#on how to manage symptoms and thrive as an autistic person

[thealternatemind]

after realizing I’m autistic my whole life makes sense

[verdemoun]

Do any of the gang members find out that they have any disorders/mental illnesses/etc. once they get timewarped and if so what are their reactions? Ranging from “oh, I though that was normal” to “NUH UH!”

timewarp was founded on the gang realising they have ptsd and kieran's autism being more obvious and worse in timewarp. but in detail

kieran is autistic

sean might have adhd but he doesn't actually have hyperactivity as a symptom. plot twist he just has that erratic trauma avoiding energy. it is a lot more masking severe c-ptsd and imposter syndrome that is his behind his exaggerated happy personality. see reform school lore

arthur is one of the few diagnosed he definitely had an acquired brain injury which while a physical injury manifests with mostly neurological symptoms. sometimes he gets confused or irritated for seemingly no reason, and this has been a thing since long before timewarp. the gang move on from joking about how dumb he is he does have an intellectual disability as part of his ABI. his response was very "oh I thought that was normal" and "bah i ain't need help".

the gang have subconsciously been aware of this long before they had the medical knowledge to understand it and are all pretty used to quickly explaining things or reminding arthur of stuff he forgets. lowkey consider this canon ever notice how the gang talk to arthur sometimes not entirely condescending but explaining things on his level eg sean being the one to point out the grays will definitely recognise him and he should hide in the wagon, grimshaw almost playfully reminding a grown man to wash because he straight up forgets, gentle reminders of what they're doing through heists even beyond game mechanics a lot of heist cut scenes are super repetitive like charles very much breaking down we're blowing a hole in the bank. take the spool and connect it to the detonator. the detonator is over there. it just feels like they know arthur isn't always entirely there and are v supportive. arthur is so curious and asks so many questions and the gang just roll with it and answer most of the time it feels so kind and positive.

arthur also definitely has adhd. hyper-fixates on new interesting thing for a month and then completely forgets everything he ever learned about it

almost the entire gang acknowledge they have ptsd/c-ptsd and varying levels of trauma as a response their lives/childhoods/relationships with parents/being a VDL. acknowledging it doesn't mean they do anything to move towards recovery because they are still mostly men raised with 19th century values who hang shit on each other for flinching at loud noises or being 'is someone shooting at us' alert

lenny and isaac as the most aware begging their friends/family to take their mental health seriously and are constantly met with 'lmao no' 'that's?? normal?? what do you mean' and 'NUH'. lenny cries 'please this is re-traumatising you are actively upsetting yourselves' while the gang go 'boo grow a pair' despite experiencing varying levels of anxiety attack in response to triggers.

john will only bring up 'hey stop making wolf jokes about me it is Actually a Trigger' to stop the gang bullying him. very genuine trigger and phobia of wolves and wolf-like dogs but still doesn't take it seriously himself

bill has recognized anger management issues and is in therapy. alcoholism is a definite concern. he's also just got a lot of internalised homophobia and complex feelings about the gang and his own childhood to unpack and learn how to articulate and express his feelings in a healthier way. only one of the adult gang who is actively trying to improve his mental health through therapy go king

the d in dsm-5 stands for dutch and he is thriving in in-patient care. not even the doctors know entirely what to diagnose him because he seems to have symptoms of everything but is responding best to medications traditionally used to support bi-polar

special acknowledgement to karen who is very very depressed but is a thriving with anti-depressants because trying to get the gang to go to actual psychologists and therapy is Hell. her and sean send each zoloft memes constantly

[vreemdear]

I’ve always found doing things difficult. That sounds overgeneralised because it is. Starting anything, following through and finishing anything was just so hard even if it was something I really wanted to do. And for things I had to do but didn’t want to... well you could forget about expecting anything at all out of me. I could sit there for hours stuck in a mental loop unable to get up and even do basic shit like eating. Then I’d be stuck in a cycle of feeling guilty and punishing myself by denying something fun or something necessary like sleeping or eating which would mean I’d feel worse the next day and struggle even more to get shit done.

