#asd

[mysterioussinkhole]

Hey just a general PSA from someone officially diagnosed and documented:

Now is not the time to seek out an autism diagnosis.

RFK's plans have been made very clear and any diagnosis you do get will get you put on this "national disease registry" they're proposing.

Trust me when I say I completely understand the need for accommodations and a better understanding of yourself, but if you have gone this long without being diagnosed, you will be better off waiting.

Furthermore, listen to and advocate for folks who are diagnosed, especially folks with higher support needs. They'll be the first ones targeted for whatever bullshit "experimental treatments" the government tries to push.

Stay safe and look out for your neighbor.

[magentasnail]

served my duty as an autistic artist and made a bunch of autism creature reaction images

[noodle-shenaniganery]

I hate how often some (typically abled) people will go “well, if you can’t [get a specific support], then what?” when it comes to disabilities. As if it’s a “gotcha” moment. And then act like you’re exaggerating when you answer that question honestly.

Disabled people often die from a lack of support. A lot of disability aids are not a luxury, but a basic need in order to live.

“Well what happens if—” people die. People hurt themselves. People hurt others. Disabled people don’t magically become abled if our needs aren’t met.

If a bedbound quadriplegic is caught in a housefire, and there’s nobody there to save them, they’ll probably die. They won’t magically become able-bodied out of sheer will.

If a nonspeaking/nonverbal autistic is denied access to alternative methods of communication, they’ll suffer in silence. They won’t spontaneously become capable of speech.

Disabled people are disabled all the time. Our disabilities don’t go away just because they’re inconvenient, or if we’re in danger.

[thetrashthatsmilesback]

if your response to "diagnosed autistics in the US are having HIPPA violated to have their names put on a list by the government" is "so happy i was never diagnosed!"... then you are actually not helping in the slightest.

most of us with diagnoses were diagnosed as children, we didn't get a choice. and now we are getting put on a list, with those who are high support needs facing the most danger from said lists.

rubbing it in our faces that you won't be on said list is hurtful. its not funny. its not cute.

[abigails-ear]

Only been watching The Pitt for a few days but Mel King is THE best autistic character ever written in a medical drama. She doesn't "make connections no one else can" or "just see things differently" or any other Savant with Special Abilities stereotypical bullshit, she's a resident physician who's exactly as intelligent and capable as any other resident physician in the same year. She hates unnecessary yelling because it's loud and annoying, not because she's completely incapable of handling conflict. She usually keeps her stimming subtle enough to hide but sometimes she can't. She loves having a furry critter to pet. She accommodates an autistic patient by lowering the lights and closing the doors because she understands the sensory nightmare of an active medical setting. She speaks in a straightforward and honest way but she isn't an overtly rude inconsiderate asshole. She misses some jokes and takes things too literally on occasion but she does have a sense of humor and she is funny. She speaks up against misinformation and parent panic about autism and other developmental disabilities. She has emotions. She looks at a video of a lava lamp on her phone to chill. Doctor Mel King you have my entire heart

[unofficial-autism-post]

Unofficial Autism Post

[bipolarmango]

My doctor and therapist: now with this autism + ADHD diagnosis you need to learn to unmask because masking all the time will make you burn out again and feel like shit

Other people: well it's just interesting how after getting the diagnosis you suddenly start behaving like that I mean I'm not saying you're faking it's just funny how you suddenly cannot be normal like you were before

[elviraaxen]

I made this a long time ago but for some reason never posted! It is my quick guide to protecting yourself against burnout as a person with ADHD and ASD.

Of course it is all about meeting your support needs at the end of the day, which are completely individual and may vary over time, but this could function as a guide if you have a hard time figuring out where to start! 🫶🏻 💙💙💙

[feather-bone]

[ID: An illustration in watercolor depicting an anthropomorphic wolf from the waist up, surrounded by multicolored shapes. Its paws are up in dinosaur pose and it is in profile facing to the left. End.]

A Drawing About How It Feels To Be In The Grocery Store

[aimlesspoet]

a bottom-tier autistic experience is being told throughout your entire childhood that you are just an overthinker when it comes to social situations and later finding out that your friends did, in fact, hate being around you and tried to communicate that through weird little hints

[pigeon-cave]

Yeah

[awesometrollingman10]

Understanding the Spectrum

[Image ID:

Understanding The Spectrum. An arrow points to a masculine-presenting character, reading “Introduced by Archie!” Archie is holding his hands together. His eyebrows are raised, and he’s not making eye contact2 with the reader. He has small, oval-shaped glasses; his short hair is parted down the middle, and he wears a shirt with a folded collar over long pants. Throughout the comic, Archie does not make eye contact with the reader2 and does not open his mouth. Dialogue bubbles from Archie read, “Language can be confusing for me. It takes me longer than the average person to process conversations. And although I am good at making conversation, it can take me longer than normal to respond.” Next image. Archie holds up a finger to make a point, but he’s looking down at the floor2. His mouth is closed. He says, “But, neurotypical people find language confusing too. And it can lead to some people misperceiving who I am.” Plaintext reads, “I hear alot of people misinterpreting or misusing the term ‘autism spectrum’. So for Autism Acceptance week, I decided to make a comic to help explain the term and how it affects things. Archie is one of the reasons I became so interested/knowledgeable in autism (I like to go all out in research when I write characters for comics n such) so he’s the one presenting everything! The rest of the comic is under the cut, because I don’t want to spam ^^;” Next image. Archie appears confident. He raises his eyebrows, closes his eyes, and raises his pointer finger higher. His mouth is in the shape of an upside-down V. He says, “That is why I would like to explain what is meant by ‘spectrum’ when we talk about the ‘autistic spectrum’”.

Next image. Archie says, “Sometimes when people think of this word, they think of the autism spectrum as being like this:” He points up at a spectrum in the shape of a line. The spectrum ranges from a pink “Not autistic” point on the left to a purple “Very autistic” label on the right. He says, “A very linear ‘spectrum’ which gives the impression that people range from being ‘a little autistic’ to ‘very autistic’.” On the other side of the image, Archie changes to a questioning pose and says, “Hm. How can you be ‘a little autistic’? It’s that vague language that I always find confusing.”

Next image. Archie is being held up by his shirt by a giant hand, with the forearm out of frame. Archie dangles over the same “line” spectrum as before, from pink to purple. The hand looks like it’s deciding where to place Archie on the spectrum. Archie says, “The problem with thinking of the spectrum in this way, is that a perception of an autistic person also becomes linear.” The person on the other side of the hand says, “You’re only a little autistic, Archie.” Archie says, “Hm. I still don’t understand, can you be less vague?” The hand says, “You’re able to have a normal conversation with me and act pretty normal! You’re not severely autistic.”

Next panel. Archie still does not make eye contact with the reader. He puts his hands up to the sides of his head, “...And so you see, if someone thinks you’re on a ‘low end’ of this spectrum, this often happens:” Next panel: The hand’s forearm is still out of frame. The hand pushes Archie toward hand-drawn words on the right side. Each hand-drawn word has a font choice that is either intimidating, confusing, hard-to-read, disorganized, or a combination of each. The person with the hand says, “Archie, you can handle all of this just fine, you’re not that autistic.” From top to bottom, each hand-drawn phrase reads, “New situations.” “Too much noise.” “Lack of routine.” “Smart” in all caps. “Tight clothing.” “Loud conversations, all at once.”1 “Don’t stim” in all caps. “Don’t fidget.” “Be more organized!”

Next image. Archie bobs his head back and forth and covers his ears in distress. He has speech bubbles, bordered with increasing squiggliness that read, “Ah.” “Ahh-” “Aah!” “Aaah!” Text behind him in all caps is covered beneath the other text on the screen. Orange speech bubbles from off-screen read, “How can you be tired? Everyone does this every day. You’re just being lazy.” Another bubble reads, “Wow you’re being so over dramatic, get over it!”

Next panel. The same hand holds Archie up by his shirt over the same linear spectrum from “not autistic” to “very autistic.” The person with the hand says, “Woah, you’re more autistic than I thought. I’m gonna re-label you on this spectrum…Since you’re very autistic, I don’t think you should have a job, just to be safe, y’know?” Archie still does not make eye contact, and speaks to the reader, “And if you’re seen as being on the ‘high end’ of this spectrum – it can lead to some people labeling you as being incapable of doing anything at all.”

Next image. Archie has a confident posture. He says, “The truth is though, someone who is neurodiverse in some areas of their brain, will also be no different to your average person in other areas of their brain.” He is holding his hand out to a circular graph of the autism spectrum: “You see, the autistic spectrum looks something more like this.” The circular graph looks like a color map, with each color corresponding to different phrases that surround it. Next image. Archie is pointing up at the same color map, still not making eye contact2 with the reader. Arrows point to different coordinates on the circular graph. An arrow points to the phrases that surround the circle: “The spectrum consists of many different ‘traits’ or way in which the brain processes information.” These traits are, “language,” “motor skills,” “sensory,” “executive function,” and “perception.” Another arrow points at a coordinate in the “motor skills” category, closer – lower – to the center: “Some traits create difficulties in everyday life (hence being diagnosed).” A third arrow points somewhere farther – higher – than the center: “But also many traits are useful in everyday life.”

