#neurodivergent passion

[bruxoide]

DREW SPAMTON WITH STICK AND FIRE

[whomanist]

my theory is neurodiverse people also have anti special interest a thing that they just can't record any information about and listening about it makes us almost physically ill like you want to be out of your body and out of existence

[marzipanandminutiae]

she's a 10 but is she cool with allistic people being obsessively passionate about things, too? or people who haven't publicly given a category into which she can neatly slot their neurological state?

does she think people owe her a medical label to explain their "weird" aspects, whether it's helpful for them or not?

(applying labels to people who haven't self-identified with those labels is bad even if you phrase it as "omg bestie have you considered that you're definitely 100% autistic? #neurospicy :D")

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Embracing Neurodiversity: Autism and Collections

The Autistic Teacher

[intergalaactic]

i love the insane juxtaposition between how we talk about autism on tumblr vs on tiktok. on tiktok all everyone ever really discusses are the “easier” parts of autism, the “cute” ones like stimming, special interests and SOMETIMES, and HEAVY on the sometimes, they talk about the lack of tonal understanding and missing jokes and it’s like… dude that’s maybe 1/4 of what the Autism Experience™️ is… like i love tumblr bc we really talk about all the ugly parts on here like what is ACTUALLY means to go mute/nonverbal, or the daily struggles with hygiene and independence, the horrible feeling of knowing that you are fundamentally different from everyone around you and trying to mask but knowing they see through it and being compared to non human creatures to the point where you actually start feeling nonhuman!!! like okay missing the joke sometimes is annoying but yknow what’s worse? not being able to look after myself and knowing there’s a decently high chance that i’ll never be able to live alone. like i need tiktok autistic people to understand that in order for you to have autism, which is a disability, it does have to actually disable you first. i’m not saying that because they only post the “cuter” parts that they don’t have autism!! but like it’s an app full of teenagers and i feel the need to remind them that we all miss jokes sometimes, and we do all have interests and shows that we may really enjoy!! and that’s okay!!

but idk maybe i’m being bitter or smth i always get paranoid that i’m just being a hater but there’s not a single autistic person i know that hasn’t genuinely suffered bc of it in their lives whether it be in their social or personal or academic life. just a thought!!

[weird colours included bc huge chunks of text like this are gross to read otherwise lmfao]

[aroaceleovaldez]

in your most recent tyson post, you said something about leo being distinctly autistic-coded and I was wondering if you could elaborate on that? it sounds really interesting (sorry if you've already posted something on this, I couldn't find anything though)

Of course! I do have a specific tag for talking about Leo's autistic-coding/traits - [here], and [one for Nico as well].

The main aspects with Leo being autistic-coded actually have a lot to do with Nico being autistic-coded, because it's the comparisons between the two that most clearly indicate Leo is autistic-coded rather than it just being his ADHD or etc.

So with Nico being autistic-coded, it's very clear in the Titan's Curse that he's intended to be autistic. First, the first series has a repeating pattern of secondary characters being very distinctly neurodivergent-coded in different ways (Annabeth's adhd/dyslexia, Tyson's down syndrome-coding, Nico's autism-coding). With Nico's introduction, he's pretty stereotypically autistic and we're given a lot of descriptors about him that are notably not attributed to him being ADHD, like it would be for other demigod characters. He doesn't register social cues such as people getting annoyed at him, he's asking/making inappropriate or impolite questions/comments, he gets particularly upset about change (such as Bianca joining the Hunt) and generally gets emotional, and one of his most notable traits he's introduced with is the fact that he has a special interest (MythoMagic) - and we're shown that this special interest particularly colors how Nico navigates the world. While ADHD has hyperfixations, we don't really get much acknowledgement of hyperfixations with demigods usually - Annabeth gets a little, but most others don't and it's not nearly as focused-in on as Nico's is.