Over the past few years I’ve accepted that I’m autistic and that executive dysfunction is a common symptom which I definitely have.  Even though I tried to not beat myself up for something I didn’t choose to be born with I still couldn’t help feeling guilty. Am I just a failure as a human? I’m 27 and still live with my mother and can barely cook for myself. I was never diagnosed as a child so I’ve always just been treated as and viewed myself as an able-bodied neurotypical failure. “You have so much potential” they’d say “if only you just applied yourself” but I just couldn’t. I couldn’t apply myself. Why did everything seem so much harder for me? Even as an adult in university I had peers who barely understood the course material and needed me to explain things to them but they would find assignments easy and complete them on time for good grades. I absorbed the lectures but I just couldn’t apply what I learnt. I didn’t understand what teachers were asking of me, the phrasing of exam questions confused me and when it came to assignments I just… couldn’t. I would be stuck. Unable to start or move forward. I self harmed just to force myself to do them. I felt like I was drowning while everyone around me walked on dry land and didn’t understand why I couldn’t just get up and do the same.

Something was wrong with me and I was ashamed.

Once I realised what that I learned so many coping techniques through other autistics online. I became more in tune with what stresses me out and got better at catching myself before a full autistic shutdown happens and removing myself from the situation. I even know what to do when I have a shutdown now and how to best recover from it. Despite this my executive function was still dreadful. 

I’ve spent the last 11 days living completely alone for the first time since knowing I’m autistic. I’ve completely changed my environment to manage and nourish my autism and it’s been fucking fantastic. No more loud TV all day long, no more alarms going off, no more interruptions or abrupt changes to my schedule. I thought I would forget to eat while I’m alone but actually it turns out that when the kitchen is quiet I actually like spending time there. I’ve been cooking! I’ve been ENJOYING cooking?!?! For the first time in my life! I’ve actually been kind of enjoying cleaning too?! My executive functioning is so great it’s what I imagine a normal person feels like. I even cleaned all the dust from my bedside table, something I haven't been able to do for FIVE YEARS! I’m completely thriving and it’s so strange! 

I tried so hard to get rid of all the sensory stuff that overwhelmed me but there was still so much out of my control. While I knew those sounds annoyed me I didn’t realise just HOW MUCH they were affecting me. I’m even sleeping less by which I mean I’m waking up earlier feeling well rested. I still need an afternoon nap but until now I needed 10 hours of sleep at night PLUS an afternoon nap. Had I just been so exhausted all this time from sensory overload?? There is still an electronic humming from 9am-3pm that I am unable to turn off. Maybe if I get some earmuffs I’ll feel even better?

I think what this time has taught me as that even if I’m struggling to afford to live on my own right now, I need to just bite the bullet and move out anyway. I have savings and even if I’m not able to cover my living expenses right away I think the only way I could ever have enough executive functioning to earn more money is to live alone.

[coldwind-shiningstars]

I have been thinking a lot about how disability is viewed within the cultivation world lately. Because on the one hand you have neurodivergent cultivators like lwj, wwx or wn, thriving and respected or at least being loved in their respective positions in society. On the other hand, the stigma around visible disability seems to be so bad that jgy had cause to believe that his son being disabled would be enough to question his lineage and ruin jgy's reputation. I was wondering what you think.

First off I am super flattered you asked me this question! Please take these answers with the knowledge that I am working from my Western perspective and the bits of research I've done on disability in ancient China are, I'm certain, not enough. If you have JSTOR access I read "MARKED OUT FOR GREATNESS? PERCEPTIONS OF DEFORMITY AND PHYSICAL IMPAIRMENT IN ANCIENT CHINA" by Olivia Milburn and it was really interesting! Warning for frequent use of the word "crippled" but… yes.

As for your questions!

