastic “thanks for all your help!” as a genuine expression of appreciation for my efforts, but my brain will likely reflect on it for a while and eventually realise the person was dissatisfied with my help and being sarcastic. 2/2
Autistic people are often attracted to one particular line in a song and will sing that one line aloud or in their brain for days, possibly in the singer’s accent. This may be considered a form of stimming, as well as a form of echolalia.
I wish more non-autistic people knew and believed that autistic people who can seemingly do a lot of things. We may truly need to rest after doing them, may not be able to do them in quick succession, and may sometimes not be able to do them at all.
The lack of awareness and belief in this may stem from misbeliefs that: we find all of these things easy, and our executive function and energy levels are static. 1/2
Many of us find everyday life takes an inordinate amount of effort, due to all the additional processing our brains do, and our energy levels and executive function can be affected by many things: our stress levels, how overwhelmed we are, our mental and physical health and more. 2/2
Finding out that I have spent my life scripting things to say just to make other people happy and make social interactions go "smoothly" at the cost of my own mental health, personal integrity, and self-identity is an masked Autistic experience.
I’m meta-observing my interactions on @actuallyautistic and have noted that I start too many replies with the word “absolutely” to express an emphatic YES!
Reflecting this morning on the specific ways growing up undiagnosed autistic can lead to distrust of other humans. It's incredibly confusing to have so many demands/expectations of both your peers and people you're supposed to look up to lead to pain and discomfort, and even more alienating when you can't communicate about it in a way that those people would be able to understand because they don't experience life in the same way.
If this resonates with you, my inner child would like to offer your inner child a hug - no pressure or expectations. ❤️🩹
When people hear “autistic people don’t like change” they think we mean cancelled events or moving house.
Both true - but it’s much wider. Friendship changes. Loss. Sometimes it’s other things, like being disconcerted by objects being moved. Even changing of seasons.
I'm autistic, so I guess it's natural that I will never, ever be able to understand exactly when is the correct time to add my point to a group conversation.
Watching the conversation move onto a totally different topic, while a really good point is left unsaid, is a very specific autistic sadness.