f1337

f1337 , 5 days ago to ActuallyAutistic group

Thing I learned at #MentalHealth camp:

“When we love ourselves, it’s infectious.”

cc @actuallyautistic

#ThingsILearnedAtMentalHealthCamp

f1337 , 7 days ago to ActuallyAutistic group

Thing I learned at #MentalHealth camp:

“Secrets make us sick.”

cc @actuallyautistic

#ThingsILearnedAtMentalHealthCamp

f1337 , 10 days ago to ActuallyAutistic group

Thing I learned at #MentalHealth camp:

SURVIVAL = BELONGING

cc @actuallyautistic

#ThingsILearnedAtMentalHealthCamp

f1337 , 21 days ago to ActuallyAutistic group

@actuallyautistic

Where did I learn these things?

I did the residential trauma recovery program at Sierra Tucson:
https://www.sierratucson.com/programs/trauma-recovery/

No place is perfect. But I’ve yet to meet a higher concentration of truly caring & superbly talented folks. Staff and residents alike.

PS. For my #neurodivergent peeps: They have therapists who are #autisitc, #ADHD, & #AuDHD. They made intake changes based on my feedback re: “the intake process for someone with sensory sensitivities”.

f1337 , 21 days ago to ActuallyAutistic group

Things I learned at “#MentalHealth camp”:

• #Trauma is a wound to the body, mind, & spirit.
• Trauma, while caused by past events, actually lives in the body, in the present.
• Healing from trauma does not require re-experiencing the event. We can heal from trauma that we don’t remember.
• A multimodal approach to trauma recovery is ideal. Not every mode works for every person.
• The behavioral model for mental health is fundamentally broken pseudoscience.

@actuallyautistic

catswhocode , 2 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

@actuallyautistic do you all have a favorite/favorite(s) coded autistic character?

f1337 , 2 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

🤔 Is pathological demand avoidance a form, or derivative, of the freeze response to trauma?

@actuallyautistic

autism101 , 2 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

Let’s talk tags on clothing. I hate them and they annoy me to no end. And even if I cut them off, the tiny bit remaining always manages to touch me and I hate it. 😩

Do tags bother you?

#AskingAutistics #ActuallyAutistic @actuallyautistic

image: unknown

catswhocode , 2 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

@actuallyautistic does anyone here like the band AJR? Their music is really stimmy for me. I think they're also neurodivergent, or at least Adam Met is.

theautisticcoach , 3 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

How do my #ActuallyAutistic comrades differentiate between anxiety and depressed feelings?

Or don’t you?

#AskingAutistics @actuallyautistic

f1337 , 3 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

In case it hasn’t been said already: The movie #Nimona feels a lot like representation of the #ActuallyAutistic experience. At least it does to me.

@actuallyautistic

nickastodon , 3 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

@actuallyautistic I was considering figuring out how to do a poll in this group regarding effects of alcohol changing autistics behavior but I'm not sure it's a good topic or how to frame it. Personally I was pretty introverted and socially shy until I discovered alcohol around 19yo. I became increasingly outgoing throughout the rest of my life. Anyone willing to take a stab at it?

theautisticcoach , 4 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

Some #ActuallyAutistic humans prefer living in the country due to the lack of noise & people + a deeper connection to the Earth.

Some prefer cities for their plethora of sensory stimuli & activities.

What about you?

@actuallyautistic

theautisticcoach , 5 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

Do my #ActuallyAutistic comrades have a carb addiction?

If so, you’re not alone.

Do you find that carbs regulate you? Or dysregulate?

@actuallyautistic

haui , 5 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

Being @actuallyautistic and #gifted for me means I often get told the following, initially:

„No! You‘re wrong! What a shit take! You have no idea what you‘re talking about! Stop the drugs, man!“ and the like.

After some discussion, people say:

„I have not thought of it this way. I got you wrong. We should actually consider doing it your way. You seem to have deeper insight than the average person.“

This often makes me question my place in this world. Anyone else? #actuallyautistic

kkffoo , 5 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

@actuallyautistic do any of my autistic co-groupies have any tips for not losing weight over December / Christmas? The extra stress makes it harder to eat good portions for regular meals and my usual snack routine gets a knock too. I did manage to grab a small bowl of full fat ice-cream last night, which is not my usual supper, but seemed a reasonable compromise. Any other ideas?

pathfinder , 5 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

@actuallyautistic

I wish to admit to something here, although perhaps admit isn't the right world. As many of you may be aware I have spent most of this year trying to recover from probably the worst burn out I've ever had. It was the slow burn product of many years and overlapping issues that mostly, thankfully, aren't going to repeat. But that finally culminated at the beginning of this year.

Christmas, as it is for many of us, is also a highly stress filled time for me. A real mixed bag of too much to have to think about and plan for. Too high a level of anxiety over buying the right presents and making sure I've done enough. Do doubt made worse by the autistic tendency to show love through such things and thus the importance of getting it right for me. And the generally increased stress levels of just too many people everywhere, being far, far, too peopley, and everything just being too bright and too loud.