First, I would disagree with you that Wen Ning is treated well! Wen Qing loves him very much, but pretty much until he becomes a fierce corpse she's overly protective and doesn't really allow him to make his own decisions. The other Wens dislike and mock him -- in the book, when WWX compliments his archery, the other Wens are quite cruel and do not allow him to compete. There was a post I saw recently about how wwx was the first person to really respect him, and I think that's true. Wen Ning is treated like a child, despite how often he makes story-altering decisions! He's considered someone to be protected and kept safe up until he becomes an Actual Undead Zombie. CQL tries to give us an "explanation," while MDZS kind of goes "it's just how he is," but he's still... yeah he's loved but he's not respected.

As for Lan Wangji, I don't think anyone realizes he's got the same kind of Brainproblems as Wen Ning. I've mentioned before how perfect Cloud Recesses seems to be for Lan Wangji and his autisticness. I think he's seen as strange and elitist and very reticent, but it's treated as a quirk of his personality, to be Tolerated because he's so virtuous and skilled. No cultivator (except probably themselves, if they managed to talk to each other for long) is going to make a link between them because they don't have a concept of "autism." I've been poking at Qin Su being autistic too -- she's considered childish, naive, unusual for being the instigating party in the jgy/qs romance, but nobody connects HER strangeness to lwj or wn. So… yeah, I don't think anyone really considers lwj disabled? So he's less affected by that particular stigma. There's a line in the paper about how "people were marked as handicapped… only when their [disabilities] prevented them from engaging in society" and lwj certainly is active in the cultivation world.

Wei Wuxian is... I'll talk about him tomorrow. His neurodivergence is SO wrapped up in the ways he navigates his roles in society? He's got, as Alpha said, Bad Syndrome, a horrible mix of (imo) ADHD, bipolar, and PTSD, and sometimes he can manage it and end up the class clown, and sometimes he's having a breakdown in front of a few thousand people with swords. You know how it goes!

On a DIFFERENT note, physical disabilities and cultivators are also weird. I love the CQL canon that Yanli has some sort of chronic illness, and I'm pretty sure Wei Wuxian has one post-Burial Mounds. But the thing is… Cultivators have superhuman healing. They don't really get sick. I think there's a perception that physical disability doesn't exist among cultivators, and if it DOES it's the fault of that person for having a weak golden core. Yanli's always gossiped about for her poor cultivation, while I'm pretty sure most of her golden core goes towards keeping her functional/alive! Similarly, wwx's (dysautonomia…) symptoms like fainting a lot and getting tired more easily are blamed on his demonic cultivation. I'm sure physical disabilities and cultivation interact in really interesting ways! But people definitely are still able to BE physically disabled and I don't think cultivators as a whole want to talk about that.

They're elitist! The discipline whip used on LWJ is mentioned to leave scars even on cultivators. This… implies to me that most wounds are expected to NOT leave scars. I think cultivators are really shitty to physically disabled people because they don't want to have disabled people cultivating.

So it's (and this is also informed by that same paper) "either ignore your disability and cultivate like an abled person, or don't engage."

As for Jin Rusong… I think it's possible that he was intellectually disabled! Not nescessarily because of the incest -- I don't think half sibling incest, without incest in either of their lines, is going to make significant birth defects. But Jin Guangyao is so scared of everything. And people are so willing to throw all sorts of ad hominem attacks at him? So I think it's less that he was worried his son would be intellectually disabled, and more that he was afraid that his son being intellectually disabled would a) make people talk and b) possibly lead someone to investigate Why, and they would either end up blaming jgy's mother (a STRONG trigger for him) or find out the Incest Situation. So the disability was not the problem? It was more what lead to the disability.

Sorry for how INCREDIBLY long this is, and I might add more thoughts tomorrow when it is not three AM.

[matildaisautisticandproud]

April 5th - 30 Days of Autism Acceptance

April 5: Talk about your living situation. Do you live with your parents? Do you live on your own? Have roommates? Etc. If you live on your own how hard was it to get used to?

