#autism is autism

[brightlotusmoon]

Via the Facebook Page for The Ed Wiley Autism Acceptance Library from 2020.

A lot of times, what is seen as "irrational" or rigid or "obsessive" behavior in autistic people is actually related to intense anxiety caused by repeated sensory trauma, inaccessibility and ableism.

Image Description:

Purple cartoon narwhal on a turquoise blue background.

White text reads:

“Many autistic people experience intense anxiety that looks very different from social anxiety*

*This is not intended to minimize what people with social anxiety experience, but to illustrate the differences in how many (but not all) autistic people experience a different kind of anxiety as a protective skill in an ableist world!

Text framed in light gray reads:

Autistic Anxiety:

-is not the same as "negative thinking" or over thinking or worrying

-has physical symptoms such as difficulty breathing or concentrating & increased heart rate

-can be related to anticipating overwhelming & painful sensory experiences that we are unable to avoid a lot of the time

-can be related to fear of being misinterpreted, tone policed or being harshly judged & even punished for communication differences

-having your access needs constantly overlooked or ignored leads to increased anxiety

-telling an autistic person that "anxiety is lying" to them feels like gaslighting behavior

-in some situations, what is called anxiety can be seen as a tool to help us navigate & prepare for a world that is not kind or accessible to autistic people

neurodiversitylibrary.org

[youmegravity]

I need people to understand that sometimes autism is just this

[snakeautistic]

People underestimate how much it fucks you up to be subtly excluded as a kid. I would try to talk to my classmates and be met with disinterest or annoyance. The one friend I had, who I clung to and nodded along to his every word, had other friends he liked just as much or more. And his other friends didn’t care for me at all.

I look back at pictures from the time and see how separated I was from them. I remember knowing I was different. I remember posing questions about the world to the girls playing next to me and realizing that they had never asked the same ones to themselves. That the ways we thought couldn’t be more different.

I kept myself amused with my own fanatical stories and musings in my head. I would wander the playground on a circular path, imagining a friend and being sorely disappointed when it didn’t feel as real as I’d hoped.

There was a bubble separating me from everyone else, thin, and nearly invisible, but with a pearly sheen you could catch under the right conditions. I knew it was there, they knew it was there, and it changed me

[kleefkruid]

I was typing an entire post about food issues and why I don't like wet food, until I remembered that unlike in Dutch, 'wet food' has a specific meaning in English. Just straight up deleted everything bc all I could see myself as was

[mysillycomics]

[angelicgarnet]

the way people online talk about autism is getting really weird, like do they know that neurotypicals still have interests? that someone being passionate about a hobby doesn't mean they're autistic? you guys know that right

[zmpl]

If you don’t know your score, take the test here

[runawaycarouselhorse]

Please help the family of a non-verbal autistic child (who has been losing weight because he only eats certain kinds of food, largely unavailable during this time) leave Gaza!

[thund3randrain]

when the autism is being an actual mental health problem instead of making me obsess over fictional characters again:

[pigeon-cave]

Diagrams are helpful to me

[brightlotusmoon]

All Cats are on the Autism Spectrum (Updated Version) | Welcome

I just got this and will start reading it soon. I'm grateful they dropped the Asperger's, considering that it's not only outdated and full of eugenics, it's not a thing: Autism is autism. Our spectrum isn't a line, it's a circle. It's an infinity knot. A Mobius strip. It's our state of being. We're cats. Well, most of us!

[magentasnail]

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

[etherealspacejelly]

me when the disability disables me: oh what the fuck? this sucks. what the hell man!

[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

[bugboi-connor]

If u interact with my posts, just know I respond like this:

[neurotypicalabusesurvivor]

This is a friendly reminder that none disabled people often do benefit from the same accommodations disabled people benefit from.