#autism self-help

[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! 🫶🏻 💙💙💙

[pixieverse-icedtea]

i wanna go back and hug my younger self so bad, that little girl went through so much

[evilesbiautism]

The most common argument you'll hear against self diagnosis is that people will fake being [X] for attention. But every disabled person, physical or otherwise, knows this could only work in online spaces - the world was not made for us, and brandishing your disability as a badge of honor that gives you ~special privileges~ is such a funny idea.

Like, honey - that doesn't happen. No one gets anything from being disabled. Maybe extra accommodations if you're lucky - but nothing else. And the internet isn't as important as you seem to think - eventually it just feels hollow.

Ask disabled people how often they had to fight to get diagnosed so their medical needs could be met and their complaints would be heard. Doctors are just hardwired to delay this as much as possible.

I knew I was autistic since late 2018 - I got an official diagnosis 4 months ago. Knowing yourself and how you can make your own life easier is a lifesaver.

And this isn't even going into how many *cons* there are to a professional diagnosis, like being met with disdain at best and denied services at worst.

I don't care if a 16 year old who self diagnosed after taking 1 online quiz about autism is wrong. And honestly I think it's weird people treat this 'issue' with so much hatred.

[totallynotneurodivergent]

If someone could just tell me how to function properly that would be great thanks. I feel like I’ve been winging it forever nd honestly this is not easy

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Undiagnosed Autism

Autism Parenting + Wellbeing

[captainlevi06]

When you are overwhelmed:

Find a quieter place

I find it helpful to go outside or on a short walk, possibly with some soft music or white noise.

Getting away from loud or overlapping sounds helps immensely

I also prefer dimmer lights or natural lighting when possible.

Hydrate

Water is essential for all bodily functions, including sensory and emotional regulation.

Have your preferred water bottle with you and sip slowly. Add flavouring or ice if desired

Eat something

Again, taking care of your needs is key

If possible, get a small snack and eat slowly. My system usually keeps oyster crackers with us. They’re bland but have a good amount of salt which is important for us, as we have POTS

Most of our overstimulation is caused by being hungry and not realising it

Identify irritating clothing

Is an article of clothing too tight? Are you too cold or too warm? Is something itching?

Once you’ve identified anything that’s uncomfortable, make any adjustments you can that will remedy the issue

These solutions don’t have to be conventional to be effective. Flipping socks inside out can prevent you from feeling the seams. Dabbing cool water on your wrist and/or ankles can help cool you down.

Stimming

Stimming, or self-stimulatory behaviour, can help calm you down.

Safely stimming can include tapping your fingers, chewing gum, rocking back and forth etc.

There are also stim toys and chewable necklaces for this purpose. I have recommendations if anyone needs them

Identify and Devise a Solution

What led you to feeling overwhelmed?

Write down, either physically or digitally, what caused this and start to plan a solution

If it is a problem with completing a task, We use an app called Goblin Tools. It’s free on the website and the app is $0.99, neither of which have ads. It has a to do list that uses AI to break down your task into steps. It also has a feature to identify tone in writing among other things.

Break down your plan into small, manageable pieces. You don’t need to do everything right now.

Final steps

Communicate your needs to others. If you need to adjust your environment or tasks to accommodate your needs, tell others clearly what you need and how they can help

Breathe. You’re going to be okay. You are not a failure for needing to take a break. You are not a failure for being unable to take on everything at once.

You’ve got this

- Levi

[ed-recoverry]

Self harm is when you are sad, numb, overwhelmed, and or want attention so you…

Purposefully cut your skin.

Purposefully punch, scratch, burn, hit, or disfigure your skin.

Self harm is ALSO when you are sad, overwhelmed, numb, and or want attention so you…

Drink for the sole purpose of getting drunk.

Take drugs (especially for the sole purpose of getting high).

Drive while intoxicated.

Swim while intoxicated.

Speed while driving.

Purposefully put yourself in danger.

Sabotage your relationships.

Purposefully have unsafe sex (choosing no condoms, not testing, etc).

Get in physical altercations.

Pull your hair.

Pull your hair out.

Pick at your nails till they bleed.

Reopen scabs.

Gamble a lot of money.

Starve yourself.

Eat so much that you throw up.

Eat uncontrollably.

