hamlin81

AutisticAdam, 8 months ago to actuallyautistic

"You can’t be autistic - you can make eye contact!”

Being autistic doesn’t mean I can’t make eye contact, rather that eye contact can be painful and overstimulating for me. Yet, I make it because I have to. If I didn’t, many would be hurt/angry, and I’d face further ostracism. Thanks for your pointless comment anyway from someone that clearly doesn't know what your talking about.

@actuallyautistic #actuallyautistic

CynAq, 8 months ago to actuallyautistic

I remember a weird polemic I got into at kindergarten. This is late eighties.

I was already reading at a... I don't know what level. I never understood what "reading levels" were anyway, I mean, if I can read, I can read, right?

Well... Turns out none of the other kids apparently were able to read, at least not openly, and reading was actively discouraged by the staff there. There was a storybook hour where everyone picked a story book with illustrations and PRETENDED to read.

I found out when the teacher lady noticed I was actually reading the thing and pulled it away from me, telling me I wasn't supposed to actually read the book with, you know, words printed on it. The justification was "if you read now and get good at it, you'll have a terrible time being bored in first grade when all the other kids are still trying to learn."

Lady, I don't think you understand how reading works. I can't UNLEARN how to read once I learned it.

This is still within my top five unfathomable school experiences.

#ActuallyAutistic @actuallyautistic

housepanther, 8 months ago to actuallyautistic

@actuallyautistic I admittedly have a lot of anger management issues that I am working on. Lots of this anger stems from my trauma of having to live in a world that treats the disabled with such anathema. But one such issue I have been able to improve is the impulsiveness of my anger. I've learned to be more subtle about it in an NT world.

I've taken the advice from experts like Sun Tzu and others that it is best to carefully control the conditions of the battle you're in, be it a social confrontation or an actual military confrontation. Control the time, place, and conditions of the ensuing conflict, and you'll likely come out a winner.

Now people that decide to treat me in infantile ways or whom want to devalue me simply because I am neurodivergent will taste my comeuppance on my terms and under very careful control. My existing manager, to her sorrow and inconvenience, will learn the mistake that she made by treating me the way she did. She's going to lose someone that is an excellent and reliable desktop support technician. She won't feel the punch right away, but she will feel it.

housepanther, 8 months ago to actuallyautistic

@hamlin81 @AutisticAdam @actuallyautistic Oh it pisses me off beyond belief! I've taken a bit of advice from Sun Tzu's Art of War after getting knocked down to many times from being impulsive.

I've learned to control the battlefield by controlling the time and place of my confrontations. Now I will have the upper hand come October 16th when I leave my asshole for a boss, who treated me like a baby, stranded and scrambling. Of course, I want to verbally berate her but that won't do any good and will simply get me in trouble. I am going to delight in her discomfort. A little schadenfreude.

stina_marie, 8 months ago to horror

Happy Sunday! Trying to motivate... We'll see how it goes.

#meme #horror #Sunday #funny @horror #MotherSuspiriasMorningMeme

AutisticAdam, 8 months ago to actuallyautistic

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.

@actuallyautistic #actuallyautistic

KaCi, 8 months ago to actuallyautistic

"You don't look autistic."
Really? Then why am I the only person in the neighborhood, who looks like this on a mild, cloudy autumn day?
#ActuallyAutistic
@actuallyautistic

samiam, 9 months ago to actuallyautistic

@actuallyautistic #ActuallyAutistic so many thanks to those who have made feel feel heard and welcome here in the past weeks. the story thus far: 41 years of "muddling thru" depression, anxiety, misc mysterious health problems, etc when one day a new friend (very rare!) shared with me that they are autistic, and respectfully asked me if i might be too.
this [re]kindled lots of thoughts and feels and sent me down a path of recognizing and uncovering some fairly autistic-seeming traits and behaviors that i had been ignoring or suppressing. i have lately been thinking of myself as "provisionally autistic" which is how i'm trying to walk this line between, one the one hand, not mentally framing Autism As One True The Explanation For Everything and stretching things to try to force them to fit; and, on the other hand, not giving in to Autistic Imposter Syndrome. i want "provisionally autistic" to be a comfortable in-between place where i can "let myself be as autistic as i am" without "trying to be autistic when i'm not" and just observe myself and see how it goes. if that makes any sense?

but (and this is a question mainly to all you late/recent adult [self/]dx folks out there, but of course also anyone else who wants to respond):
How do you KNOW?
i'm stuck in this place where lots of things seem relatable and plausible but there is no sense of AHA IT FITS. there's no THIS FINALLY EXPLAINS IT. i know it's early for me yet -- i've been taking this seriously for weeks not years -- and i probably have to be patient with myself . . . but ggghhhghg.
maybe i'm just venting? i don't know. i'm having a day.

AutisticAdam, 9 months ago to actuallyautistic

Being autistic for me is that eye contact usually makes me feel like someone’s eyes are burning my retinas, but occasionally it makes me feel like gentle waves are beautifully and intimately caressing my soul. It seems to mostly depend on who I’m making eye contact with.

@actuallyautistic #autistic #actuallyautistic

hosford42, 9 months ago to adhd

The single best way to support neurodivergent people, in the workplace and in life, is to educate yourself about the different forms of neurodivergence.

Learn about the needs, strengths, weaknesses, tendencies, perspectives, and, most importantly, lived experiences of neurodivergent people.

The right way to do this is to listen to neurodivergent people. Follow us on social media. Read our blogs. Get to know us IRL. If you aren't listening to us, you aren't learning about us; you are only learning other people's opinions about us.

As with any minority group, learning about neurodivergent people will force you to reassess many assumptions about people and society that you don't even realize you hold. You will grow as a person. And that is exactly what we need from you.

@neurodivergence
@adhd
@actuallyautistic
@autisticadvocacy
@autistic[email protected]

#Neurodivergent
#Neurodiversity
#Autism
#ActuallyAutistic
#ADHD
#AuDHD
#Disability
#a11y
#Accessibility
#WorkplaceAccommodations