Currently, I am back at home with my parents due to my campus being shutdown because of COVID-19. However, normally, I live in a dorm on campus with a fantastic roommate. My first year of college was the absolute worst because I was diagnosed at the start of the first semester, and I struggled with the awkwardness of having a roommate. I think I had a panic attack the first day living on campus, too. Long story short, I was terrified to start this new chapter of my life. If you don’t know, I get attached to people and have great difficulty with managing myself on my own. My parents were the people who I had relied on with helping me with life skills my entire life. After my high school graduation, all of a sudden, I was supposed to be able to handle myself all on my own.

Luckily, my roommate and I got along just fine. We’re now pretty good friends, but she is graduating at the end of next year. I am going for a higher degree than her so, I will have to be attending classes for a year or two after she graduates. Once she’s gone, my plan is to apply to have my own, private dorm, which I don’t think will be too hard to get given the fact that I have a diagnosis. Anyways, about my roommate. Her name is Missy (I love her name, btw), and she has a younger brother who is on the spectrum. Apparently, he has level 3 ASD so, she has experience with handling a more severe presentation of autism. She doesn’t judge me for my “odd” behaviors and is very patient with me. Also, she is extremely understanding when it comes to meltdowns (though I hardly experience these), sensory overload, and shutdowns. Honestly, she is a Godsend, and one of the best friends I have ever had. I love her with all my heart and soul. 

Now, not all autistic people are able to attend college or become independent. I am still not completely independent as I rely on my roommate to help me out substantially. I don’t know what I’m going to do after I earn my degree, but I’ll figure it out when the time comes; though I’m pretty sure I will have someone to help me regardless of happens. I just can’t function alone; I need at least one person to support me. My ADHD also makes it harder for me to function alone.

As a closing statement, I would like to remind people that autism presents itself differently in everybody so, no two autistics will ever be the same. They may share similar experiences and symptoms, but how autism presents itself in them will never be exactly the same. That’s just the nature of the disorder. Different people will have different areas of need, which will determine the amount of external support they require. Regardless, we are all people and deserve to be loved. Don’t mock those who need someone to care for them in order to live a fulfilling life. We are just trying to get by in a world that is not built for us. (Note: Whether or not someone is disabled is determined by their environment and society. If the world is not geared towards them (i.e. how this world is too overwhelming sensory wise for autistics) then, they will be labeled as disabled. However, back when life was a strict routine of living on a farm and being mostly around family, many of us on the spectrum probably wouldn’t be seen as disabled. Some of us might even thrive. I recently saw a post discussing this.) 

[alwaysabeautifullife]

I know you've mentioned before that your daughter has autism. How did you discover this? She seems very "typical" from the way you speak about her, and I acknowledge I am ignorant about these things - I, like many, picture autism one way when I know it can manifest in many ways. For instance, how did you distinguish autism from just a sensory processing disorder? Feel free to ignore if this is too personal

I hate the language the Dsm 5 uses but it’s (it’s summarized compared to the actual diagnosis paperwork used) what was used to diagnose her when she was 3. I wanted to show that while all the symptoms are still present, the level of how distressing they are has gone down since before she was 4. Red being most distressing and yellow being least.

I don’t really talk about any negatives about her the same way I don’t talk about my other kids (or husband, friends etc), so a lot of people see that and think she isn’t autistic because typically when a parent talks about they’re autistic child it’s negative.

I have a positive theory related to autism that is actually an evolution of the human brain (neurons/synapses). I won’t really get into it but I have a problem with the therapy that’s used for autistic kids and people. Most of the therapy actually looks like exposure therapy (as in forced exposure to fears associated with psychological distress) but these exposures in the right setting are patient led. Therapy for autistics is forced and abusive, and forces an autistics to respond to all these situations in fight or flight, and trains their brain to just suppress their actions during fight or flight, not actually eliminate the actual pain from the situation.