Self harm is any behavior that causes physical and or mental harm to cope. Whether physical scars are left behind makes no difference. Anyone who copes with harmful behaviors in response to negative emotions needs and deserves help. You deserve help.

[otterish]

A weird favor please...

I'm in a weird sort of bind... You see, I'm autistic, and along with that, I have narcolepsy and misophonia. What does this fucked up collection of weirdness mean? It means I am very sensitive to sound (The misophonia and the autism), and I have seizures that are triggered by stress and the tension headaches I get because of my spinal fusion.

Why all this info? You see, I have a lovely little MP3 player loaded with the most perfect white noise that is guaranteed to calm me down. It takes corded headphones, which is great because I can never find any bluetooth buds that fit in my ears. I have a birth defect that makes it nigh impossible to find any that fit. I did find some amazing corded earbuds though! They are the JVC Gummy in ear earbuds, and I've been using them for over 10 years. They only last about a year or two, but they are like 9 bucks and fit perfectly. Here is an amazon link so you can see what I mean: https://a.co/d/0drGMzDN

The thing is... I can barely afford food (We were on SNAP but they fucked everything up. AGAIN!), let alone the earbuds I need. One of my main misophonia triggers is anyone snoring, mouth breathing, and even sometimes just breathing normally. My husband snores really loud, and tends to have a stuffy nose a lot, so I cannot sleep in the same room with him if I don't have my headphones. If I had to, I would find something sharp and puncture my ear drums. It causes that much anxiety that I sincerely want to lose my hearing.

I'm down to my last pair of headphones, and when I couldn't find them at first I had a severe melt down. I wear them to bed due to my husband snoring, and I want to stay near him. I sometimes rest my hand on his back to feel him breathe, and when I wake up screaming due to nightmares, he always wakes up and holds me until I stop crying.

I know this is a long post just to ask for earbuds, but they work best for me and my sanity depends on them. If you can, I'd love it if you were able to slide one or two my way. I'm not picky on color, so my amazon wish list link is here: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/GTTJGT54GKDN

If you want another way, my cashtag is $JustAddOtter.

THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE! My disability case is still going slowly through the pipes, plus when it goes through I'm going to have to pay $85 out of pocket for some blue lenses which will help with the seizures.

Also, may the assholes who removed headphone jacks from phones always have angry wasps land in their ears.

TL;DR: I need new headphones to help with my disability.

BTW, no guilt in not donating or even not reblogging but I would appreciate a sage nod of understanding when you read this.

EDIT: Thank you to those pointing out that my wishlist wasn't working properly, it's all fixed!

[natt-writes]

~7 tips for stay focused while writing.~

1. Make sure to drink lots of water/tea and have a healthy meal shortly before. This will help to nourish your brain, which in turn will help you to write and stay focused.

2. Find a calm, comfortable location. Stay away from places with lots of sounds and distractions, instead try to find somewhere that you can relax and enjoy the writing process. It’s even better when the location has dim lights.

3. Exercise shorty before. just going on a walk down your street and back or going on the treadmill for five minutes can help to get rid of excess energy and make you less restless and distracted.

4. Set up a reward system. Maybe have a small piece of candy after every two sentences, watch an episode of tv every time you finish a paragraph, or do a fun activity after every chapter. This will help motivate you to finish up your work for the day.

5. Set a daily word count. Setting a daily word count can help you to feel like you’ve achieved your goals, even if they are small. Start with a couple hundred words each day and then work your way up to your desired amount. Checking how close you are to achieving your daily word count can help you to feel more more motivated and productive. (I use nanowrimo.org but you can use whatever work tracker you want!)

6. Listen to music. I like to listen to music that suits the tone of the chapter I’m writing, as it can help you to feel more immersed and focused. It’s best to listen to the music on a lower volume so that it doesn’t overwhelm you and just blends into the background.

7. Be gentle with yourself. Not every day is going to be amazingly productive. Everyone has days where they are distracted or don’t get much work done. Don’t beat yourself up about it and instead try to relax, have a nice day and get a good nights sleep. You’re doing really great, You deserve to take a self care day!

[victorckk]

Advice for my fellow folks that are considering getting an autism/ADHD diagnosis whenever possible / self diagnosers who want to track their potential symptoms for whenever needed :

MAKE A GOOGLE DOC !!!

