hello, i am just a friendly lurker at heart
…recovering recluse

I think you’re neat.

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  • 13 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 20th, 2023

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  • I have autism and bipolar 1.

    Autism does not have pills.
    Circumstances of your birth have no causation to autism. Neither to circumstances of your life. All sorts of people have autism from all walks of life.

    A reason to research and understand one’s own autism is to recognize what in your life overwhelms you, and how to structure your life in a way that is comfortable and functional to you, without a judgemental neurotypical lens. To embrace who you are, rather than try to force yourself to be something you are not.

    You can seek a diagnosis if you wish, but I can’t tell you if it’d give you what you’re looking for.

    I learned about my conditions through following various mental health communities for years and seeing what had commonalities with me through the fun lens of dank memes. I also learned a lot about medications, warning signs in therapists, and I learned what mental health conditions I don’t have. Can’t say if that’d work for everyone, either, but I did learn a lot more from the communities directly rather than reading the clinical book definitions.


  • I’m allergic to polyester and most anything made of plastic. I get painful open sores, and hideously itchy. It is difficult to find clothes at best.
    Plastic is snuck in more shit than you’d think. Often unlabelled. More than one pair of pants/shorts I’ve had to ditch/edit because the pockets were polyester or nylon in a “100% cotton” garment. Drawstrings are bad for this, too. And waistbands.

    Seems to be weirdly common to be adverse to plastic-based fabrics in autistic communities.

    I most often wear:

    cotton/linen/canvas/denim
    rayon/bamboo (plant based, do need to be a bit careful because people fake it, very loose “swishy” fabric)
    hemp
    real leather (“vegan leather” is literally plastic and i will fight people greenwashing calling it “vegan” and not the awful pleather it is.) (very difficult to find coats without nylon linings though.)


  • I heard some advice a while back that was along the lines of, “stop apologizing and start thanking,” and I feel like it’s positively impacted how I phrase things.

    Instead of asking forgiveness and moving the conversation into them feeling they have to defend their values on the spot, showing gratitude for their understanding actually makes people feel more valued. “Thank you for your patience” is an entirely different vibe than “sorry I didn’t get back to you” and puts much less burden on them. It shows you care about their time without making the focus about your failings and whether or not they agree they are failings.

    It’s subtle, but I find it’s made a huge difference for me.

    I also agree with others, in my experience apologies should be reserved for regret and actual feelings of penitence. It’s actually a very strong value of mine nowadays, and it certainly makes me much healthier.

    Just some thoughts about what I’ve learned about this particular situation, it’s up to you how valid you think they are.



  • It’s not a verbatim quote. It’s sardonic, derived from the introduction.

    I do not like being called “particularly vulnerable to the impact of traumatic events,” ha. Even if they are utilizing that phrasing primarily for kids and young adults, and hedge it in tentativeness, it genuinely is not a dissimilar wordage to people who had been abusive to me during those periods of my life.

    I wasn’t particularly vulnerable to the impact, I was in a crap situation trapped with people who deeply did not understand me, that had complete power over me. That would be bad for anyone.

    It’s not a critique of the article as a whole. More of a pet peeve on how many people frame approaching autism, even without any malignant intention. I don’t hold any ill will against the researchers, I’m just tired.

    ==

    I agree with the conclusion of your shared article that people have a tendency to frame perceptiveness as “too sensitive,” twisting a genuine strength into a bad thing to undermine your own critical thinking.

    I also want to state somehow that I appreciate the pure good faith way you approached my original comment ha, keep doing what you’re doing.




  • look up number. type out entire script for the conversation. make the script encompass absolutely anything that can happen in the call. come back to it in a few days. high energy day, find the place i typed my script and the number. triple check the number. call the number, follow the script. make sure to put off any immediate plan demands during the call to minimum two weeks out.

    that’s my process. i only run into problems if i have to rush things. but planning my life around avoiding other peoples’ rushes and emergencies works for the most part. it does require me to know extensively more about the systems i am calling than the people operating the systems to make a proper script, but the research is not typically a problem for me… it just takes time.

    usually if i follow this process and cover about 90% of topics in my script i can handle one or two issues.