Next panel. Archie says, “Each person with autism will have a set of traits all in different areas of the spectrum. The areas where they don’t have a trait will function no differently to a neurotypical brain, but may be affected by circumstances. For example, I am good at making conversation (language), but I get sensory overload in loud and crowded spaces, which then makes conversation very hard for me.”

Archie says, “And so, another autistic person might be very happy in loud crowds, but find conversation hard in general.” Archie is pointing at an example of an autistic person. They are holding the color map like they’re turning a wheel. Their eyes are closed, but they’re still facing the audience. They look happy. They say, “You could say I’m just a real ‘party animal’!”

Next panel. Archie holds his hands together like he doesn’t know what to do with his hands2. He continues not to make eye contact with the audience2. He says, “You can see with this spectrum then, that not every autistic person has ‘savant skills’. Or that someone who can’t communicate verbally might still understand what you’re saying, but just need a different way to communicate, such as sign language.” Next panel. Archie holds up a finger to make a point, but it looks like he doesn’t know what to do with his other hand2. He says, “It shows how not every autistic person acts the same way, and we are all capable of varying strengths and weaknesses.”

Next image. Archie smiles and holds his hands close to himself, in an expression of hope. He says, “Sometimes, if someone is diagnosed as being ‘on the spectrum’, and informs another person of this, it’s so that they can get some understanding and respect for the things they are unable to do. But, it is also so that they can cooperate with the world around them- so that they can be the best in the things they can do.

Next panel. Archie continues looking hopeful, and holds the color wheel in his hands. “I hope that in the future, people will better understand the term ‘spectrum’ and continue to respect the differences and similarities we all share in how we experience the world.”

What follows is the plaintext at the bottom of the post: Last but not least, some explanation for anyone unfamiliar with some of the language used...

Neurotypical = the majority/average brain, in context to this a non-autistic person

Neurodiverse = the opposite, but some people use this term to refer to more then just autism, things such as dyslexia, adhd etc.

savant skills = being extremely good in one area of thinking, I guess the most common one is being extremely good at math and having a perfect memory.

Also, my depiction of ‘the spectrum’ is simplified (to be used as a starting point/simple explanation), if you look into it there are alot of different traits or factors that make up the spectrum!

Edit: Loads of people have asked if they can have a print version of this comic so they can share around schools/family/friends, so here’s a high quality print version (pdf):

I fixed the spelling mistakes too, thank you for pointing them out XD Thank you sooo much for sharing around, I’m real happy the comic has been helpful/been so well received!

./End image ID]

Image ID’er’s notes: 1 This phrase is hard to read. 2 Another classic symptom of ASD.

Understanding The Spectrum

I hear alot of people misinterpreting or misusing the term ‘autism spectrum’. So for Autism Acceptance week, I decided to make a comic to help explain the term and how it affects things. Archie is one of the reasons I became so interested/knowledgeable in autism (I like to go all out in research when I write characters for comics n such) so he’s the one presenting everything! The rest of the comic is under the cut, because I don’t want to spam ^^;

Keep reading

[nerdyrevelries]

"autistic people don't pay taxes" factoid actualy just statistical error. average autistic person pays their taxes every year. Elon Musk, who uses autism to justify Nazi salutes & loopholes his way out of millions in taxes, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

[the-moon-loves-the-sea]

I have a lot of neurodivergent kids in my family. And I’ve worked with a lot professionally. And I often see their parents think the kids don’t want to connect, when they would love to — they just want to do it differently.

If they don’t like jokes and teasing, they might like silly noises or yes-and improv.

If they don’t like playing a competitive or narrative game with toys, they might like to take apart a toy, or sort/stack/line toys up, or get buried under toys.

If they don’t like biking or walking a trail in the woods ‘properly,’ they might like to walk along fallen logs, stand in the creek or look under rocks and leaves for creatures.

If they don’t like hugs and cuddles, they might like to bump shoulders, touch fingers, hand hug, spin around together, or (if they like more intense input) wrestle, push faces together, squeeze each other hard or run into you.

If they don’t like putting on kids’ music in the car or to dance to, they might want to listen to a game or show soundtrack, nature noises, a podcast, binaural beats, house music or metal.

If they don’t like animated movies where sad or scary things happen, they might like younger kids’ gentler shows, or adults’ science and history shows, or live zoo and nature cams.

And so many of them would benefit so much from the adults just slowing down. Not scheduling so much in the day, not rushing them through an activity, not stopping them playing the same song or watching the same bug for an hour, letting them absorb everything their way. Seeing it as a meditation instead of a problem. Joining them there.

And if you were one of those kids being rushed and scolded, trying to make yourself like teasing or competition or intense movies or a full social schedule — I’ve been reparenting myself and you can too. Whenever you notice something isn’t giving you joy — you can do it differently. Not everyone is forcing themselves through things they hate for “fun,” and we don’t have to.