justanotherautisticblog

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autism is an insane condition because i spent all day feeling like dogshit and then i shut my windows and door and immediately felt like 95% better because it was quiet and dark. like WHAT

[justanotherautisticblog]

probably my most powerful interpersonal communication hack is to, whenever possible, ask either/or questions rather than yes/no questions

for example, when chatting with coworkers, i’ll often ask if they have any fun weekend plans. but let’s be real - we all feel like friendless losers when someone asks that question and we go “uhhhhh… no.” so instead, i phrase it as “so, do you have anything fun planned over the weekend, or are you just going to enjoy having some time to relax?”

phrased like this, there’s rarely any awkwardness. you’ve presented two options & given both equally positive connotations, so your conversational partner has an automatic “out,” so to speak

but it works for higher stakes conversations too!!!! my mom was saying this weekend how she and her neighbor both like walking around the neighborhood & that she wanted to suggest they take a walk together sometime, but was worried about how to approach the conversation

so i said “how about you just say ‘i’ve noticed we both like taking walks! would you be interested in going for one together, or do you use walks for some precious alone time?’”

now Walking Neighbor has an automatic “get out of jail free card” if she wants to say no!!!! which means my mom doesn’t have to worry about the conversation being uncomfortable, because she’s set it up to go smoothly

either/or questions rather than yes/no questions. it is really like magic

[justanotherautisticblog]

[justanotherautisticblog]

growing up being autistic but not knowing is just *hiding in room while people are over* *getting tired and needing to recharge after the smallest chores* *getting called a gifted kid* *knowing that you're "weird" because people are making fun of you but not knowing how to stop being weird* *having adults tell you how "mature" you are* *getting in trouble for not doing work* *convincing yourself that you're just lazy and stupid because you can't make yourself do work* *getting really invested in "weird" media*

[justanotherautisticblog]

[justanotherautisticblog]

What an autistic person says: "How long is it going to take?"

What they mean: "I want to know whether to activate my short term waiting mode where I just wait and do nothing else, or activate my long term waiting mode where I occupy my mind with something else. I fully understand that both are possibilities, and I have no problem whatsoever with either one, but I want more information so I can best adapt to the situation."

What neurotypical people hear: "I am impatient and demand that everything I want happen right now. Please scold me and publicly humiliate me for it."

[justanotherautisticblog]

Trying

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[justanotherautisticblog]

I have a short fuse when it comes to things like this. They’ll be too loud or something and I’d snap and tell them to stop…

Neurodivergent Girl

[justanotherautisticblog]

Sometimes it feels like everyone around me is speaking in a secret language and I'm the only one who doesn't know it.

[justanotherautisticblog]

Hello hello

Just wanted to share the Norwegian Major-general and military mascot Sir Nils Olav III. He is a penguin. He is the highest ranked penguin in the army, and I think more people should know about him. He makes me happy. I hope he makes you happy too.

Thank you for your time, have a good day.

He makes me happy too.

[justanotherautisticblog]

me when i wanna talk about my special interests but i got the vampire autism where you gotta invite me to talk about smth first, otherwise i wont say shit or dont know what to say because i feel like im annoying

[justanotherautisticblog]

i feel like a lot of the 'i hate kids' crowd would be more tolerant if they understood that due to a kid's limited experience of the world that 4 hour flight might just be the longest they've ever had to sit still for or that trapped finger might literally be the most pain they've ever felt in their short life or they might not have ever seen a person with pink hair ever so of course they want to touch it or nobody's told them yet that they can't run around the museum and they only just learned cheetahs are the fastest animals so of course they want to put that to the test. how were they supposed to know etc etc.

[justanotherautisticblog]

It's not that I don't want to visit, it just wasn't on the list I made in my head

[justanotherautisticblog]

I saw a funny post by @emergentdivergence and just HAD to do something with it.

I’m sure most of my followers at least will be just fine. 😉

[Image description:

A 4 panel cartoon by Autball, done in collaboration with David Gray-Hammond.

1: A Red/Purple figure with gray glasses and a lip ring says, “April is Autism Acceptance Month, and you know what that means…”

2: A bunch of NT and ND figures stand all together (some looking happy, some looking not bothered, and some looking quite bothered indeed) while Red/Purple continues offscreen with, “Anyone not accepted by an Autistic person before April 30th will be yeeted into the sun.”

3: Close up of Red/Purple who says, “But don’t worry…”

4: Red/Purple continues, “We’ll only make you work as hard for our acceptance as we’ve had to work for yours.” To the left is a yellow/gold figure holding three heavy books entitled Autistic Communication, Unlearning Ableism, and Masking. To the right is a light blue/blue figure holding three more heavy books entitled Stimming, Autistic Social Skills, and Neurodiversity 101.]

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Autism is a Spectrum, but Not Like This

Lil Penguin Studios/Autism Happy Place

[justanotherautisticblog]

Quick someone show this to all the old shrinks who “didn’t want to label” us