Getting old doesn't help with this I'm afraid. My general patience levels and ability to cope and not become overly irritable (if there is such a thing) and bad tempered are not what they were. Plus the simple fact is that as you get older I'm afraid times like this become more and more of a trauma fest as much as anything as we remember the ever increasing numbers of those who have died and are no longer with us for this time.

It is this that is making this year even harder for me. Because it was the death of my sister at the beginning of it that was the final straw in my burning so badly out and which at the moment is even more in my mind. There is, whether we want to admit it or not, a dark side to being autistic. The way our memories can make things like this as fresh now as they were then and then linger on them. The way just being in the world is a dark weight pulling at our souls. A tiredness that only ever seems to grow from year to year and never fades. But only gnaws more and more at our bones, at our frustrations and the energy it takes to change even the smallest thing to our favour and the voices that whisper more and more whether that is even worth it.

There is in fact a darkness, I'm afraid, that seems never far away for many of us and which it's only too easy to fall back into. A state that many of us don't like to talk about. In part because it was never seen or validated in the past. Our attempts to describe it inadequate, our experiences not recognised. But also because to do so doesn't seem right. It is, after all, an old friend of ours. One that we have pulled ourselves back out of many times before and no doubt will again. And looking about the world there are so many others, who have it so much worse.

But this is the denial of our lives speaking. The product of all those years spent alone with our difference, when our worth and needs never seemed or could be considered, important enough. By ourselves, if not others.

And this, I suppose is the point of all this. We all struggle, especially many of us at this time of year. But denying it, making little of it or not even being prepared to accept it, does none of us any good. It only deepens the darkness and makes it that much harder to climb back out of. And although it may have been how we had to be, or how we're used to being, it doesn't mean it is how we have to be now. Or how we should be.

#Autism
#ActuallyAutistic

(Please note. I'm fine. Yes, it's not easy for me, but it's not a crisis either. And for the love of god please don't suggest therapy. I don't do therapy. In fact, if it could, my stiff upper British lip would quiver at the mere thought of it 😄​)

theautisticcoach , 5 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

Do my #ActuallyAutistic comrades have difficulties with tying their shoes?

If so, you're not alone.

#AskingAutistics @actuallyautistic

hellomiakoda , 5 months ago to Random

On another platform, the question was posted
"Does it ever feel like you are living in your own world as an autistic person?"

#ActuallyAutistic

Dr_Obvious , 5 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group German

@actuallyautistic @audhd
With respect to #monotropism and #autism and #AuDHD there is often the question, whether one is oriented on small details or the broader picture.

Generally I am on the small details side. But I saw a post about systems thinking today. When it comes to technical problems like software, data flow or a scientific hypothesis, I have the feeling I have everything simultaneously in my mind. All the small details, but all at once.

PossiblyAutistic , 5 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

@actuallyautistic Normally when developing software, one has some mental model of data structures, contro flow, and the like. It probably does not have all details, but it's like an idea of a diagram in one's head, which can be dumped to a whiteboard. However, some people don't seem to have this. They can name what they want to achieve, and start modifying code, but they don't seem to be able to communicate any intermediate abstractions/concepts of what they envision. A sort of aphantasia?

18+ f1337 , 5 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

@actuallyautistic
Question for those for whom suicidal ideation, passive or active, is common:

Imagine yourself in a stable/good place, with minimal ideation, you feel safe. And then you are confronted with a possible terminal illness diagnosis. Do you find yourself feeling a bit…relieved at the possibility? Almost as if “it’s about time”?

Or am I just morbidly fatalistic? 😝

f1337 , 5 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

@actuallyautistic

I don’t understand it. But somehow, the physical pain of closing the car door on my thumb, has helped me process some trauma.

I was deeply distracted by processing when I shut my thumb in the door. The quick, intense pain pushed my already overwhelmed emotions from tearful to bawling. After the physical pain turned to numbness, I noticed that I felt better about the emotional pain too. Much like a good Esketamine crying session. Except horrible. 😂

theautisticcoach , 5 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

Big question for my #ActuallyAutistic comrades

Is unmasking a value in and of itself? Or is it because of something bigger than that?

#AskingAutistics @actuallyautistic

eo , 6 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

Even if I am laughing, I usually find comedy stressful. You too? @actuallyautistic

DivergentDumpsterPhoenix , 6 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

Autistic burnout is one of the greatest crises that an Autistic person can face.

People often think of it as similar to depression, but it can take many diverse forms.

#AskingAutistics what does burnout look like for you?

#ActuallyAutistic #autism #Autistic #AutisticBurnout #neurodiversity #neurodivergent

@actuallyautistic @autisticadvocacy @audhd

f1337 , 6 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

@actuallyautistic
Are there any grants available for disabled and/or autistic business owners in the US? Including state-specific grants?

I’m doing searching myself, coming up empty, but figure it’s worth asking the broader community.

Boosts appreciated. 🙏

Thank you!

autism101 , 6 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

Autistic people may be dealing with many other issues, dubbed comorbidities by the medical community. I've listed some of them in the mind map below. Many can’t be seen by others.

#ActuallyAutistic @actuallyautistic

f1337 , 6 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

@actuallyautistic
@allautistics

Do any of y’all use sleep masks, and if so, what are your favorite brands/types, and why?