Tag: autism tag

I’m high functioning! Just ask all of my neurotypical friends! I’m high functioning… until I misplace something. Or I hear a loud noise. Or I reach an unknown area of the social script. Or I can’t stop feeling an unpleasant tactile sensation. Or someone treats me badly. Or my electronics won’t work. Or I’m hungry. Or I’m tired. Or I don’t have a solution for someone else’s pain. Or I have to engage with a task without being given time to analyze it. Or I’m not permitted to use a familiar system to handle a situation. Or things just don’t make sense. Or I’ve just been through too much in the past five minutes. Hour. Day. Week.

I’m not high functioning. That’s just a term neurotypical folk use to not acknowledge or straight up minimalize my issues on the occasions that I manage to avoid all of the above.

Audrey Sterling, about autism (via sensorysurvival)

lumpatronics:

just a reminder that a lot of people supporting “light it up blue” aren’t aware of its negative connotations. 

a lot of people dont know why autism speaks is bad, and it never occurs to them to look up if it has issues.

it is none of our duties to educate these people during april, but keep in mind that people may not be malicious, just ignorant.

If you DO want to educate them, here is a 40 page essay about why autism speaks is bad, with works cited.

use this as you will

bitterautistic:

When you get diagnosed or self diagnosed it is very common to start showing more and more symptoms. It isn’t that you are faking or doing it on purpose, it’s because you now don’t have to hide them and you’re expressing yourself fully in ways you though you needed to hide.

ive never seen a positivity post for tourettes kids on here with more than 100 notes so..

newkhakis:

shout out to tourettes kids who have violent tics. who have painful, unpleasant and awkward tics. who feel ashamed of their tics. who love their tics. shout out to tourettes kids who are looked down on for doing and saying things that they cant control. no matter what people say about you, you are not a bad person or something to be hidden and kept away. you are wonderful, beautiful, and strong people who deserve everything good in the world and im on your side.

may:

I’ve had a few people messaging me about Aspergers tonight so I’m gonna say something: A HUGE part of Aspergers for many people is that you literally can not tell when something is wrong. You can’t differentiate between what is bad and what is good. Sometimes I do really ugly stuff with no bad intentions but then someone says “Wait, that’s wrong you shouldn’t have done that,” and I’ll think “Okay, they’re probably right, I have Aspergers and they don’t so they see it better than I do,” so I apologise and I try to make it right.

My problem is when people who don’t have Aspergers assume that people who DO have Aspergers are just as capable at differentiating between right and wrong as abled people. It’s just not correct. This is where Aspergers gets overlooked and it starts becoming ableist. I’m not making this up off the top of my head, literally any Google search and any doctor will tell you this is a widely popular trait if not THE most popular trait in people with Aspergers. If you know about this but you actively choose to ignore it, know that you are choosing to be ableist.

So my thing is.. When someone with Aspergers messes up, you have to give them a little more patience. You just do. Explain things to them. Trust me there’s a 90% chance they didn’t realise what they were doing was wrong and as soon as you tell them they’ll feel terrible and want to apologise. I’m not saying “Let people with Aspergers get away with bad stuff because they’re disabled,” I’m saying just TRY to explain things first. It costs 0 cents to sit down and tell someone why they’re wrong.

One last time: Knowing this information but choosing to ignore it IS ableist. I’m telling you this as someone who has the disability. More people need to be aware of the Autism spectrum and what it entails.

Stimming!

homojabi:

What is stimming?

In it’s most simple form, stimming is a repetitive body movement that self-stimulates one or more senses in a regulated manner.

What types of stims are there?

  • Visual Stims
    • Flapping hands, blinking and/or moving fingers in front of eyes, staring repetitively at a light, pressing on closed eyes to create visual effect [pressure phosphene], …
  • Auditory Stims
    • Snapping fingers, tapping on objects, listening to the same song on a loop, rolling Rs, “cat noises”, repeating words, putting hands over ears, singing, clicking tongue, humming…
  • Tactile Stims
    • Scratching, rubbing the skin with one’s hands or with an external object, pinching the skin, putting thumb inside fist, sucking thumb, rubbing hands/feet together, petting preferred textures, tying knots/twirling string, twirling/stroking hair…
  • Vestibular Stims
    • Moving body in rhythmic motion, rocking front and back or side-to-side, spinning, pacing, walking in circles, walking on tip-toes, jumping up and down…
  • Taste Stims
    • Licking body parts, licking an object…
  • Smell Stims
    • Smelling objects or hands, smelling other people…
  • Rhythmic Stims
    • Tapping on surfaces/objects/self, clicking fingers, making repetitive vocal sounds, bouncing legs, foot tapping, hand flapping, clicking pens, …

There are a lot of other stims as well that don’t necessarily fall under the category of “repetitive” such as pressure stimming, which are still just as valid. Basically if what you do serves the purpose of the stim, you can call it a stim.

Why do people stim?

People stim for all different kinds of reasons. They may stim when they are happy or excited, when they are stressed, as a part of their normal body language, as a way of communication, as a punishment, as a response to something internal or external, as a compulsion, to focus, to self soothe, etc. Stimming can be a coping mechanism, but it can also be so much more! No matter what reason someone has for stimming though, it’s important to remember that all stims are natural and normal.

Who stims?

Anyone that finds stimming useful, whether consciously or subconsciously, can stim. This includes neurotypicals, but mainly stimming is seen as something that neurodivergent people do and it occurs most frequently in:

  • the autism spectrum
  • sensory processing disorder (SPD)
  • Tourette’s
  • schizophrenia
  • OCD
  • people that experience mania/hypomania
  • people with ADHD/ADD
  • people with anxiety
  • etc

Where can I find stim toys/jewelry?