Then as the series continues we see these traits stick with him and him start to show or voice more traits that similarly indicate he's autistic: He regularly mentions how he doesn't understand living people and prefers the company of the dead (social issues). He has more notable stims than other demigods (twisting his ring, fiddling with bones, etc). He's indicated to have strong sensory preferences (usually wearing mostly black/aversion to bright colors, usually wearing layers/his coat, multiple times he's described as wearing loose/baggy clothing or clothes too big for him). He has specific comfort items (his ring, likely his jacket(s) as well). We later get even more information about his special interests (Mythomagic/mythology/history and an older interest in pirates - the latter he specifically notes likely heavily influenced his feelings towards Percy). He struggles with emotions and facial expressions and tone. He struggles particularly with ostracism and feeling like he doesn't fit in and has something distinctly different about him from the people around him (who notably, all have ADHD, which indicates it isn't the ADHD that's making him feel that way), and other characters regularly describe him as being off-putting because of his strange behaviors - again, different from specific ADHD traits they recognize. And that last point is kind of notable because we have Hazel and Bianca for comparison - we know people are off-put by both Nico and Hazel because of being children of Hades/Pluto and their powers/aura, but other characters get past that general feeling of discomfort way faster with Hazel. And even after characters get past the death stuff with Nico, there's a second thing that they aren't moving past that isn't a factor with Hazel (Nico's autism).

So that brings us to Leo - Leo is paralleled to Nico a lot. And there's some very specific traits about him that we know are autistic-coding because of how they're used with Nico: He similarly struggles with social cues/etc, and in a very similar parallel to Nico describes how he prefers the company of machines to people because machines make more sense to him. He has similar types of clothing/sensory preferences (again some stuff with layers but also - pockets! He likes having pockets and things to put stuff in! He's even introduced as having a jacket with lots of pockets), and he has a distinct special interest (machinery) that we specifically know heavily influences how he views and navigates the world (constantly comparing things to machinery, describing things with machinery metaphors/terminology, etc etc). He even describes his entire general worldview to Hazel and it's a machine metaphor. He also similarly struggles with ostracization like Nico does, the only difference being that Leo specifically puts on a persona to compensate for areas he knows he's lacking in and very explicitly describes it as a means to make people like him, because without it he normally struggles to fit in (He's masking!). We also see notes of characters describing that similar discomfort with Leo's behaviors that they do with Nico, except without the aura of death this time. And when we're in Leo's POVs we see a very stark difference between his masking and his actual personality/behaviors such as his internal dialogues or how he behaves when he's alone. Also, like Nico, he stims more than other demigods, though for Leo it's more attributed to his ADHD. Leo also, more often than most, similarly struggles with tone and reading the room, such as making misplaced jokes/comments or etc.

But yeah! It's really interesting. Also it's just a fun thing that ADHD/dyslexia and autism have comorbidity, so it makes sense that we see demigods who are also autistic. It's also really fun to look at how other characters are coded in the series, what coding looks like in the riordanverse specifically (usually it's tied into the mythological stuff - like Chiron being in a wheelchair but he's actually a centaur, Grover being introduced as having a muscular disease but he's actually a satyr, demigods having adhd/dyslexia, Tyson being coded as having down syndrome but he's a cyclops, etc etc - it's a lot of specific metaphor stuff that I've talked about a bit before), and to look at how characters are compared to one another.

[noodlehorsedoodles]

It’s giving… FASHION. ✨

[little-red-fool]

You ever see a famous person and you’re just thinking. There’s something undiagnosed about you.

[bipunkharrington]

People calling Eloise a self-absorbed, rude, entitled, privileged brat for being sheltered and extrovert flavoured neurodivergent coded then also saying she's not a "girls girl" my friend you're out here passionately hating girls for being a bit immature and not having taken a feminism 101 class at a time when she wasn't even allowed to go to school like damn

[foldingfittedsheets]

Physically chanting, “it’s fine, it’s fine, it doesn’t matter,” to stop the overwhelming urge to respond to each individual person who reblogged the witch comic with a tag or comment that I based it on Into the Woods and correct them that actually it is not based on Into the Woods, Into the Woods just stayed true to the source material for Rapunzel and the mom wanting rampion was me paying homage to the original story and not the Stephen Sondheim musical which was fine but I’ve only seen once when it came out, many many years ago.

