holyramenempire

theautisticcoach , 8 months ago to actuallyautistic

What does autistic liberation look like to you?

#ActuallyAutistic #AskingAutistics @actuallyautistic

holyramenempire , 8 months ago

@theautisticcoach @actuallyautistic A world where all of us, whether autistic or not, are raised to be whole and complete people. Emotionally healthy people aren't the ones oppressing others! We need the very basics of society in place before anything else can happen, and I believe psychological security is the prerequisite for everything.

masukomi , 8 months ago to actuallyautistic

A nice little TickTok about finding joy in someone else's Special Interest, even if it's really not your thing.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8Sqeq92/

I think this is something most #ActuallyAutistic folks "just get" but that Allistic people constantly struggle with. The end result being Austistic people can frequently only talk about the thing they're passionate about with other autistics, or other people with the same Special Interest.

1/2

@actuallyautistic

holyramenempire , 8 months ago

@masukomi
A GREAT strategy for me was "I'd love to listen, but can we sit back to back? I don't have the energy to do eye contact and facial expressions while I listen." Or we go for a drive or a side by side walk.
@actuallyautistic

holyramenempire , 8 months ago to random

I love this study. It emphasizes how vital written communication is to autistic people. (If your business or service requires a phone call or an in-person interaction, it's not accessible to us.)

Also, it's the kind of research we need more of: not about how to "fix" us, but about what we want, and who we are. There are still people out there who think that we can't even have our own opinions, that we're just parroting what we've been told. There are still people out there who believe autism is a learning disability or a disease!

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13623613211014995

holyramenempire OP , 8 months ago

also I forgot to tag #ActuallyAutistic and @actuallyautistic to call your attention to this research

theautisticcoach , 9 months ago to actuallyautistic

How did my #ActuallyAutistic comrades understand that they're autistic?

How old were you?

@actuallyautistic

holyramenempire , 8 months ago

@theautisticcoach @actuallyautistic In my late twenties, I went to a psychiatrist who asked me "And how is your autism affecting that?" and when I said I wasn't diagnosed, did an informal assessment. I begged for it not to end up in my medical records, in case I wanted to foster or adopt or emigrate someday. So he let me assess myself and keep the result private.

I don't mind being public about it at all, I just don't want it on a single official piece of paperwork.

holyramenempire , 8 months ago

@JosephMeyer @theautisticcoach @actuallyautistic Right, it's a complicated situation and a really individual decision - should you seek a diagnosis, should you record that diagnosis officially, who can you tell about it? I don't think we should be forced to be so dependent on medical providers to be gatekeepers of who gets services and who doesn't, or who's allowed to move to another country!

AutisticAdam , 9 months ago to actuallyautistic

The autistic urge to panic when someone says something might happen, as not knowing whether something scary will happen is usually worse than knowing for sure that it will, because if you don’t know, you can’t fully prepare yourself on an emotional or practical level.

@actuallyautistic #actuallyautistic

holyramenempire , 9 months ago

@AutisticAdam @actuallyautistic Yup! I'd choose ten real bad things, over one small chance of something going wrong.

holyramenempire , 11 months ago

@theautisticcoach @actuallyautistic @autisticadvocacy Not if I can help it. I'm way too scared of the police - they've become essentially the "Act Normal" enforcers, with deadly results. I'm also trans, and the cops aren't kind to us even when we aren't autistic.