I created for Portia (the exact opposite of “autism therapy”) a life in which she understood that she was A. Always able to exit a uncomfortable and painful situation B. She led 100% any “exposure” to new situations (like trying new food) C. Her no, stop and “I don’t want to” was to be respected fully by other people. By doing this, she is STILL an autistic person, but the world is not a painful place anymore, because she is aware she is capable of leaving and managing the situation and is always safe. I never forced her to look me in the eyes, to go out in public, to play a particular way, to stop stimming, I didn’t shove food in her mouth or punish her for being an autistic person or communicating as an autistic person. The same way I raise my non-autistic children (actually two others are suspected autistic but do not have a diagnosis, and one is dyslexic). She thrived. Like any child would. So, she is still very much autistic, but she is comfortable, happy, and demands respect for the way she processes the world and communicates to others. If anything she is very bossy and dominate in personality. She doesn’t really have meltdowns either anymore, she doesn’t have to. She gets distressed, but she manages it.

In a lot of ways she’s actually way easier than a neurotypical child. She adheres to a strict predictable schedule, as an example her bedtime routine is listing to 5 songs, reading 3 books eating a snack, brushing her teeth, getting a glass of water, and throwing her blanket in a dryer. It’s long (what bedtime routine isn’t), but it’s consistent and easy. She also doesn’t to typical illogical child behavior. I taught her not to chase after a ball in the street, look both ways for safety, and she just...does them. She understands very clearly what is danger and doesn’t get why kids don’t do them all the time. Only an illogical kid would play with matches in a field of dry grass. Having a whole house full of boy tots before...she is certainly much easier. She’s easy to shop for, she has interests that fascinate her and she’s easy to teach because she absorbs this information about them faster. She’s also more direct. She will tell you flat out if she doesn’t like someone or something and why. She has no problem with creating boundaries in life. It’s clear cut. That person makes me uncomfortable, I’m not ever gonna play with them.

Mostly, she isn’t really different from other kids. She has her difficulties managing life but I don’t look at them like “weird bad autistic things”, just cool Buggy things! And she’ll stomp anyone out who thinks the things about her are bad or wrong 💪

[nobantucelemyot]

How much do you know about Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Autism is a difficult concept to grasp unless you are living with it or dealing with someone close to you who has it. Most people are quite uncertain about what it is , they know  that people with autism behave differently. I was one of those people  not long ago until our class was visited by amazing people  who are advocates for people with autism spectrum disorder.  They changed my perceptions about autism and made me realize the relationship between a therapist and his or her client is an important determinant of the success or failure of occupational therapy.

Autism Spectrum disorder has changed from being a condition nobody had even heard about to a widely recognized mental health condition. Due to widespread use of internet, social media and smartphones everybody knows something about Autism. However, it was a different experience hearing all about Autism spectrum disorder from a  mother who is raising a child with ASD and a 19-year-old male who was diagnosed with ASD from the age of eight years old. Our class was  visited by a woman who had become an advocate for children with ASD because of her son. She had to teach herself about the condition  to understand him well. She reported that raising a child with autism is a constant challenge, it is exhausting, exhilarating, and  a lonely roller coaster ride. She stated that children with ASD experience the world  differently from most people. They often have difficulty expressing themselves. Sensory issues can affect how they smell, hear, or see things. She reported that her son found it impossible to eat food of a particular color, and some days  he preferred only eating cereal. She had to find ways to convince him to eat other meals and foods with different colors without overwhelming him Most mothers may find this exhausting as it is time consuming. When her son was upset ,  to calm himself he would flap his hands or spin around. She described that her son becomes very anxious when entering a room with a stranger or unfamiliar face. He is very honest and people who do not understand his condition may easily be offended by his honesty.  Many people believe that autism is its own disorder that children are diagnosed with. However, autism is a term used for a wide range of disorders. The clinical name is Autism Spectrum Disorder, it is used because of the range of symptoms, intensity, and behaviors autism effects. Her son’s behavior and symptoms may be unique when compared to other children with autism, therefore as a mother she had to recognize his uniqueness and determine ways to help him cope with everyday life.  She currently  uses augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) which is a type of assistive technology that assists her son with communication and with expanding his social interactions.