Put down any and all symptoms that you’ve noticed, that other people have noticed, etc.

Put down any childhood memories that could potentially have been symptoms, but were overlooked for whatever reason.

Color code that shit in any way you want. I personally color code by How Bad Said Thing Fucked Me Up -> How Bad Said Thing Caused Me To Mask Even More and so on.

Also add notes to different categories that you think might need some explaining (this could just be me overthinking things 9999 times worse than what I already do but it’s worth a shot). Highlight those things so they stand out from the questions.

Copy and paste Autism / ADHD assessment questions with the checkbox format and check off each one that fits you.

Put down how many you got out of total for each category.

Separate the pasted questions by Autism, ADHD, etc.

This way, you have proof that you can show your doctor, therapist, etc.

It also helps you understand yourself better along the way, and can also help you realize that a lot of things that you thought were normal kid things actually weren’t.

A few examples from my own Google Doc below (that took HOURS to make look less atrocious and clunky)

Feel free to make yours however you want, though!!! It’s entirely up to you as it’s YOUR Google Doc which also counts as a space just for you.

I just have a tendency to organize things in a way that aren’t messy or over decorated because it’s too much on my brain and eyes

Created this post to distract myself from a massive migraine that’s been torturing me for the past few days,, ghggghdbfbfbsgdvfbfbfb

[awetistic-things]

if you say you support self-diagnosed autistic people, you have to support them from the beginning to end, not just when they have a binder full of extensive research and are 80% closer to being diagnosed

if anything, the part where i think people need the most support is when they start questioning. because so often people go to other autistics for help and get brushed off due to the intense stigma around self-diagnosing which makes them even more likely to just give up on the whole thing

on top of that, a lot of people don’t have access to either the internet or credible sources on autism that can help them learn more. that’s why a more accepting community could be so beneficial, because so often we’re the only ones they got on their side, not only to relate to but to just be heard

[itssid2haha]

I hate Them really… like a lot.. They take up my mind completely 🤯

Jeg hader dem virkelig😡😡

[officialspec]

genuinely curious, and probably will agree but on your tags for the post about mental illness terms being used trivially you said that it’s basically impossible to self diagnosis dissociation- genuinely i want to know why you think that

my stance is that its pretty much impossible to distinguish dissociation from other potential symptoms in any meaningful way without professional guidance, for a few reasons:

for one, its a widely misunderstood symptom even in actual psychiatric circles, and on top of that any legitimate information you might be able to find is surrounded by 100 times more tumblr-infographic-style misinformation and for most people it is straight up impossible to tell the difference

you (general) might be inclined to think 'i know not to trust infographics i would be able to tell', but the sheer volume of misinformation has saturated the field so completely that its plastered on very official looking websites, and even some more trustworthy sources, so a discerning eye wont save anyone

the average person simply will not be able to sift through the hogwash to any legitimate resources without direction from someone who knows what theyre looking for, no matter how savvy they might be. no one is immune

if you do somehow manage to separate the wheat from the chaff, the next issue is that dissociation is a wildly nebulous human experience, and the way it presents overlaps with about one million other things that are all managed in completely disparate ways. a treatment for dissociation might make someones actual problem much worse, or drive them to hopelessness if it doesnt change their symptoms at all. its a huge risk that i just dont think is worth it

this answer is already long as hell but ending on the usual disclaimers that im aware diagnoses are prohibitively expensive and also i cant stop anyone from doing anything. but i will have opinions about it. as is my right

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Autistic Meltdowns

Neurodivergent_lou

[vibin-in-the-void]

reminder that just because you can handle stuff on the good days doesn't mean the bad days don't exist, you still deserve help even if you don't need it right now

[ed-recoverry]

Happy pride to religious LGBTQ+ folks.

It never doesn’t hurt to see religious people, especially possibly from your own religion, hate you for just existing. Staying true to yourself and keeping your faith while doing so is something to have pride about🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Muslims.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Jews.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Christians.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Hindus.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Buddhists.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Sikhs.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Shintoists.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Taoists.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Vodouists.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Spiritualists.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Shamanists.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Confucians.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Jains.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Baháʼís.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ Zoroastrians.

Happy pride to all LGBTQ+ religious folks.