Because I'd forgotten: If you're using Linux and PulseAudio, you can use your laptop to pipe "outside" sounds through your headphones while you're listening to music, and control the volume of it to reduce stimuli while not shutting it all out.
Literally doing that right now in the ER waiting room, and it's saving my sanity.
@StevenSaus@actuallyautistic@actuallyaudhd I use the same technique to pipe my laptop audio through my PC so that I can use one set of headphones. Works well, if sometimes a bit fiddly.
If you have not yet read Fern Brady's memoir "Strong Female Character," do so. it will be a hard emotional read -- Fern shares her experiences as an #autistic woman -- but it's also good and honest and no bullshit from a very very smart comedian. Cannot recommend enough.
How do you tell the difference between reactions you have because you're neurospicy and the reactions you have from past trauma? (Let alone where they overlap!)
(I'm talking more behavioral than sensory here, things akin to rejection sensitivity, etc)
@Dr_Obvious@StevenSaus@actuallyautistic@actuallyaudhd
As a recently self-diagnosed autist, I'm wrestling with this myself. For me, I think the clue is in the reaction. If it's numbness plus an urge to escape, it's autistic overwhelm. If it's numbness plus terror, misery, self-loathing and/or a deep feeling of uselessness or hopelessness, it's cPTSD.
To me, the distinction between autistic reactions and cPTSD events is important. I've faced multiple cPTSD triggers head-on, worked through them and neutralised them. It's hard work and it's painful, but it can be done. Autistic overwhelm, in contrast, is not something I can train myself out of. For that, I need to find ways to avoid the stimulus -- it's the exact opposite to my approach to cPTSD.
This is particularly relevant to neurospicy folx. Just "do it harder" is useless advice to us. We have to give ourselves grace and then control our environment. But first we have to stop blaming ourselves.
You are doing the best you can right now, with your situation the way it is.
Anybody else now having a hard time NOT seeing a WHOLE LOT of media as allegories for "neurodivergent person/people forced to interact with allistic society" after realizing you were neurodivergent?
Currently rewatching "The Girl With All The Gifts," for context. (If you've not seen the film, I highly recommend it if you're into horror at all.) But that's not the only one, by far.
@StevenSaus@autisticadvocacy@actuallyautistic@Zumbador
Are there any diagnostic tools created by autistic people? I know that there are autists in the field of psychology. So it would be interesting whether some late diagnosed psychologists work on better tools. I guess this monotropism questionaire goes into this direction.
Storries of people being misdiagnosed, because they can make I contact or take part in a fluent self reflected discussion appear ludicrous.
"Autism Diagnosis at Toddler Age May Not Persist to Elementary School Years"
Thought 1: So the kids learn to mask?
Thought 2: Maybe your diagnostic criteria are screwy?
Thought 3: Way to define autists through how much they inconvenience allistics.
They used the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale, which is described elsewhere as, "the leading instrument for supporting the diagnosis of intellectual and developmental disabilities."
Four Different Autism Subtypes Identified by Brain Activity (from April 2023)
Using a combination of machine learning and neuroimaging data, researchers report people on the autism spectrum can be classified into four different subtype groups based on brain activity and behavior.
Accommodation Or Abuse: The False Choice Managers Have With #Neurospicy Employees
Do you want to be a leader or manager who actually works with your neurodivergent employees, or do you want to create a hostile, toxic, and inefficient work environment because of the fragility of your ego?
@StevenSaus@autisticadvocacy@actuallyautistic
..because running an efficeint business for the collective good comes in second place to wedging oneself into the structure and not being shown up for any perceived deficiencies.
Sure, just as there is nobody who is actually "average."
At the same time, the more I poke at my cognition compared to that of others, the more I realize that there at least a sub-set of allistics who not only have different logical "givens" about how they think, but ultimately cognate in a way that is radically different from mine in a way that is almost painful to emulate.
It appears the same technique used to identify and be more in touch with one's stress levels translate quite well to sensory overload as well. Interesting!
There's a good part of me that wonders if there's a correlation between a wider range gender expression (and relationship diversity, perhaps) and the neurospicy tendency to look at conventions that have no reasoning behind them and then ignore the (stupid) conventions and just do what makes sense/ feels "correct" to us.
I am a cishet dude, so I may be VERY VERY off-base here. Thoughts?
@StevenSaus@autisticadvocacy@Zumbador I don't think you're too far off base; certainly close enough to get back on if you see the catcher try to throw you out...
Though, speaking from experience, sometimes we need a clue-bat (or two or three) to realise that those conventions are questionable at all... but once one assumption gets yanked out of the normativity Jenga stack, there's a high potential for the whole thing to come crashing down.