neurovoid

[neurovoid]

the stars and the universe love you

[neurovoid]

people just being casual fans of my special interests drives me SO insane like how are you not as obsessed with this thing as i am but also please do not become as obsessed because this is my thing and it can't be your thing too

[neurovoid]

I think people need to use the word sincere more when talking about autistic people. Blunt, straightforward, taking things literally, those words don't always work to describe how autistic people express themselves. But in my experience, it's always sincere.

[neurovoid]

no but we gotta talk about how the way y’all reduce “neurodivergent” to just mean autism and adhd erases and harms other neurodivergent groups. neurodivergency encompasses SO many different conditions like ocd, schizospec disorders (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, etc), personality disorders, bipolar disorder, tourette’s, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and countless others. we all have a lot of experiences in common but all of these groups have their unique experiences as well. however, when neurodivergency and the oppression neurodivergent people face is discussed in online spaces, all of these other conditions barely get acknowledged. yes, our experiences aren’t all the same but we do have lots of things in common and it feels both frustrating and othering to see that get dismissed. when you say “neurodivergent” when you only mean autism and adhd you erase other nd groups from their own community by not taking their experiences into account. 

a lot of these conditions are already heavily demonized and othered, and seeing us be erased from our own community is hurtful. often we get treated as if the oppression we face based on our neurodivergency isn’t as severe as the oppression autistic people and people with adhd face based on their neurodivergency. the notion that the oppression we face is not as severe actively harms us because it dismisses our struggles and therefore enables our oppression.

please make sure to keep other neurodivergent conditions in mind when you talk about neurodivergency and don’t just reduce it to mean autism and adhd

[neurovoid]

anyways can we start recognizing adhd as an actual and serious disorder that

can affect on functioning in every day life so badly that it interferes with taking care of very basic human needs

is not 10 yrs old white boy exclusive disorder

is not a fake disorder created to benefit medicine companies

definitely should not be reduced to “kid who cant sit still and wont stop screaming” stereotypes because adhd has a whole fuckton of symptoms ranging from serious memory issues to fine motor control difficulties

[neurovoid]

Congratulations! Today, you get to learn the difference between memory and recall. There is an important difference, and understanding that difference will make you a better ally to the disabled community and also more understanding of your own brain!

What is memory?

Memory is the information your brain has stored for later. Let's make an analogy: your memory can be compared to files stored on a computer. Your brain is extremely complex and has a deep, layered filing system.

When your roommate's friend visits and introduces herself, you put her name in one of the many name folders. Our brains are complex enough that we can assume there are thousands of those folders, each for a different type of name and how you know it: friend names, immediate family names, extended family names, classmate names, coworker names, celebrity names, and so on and so forth, forever.

What is recall?

Recall is not whether you have something stored, but whether you can find it. Like that photo of you at summer camp in sixth grade that's stored somewhere on your computer, the information you learn throughout daily life is sorted somewhere into your brain's filing system. The longer ago that you put the information into the system, the harder it is to find, unless you frequently visit those files.

For the average instance of recall, people generally use the equivalent of the search bar of their brain's filing system. The information is sorted precisely so it's, naturally, recalled in the blink of an eye.

However, you may have had moments of recall issues. Everyone does here and there. The sensation of a word being on the tip of your tongue is a common example of issues with recall. You know the word, but it's just not coming up when you search for it.

In instances like these, you end up kind of manually rooting around in your brain's folders, desperately looking for associated folders that it might have been mis-stored in. You're trying to think of a vegetable you know of, so you start listing off other vegetables to yourself, as if sifting through the vegetable folder.

Sometimes, this association game can bring forth the missing file - or in this case, vegetable name. In other cases, you simply have to let it go and wait for it to come to you later. That might mean you smacking your forehead 48 hours later when you're in the middle of driving to work and the name of that vegetable suddenly throws itself right in the middle of your internal monologue.

Recall and disability

So, what does this have to do with disability? Well, the average person may have occasional recall issues, but for many disabled people, these issues are extremely prevalent. For neurodivergent folks or those with brain fog, we can end up having trouble recalling things many times in a day. It is extremely frustrating and can even be embarrassing in social situations.

For example, your roommate's friend, who you've hung out with on multiple occasions and heard numerous stories about might drop by six months later and you might stand there trying to avoid talking while you scramble desperately through your name files trying to recall her name when you know it's in there somewhere. It's a real life reproduction of that scene in SpongeBob where he only knows how to be a waiter. By the time she addresses you, it's too little too late and you have to admit that for some reason her name is evading you. It's humiliating.

Be understanding of recall issues

These issues have little to do with how important something is to a person. If you know someone who's disabled and they have frequent issues recalling words or names, it's just because the search function in their brain sometimes breaks down and they have to rely on manually digging through the billions of memories they have to try and find what they're looking for.