Sebastian  is a  19-year-old with ASD  , he managed to teach us so many things about his condition that many of us would have never learned from a book or from social media. Knowledge gained from books is necessary for proper application in order to experience things in a better manner, but knowledge gained from experience is the true knowledge we ought to seek. Sebastian reported that  she often switched between schools when he was in his early childhood years. He changed schools for various reasons ,but one of them includes causing trouble with his behavior, he also used to flap or clap his hands when he felt overwhelmed and even screamed. As a child he also had set routines that he felt a need to obsessively follow every day.  His peers and his teachers had difficulty understanding his behavior  and his condition. He stated that there is no known cure for autism and the inconsistencies of the symptoms of autism in each case make it difficult to target a set of effective treatments. However, some behavior management therapies , especially physical therapy helped to significantly control the unwanted symptoms of autism spectrum disorder. He suggested that when going to public spaces with a child who has autism and when standing in lines in shops or in a hospital , put headphones on the child and let them listen to music to distract them from excessive stimulation. He also suggested pouring oil or baby powder on the child’s hands as he or she would concentrate on tactile stimuli while waiting in line. He expressed that people with disabilities hate being treated differently. When speaking to a person with disability, focus on the person’s capabilities and not on his or her disability. Be respectful, aid if asked or if the need is obvious.

The client-therapist relationship is an important factor when it comes to how the client responds to treatment and how occupational therapists views themselves as competence (PettyJohn, Tseng & Blow, 2019). Sebastian stated that he worked with the best occupational therapist during his adolescent years. He used to feel uncomfortable when in the presence of a stranger. Initially, for him it was difficult to attend occupational therapy without his mother. His therapist was very patient with him and she managed to build a relationship with him. According to (Peschken & Johnson, 1997) the therapeutic relationship is the foundation of psychotherapy. She involved him in making decisions  and treated him like a capable being. She did oblige him to engage in certain activities. Instead, she would hint the experiences that he would have if he were to engage on those specific tasks. Currently , Sebastian is coping well in a mainstream school and he is very grateful for the effort put by occupational therapists to enhance people’s lives. The therapist also collaborated with his mother to help him achieve successful everyday functioning. She taught his mother various techniques that could  be used at home to minimize symptoms, such as scheduling playtime for Sebastian when he was most alert and awake. When he seemed distressed or was having outbursts, the therapist suggested that  his mother should first figure out the  motivation behind the tantrum. It is natural to feel upset when you are misunderstood or ignored, and it is no different for children with ASD. He expressed that he is very fortunate to  have a supportive mother who has always been by his side and has assisted him in coping with everyday experiences. Sadly, some children like Sebastian may not experience this kind of hands-on parenting which has greatly benefited him. One possible reason for this is that some parents are experiencing great levels of fatigue and may perceive their children’s behavior as more challenging (Zeener,2019). This could potentially lead to a feedback loop of problematic behavior as parents are less equipped to deal with the children’s problematic behavior. Sebastian and the mother raising a boy who has autism both agreed that raising a child with autism requires the ability to balance multiple roles ,the flexibility to adapt the child’s changing needs , and the energy to effectively parent and to respond to needs.

Having a child with an autistic spectrum disorder is a challenge for any family. It is well established that parents can learn and successfully apply skills to assist in changing the behavior of their children with autistic spectrum disorders. However, the guest speakers failed to mention the effects of cultural differences such as race, ethnicity and social class in caring for children with autism. It was amazing to directly hear perceptions about autism and the treatment children  have received from occupational therapy,  from people who have an everyday encounter with the disorder. It is also inspiring to hear them express that to them it of crucial importance to make the information available to parents and the community. This means that they will continue to ensure their active role in advocacy for people with autism.

References

Peschken, W., & Johnson, M. (1997). Therapist and Client Trust in The Therapeutic Relationship. Psychotherapy Research, 7(4), 439-447. doi: 10.1080/10503309712331332133

PettyJohn, M., Tseng, C., & Blow, A. (2019). Therapeutic Utility of Discussing Therapist/Client Intersectionality in Treatment: When and How? Family Process. doi: 10.1111/famp.12471

Zener, D. (2019). Helping autistic women thrive. Advances in Autism, 5(3), 143-156. doi: 10.1108/aia-10-2018-0042