[villafordefeatedvillains]

Absolutely ADORE all of Pastra's plush designs so far and I'm HIGHLY considering actually taking a commission to get the Lankmann plush because like. I missed out on the Clyde ones (which are TOP FUCKING TIER) but. Look at him. Absolute IDIOT with NO THOUGHTS /vpos.

[peaches2217]

☾ - sleep headcanon for Toadsworth? :) (if you're still doing the game)

☾ - sleep headcanon

Toadsworth has two modes: On and Off. He gets so caught up in day-to-day duties that he rarely even realizes that he’s tired until he’s back in his bedroom, at which point he has about three minutes to get changed and comfortable before he just passes out. Blame the undiagnosed ADHD.

He doesn’t like sleeping on any surface that cradles him, like cushions or a particularly soft bed; he needs a firm surface that provides good stability. It’s less that he finds it more comfortable and more that a firm mattress makes getting out of bed easier in the mornings. His joints are at their stiffest when he wakes up (which probably isn’t helped by his preferred sleeping arrangement), and being able to simply roll over and grab his cane is much less hassle than clambering and fighting against fluffy blankets and beds that dip and shift beneath his every movement.

[pawyuta]

nerdy boys ૮ ⑅ฅ́˘ฅ̀ ა .ᐟ .ᐟ nerdy boys ૮ ⑅ฅ́˘ฅ̀ ა .ᐟ .ᐟ placing a soft, sweet smooch on ur lips 💘 i wub nerdy boys .ᐟ .ᐟ come infodump on mi .ᐟ .ᐟ i’ll dote on chu until da end of time .ᐟ .ᐟ

[neuroticboyfriend]

What are some little things that are slightly cool about a disability you have?

Hm.. I don't know if you'd call it cool (I would), but my experience with schizophrenia has given me a perspective on reality that sane people don't often have. TW for unreality? I think I've made a post about it a long time ago, but there isn't one singular reality that we all experience. Yeah, there's the collective existence of everything, but as human beings, we can only experience well.. what we experience. We're not omniscient.

This is to say, everyone has their own reality, and the closest thing we get to Reality (singular) is interacting with each other and the world around us. We share our thoughts, feelings, memories. We experience life at the same time, in the same place, and form similar yet different views on the existence of all of that. So, no one is ever really out of touch with reality... everything someone does, says, believes, makes sense within the context of their life - what they've been through, what they've been taught, what they feel and think.

The problem comes when we use our lives - our realities - to harm others. To remove their agency, invalidate their existence. That's something a lot of psychotic people go through. Even when our beliefs and experiences harm no one - not even ourselves - we're forced to change. And when we do experience disorder, we're not given an option to really cope and experience fulfillment as a psychotic person. We're just made to be sane.

I kind of miss being psychotic. It was harmless, when I was younger. Believing I was a deity or cat person or whatever, it made life more colorful. More interesting. The most distressing thing I dealt with was thinking there were microscopic cameras in my walls... and I feel like that could have been coped with. Unfortunately, once my psychosis became severe and life threatening (due to the trauma of antiplurality and psychiatric abuse) the safest option was to just get me on meds to make me sane.

So yeah. Reality is weird and I think psychotics are cool. Also fuck sanists and psychiatry.

[noperopesaredope]

Hey fellow auDHDers, small question.

You know those things that aren't quite hyperfixations but also aren't exactly specially interests? Basically, stuff where it isn't quite one of your main interests and you don't think about it too often, but the moment anyone brings it up you're frothing at the mouth? You never lose interest in it like a hyperfixation and your passion is just as strong as your special interest, if not stronger, but you don't think about it super often?

Does that still count as a special interest? Because it feels exactly like a special interest, but I don't think about it quite as often as a special interest. The level of neverending obsession is still present and I never stop being obsessed with it, I just sometimes forget about it for a bit. It doesn't feel the same as a hyperfixation (I would know the difference), but it can stop being at the front of my mind.

What is this?

[wren-of-the-woods]

There me be relatively few of us The Amazing Devil fans, but what we lack in numbers we make up in sheer, unhinged enthusiasm.