If you know someone with this issue who is comfortable with it, try filling in the gaps for them! It can be a fun bonding experience, especially between two people with recall issues, to immediately offer a word that seems to fit the flow of the sentence as soon as the other starts to draw a blank. The better you know them, the easier it is.

If you know someone with recall issues, be patient when they use you as a living thesaurus. You're saving them countless hours of googling or agonizing over what that word was - you know, the one that's like willingly suffering for an extended period of time about something that may or may not matter? (I just had issues recalling 'agonizing' 😔)

Anyway, that's all for today! I hope you've all learned something new about recall and how it affects people with disabilities differently/more frequently than the average person

[neurovoid]

I just booked an appointment with my GP to discuss getting an official autism diagnosed and I’m really scared 😫 what if they say I don’t have autism or refuse to even refer me for a proper assessment? When I was a teenager (I’m 25 now) I got assessed and he said “you have lots of autistic traits but I don’t want to label you” and didn’t officially diagnose me, but I’m pretty much 100% sure I am autistic and an official diagnosis would help so much! But I’m still worried that they’ll say I’m not autistic 😕 I’ve been a self diagnosed as autistic for so long, but what if I was wrong? This is one thing I’ve been so sure about because it explains so much and I feel like I’d feel incredibly lost and confused if they say I’m not

It's so sad that professionals would rather us to go our lives feeling this confusion in order to save us from being "labelled". They don't understand that autism isn't a label. It's the answer.

Seeking a diagnosis is scary. I remember the feeling very well.

If I can guide you to this wonderful post by My Autistic Soul on Facebook. It's a generic guide to seeking a diagnosis in 6 steps and what to expect. It's not perfect, and different countries and systems may mean a different approach, but it will give you an idea of what to look for and what to argue with.

[neurovoid]

Bigender dysphoric culture is wanting to medically transition but also not. I'm male and female and sometimes I want to transition, other times I don't. It doesn't help that I'm also a system and everyone in the system has their own ideas on if they want to transition or not. Its just,,, so confusing

Dysphoric culture is!

Also, yeah multigender identities (and plurality) can make transitioning complicated.

[neurovoid]

When you’re autistic and one of your special interests is literally learning about autism.

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“The worst thing in the world can happen, but the next day the sun will come up. And you will eat your toast. And you will drink your tea.”

— Rhian Ellis

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[neurovoid]

You are not alone. There are people who understand you. There are people who enjoy your company. There are people who care about you, people who love you, people who respect you.

You may feel alone right now. And that's okay. Just know that you won't always feel this way. There are people out there that want you to be happy. Because you deserve to be happy.

[neurovoid]

could you please explain what is meant by abnormal body language in the dsmv? i cant thimk of examples for what thats trying to say :(

Types of "abnormal body language":

Avoiding eye contact

Limp arms or crossed arms without understanding it's context in social situations (ie, it's seen as boredom or hostility)

Turning away from people in order to concentrate on what they're saying

Sitting in odd positions (I'm typing this whilst curled up like a croissant on my sofa, at an angle my hips will be angry about later)

T-Rex/raptor/rat arms

Flat affect (no facial expressions)

There's more, but that's just off the top of my head. 😊

[neurovoid]

Can I still have a cluster b pd if my "childhood trauma" doesn't seem all that bad when I look back on it, just abnormal? Maybe I'm just thinking it's not as bad as others and therefore it's kind of "invalid" but I'm not sure.

I'm gonna say thats most likely u invalidating ur own struggles

literally all abuse victims go through that peroid of being like "but it wasn't actually that bad it was xyz so I shouldn't be affected" but its never true.

esp for childhood abuse. u were at a time when u were at ur most vulnerable and things have the biggest impact. so many things that seems "small" to us now as adults were hugely impactful to us as children

even things that weren't malicious or weren't violent can deeply affect us into our adulthood and mess with our brains. if ur dealing with those repercussions as an adult than that means what u went thru impacted u, it was traumatic and it changed u and that's enough

there is no threshold abuse has to meet to be "bad enough" if it affected u then it affected u and ur allowed to claim that experience and validate urself so u can heal

[neurovoid]

Hey, unpopular opinion, apparently. But people don’t just “have pain for no reason” doctors say this all the time (especially to women and chronically ill people) and the truth is, Thats literally not possible. Even if your pains are psychosomatic (a word I hesitate to even use because of the way its used so often) there is a reason you are having those pains whether its mental illness, abuse, etc. If your doctor consistently tells you that “well some people just have pain for no reason” get a new doctor. That’s a doctor who is not going to give a shit what your actual symptoms or experiences are.

[neurovoid]

I'm enby/transmasc, but I'm so scared to come out as such because I feel like everyone in my life will stop seeing me as Me, and only see my transness/queerness. Like I want to change my name and I have new pronouns but I'll still be the same person. I just know that even though I feel the same about myself, everyone else will change how they act around and talk about me, and it makes me so sad.

[neurovoid]

autistic person watching anything: wow this character is so autistic