"Based on data gleaned from the nearly 10 million military dependents it insures, the U.S. Department of Defense has repeatedly called the evidence supporting ABA “weak,” noting there is no research to determine whether the small number of participants who show improvement — 15% — do so because of treatment or simply because a child has matured. After a year of the therapy, the department reported to Congress in 2019, 76% of 16,000 participating autistic children saw no change, and 9% worsened."

I get in this sort of weird state where I’m socially/physically tired but not absolutely exhausted yet to the extent that I can’t interact at all, where I just completely lose all ability to mask.

I might actually start talking more than when I’m at full social energy because I put a lot of that energy into both limiting and regulating my speech, so without much of the reservoir left to tap into I become much more blunt and less able to discern complicated social cues, such as timing when speaking and changing how I talk depending on who I’m around.

It kind of freaks me out because I start to feel as though I’ve lost some control over myself, and I always feel embarrassed afterwards about the unfiltered things I said.

shoutout to everyone who wants to infodump but cant string together coherent thoughts to form sentences and instead just look at you like this

Is it a universal Autism experience to say something and then the people around you laugh and you ask "What's so funny?" and they say "Nothing" because NTs like to play a game with us called Guess What You Said That Made Me Laugh

"This is something Autistics commonly do" and "this is something everyone does at points" can and do exist together.

"That isn't an autistic thing. Everyone does that." Yes, but the post is to autistics, by an autistic, about autism.

Coming into autism spaces, where we are asking for help or looking for others who suffer as we suffer, and trying to invalidate that experience as "something everyone does" is not as big of a flex as you think.

Yes, everyone struggles with the things autistics struggle with.

No, it isn't the same experience.

Some autistics say they felt very different from others growing up, like they were an alien among others.

I thought I was like everyone else, and that everyone else was like me. I was just much worse at handling being human than they were.

A little reminder that the "scary" neurodivergents belong in the community too. The ones with intrusive thoughts. The ones who seem self-centered.

The people with ocd, bpd, npd. Stuff like that. They belong here too.

hey *gets physically ill engaging with hyperfixation*

I get the uncontrollable urge to bite charging cables

Please do not approach me.

I am overstimulated and may begin emitting ionizing radiation as a defensive reflex.

having empathy doesn't make someone inherently a good person.

yes, people without empathy or with low empathy are more likely to hurt you without realising, due to the fact we often don't understand how our actions affect you or might make you feel. but that doesn't mean people with empathy are better or never going to hurt people, nor does it mean everyone with low/no empathy will hurt someone or that they should be treated as ‘evil’ if they do.

if anything it just means it's often more malicious when people who do experience empathy hurt you, because they knew the impact it would have and yet still did it anyway.

as someone in my comments recently quoted:

‘the most vicious acts of cruelty require a high degree of empathy.’

Shout-out to the autistics who crave hugs. Shout-out to the autistics whose love language is touch.

And shout-out to the autistics who were denied a timely diagnosis because a misinformed professional thought you were "too affectionate" to be autistic.

You aren't any less autistic because of how you show affection. And you aren't nearly as rare as pop culture and outdated research would imply.

This reminds me of the time I had to meet up with my teacher for something but she forgot about the meeting and was confused why I was there. Anyway I got thrown off by that and wasn’t able to speak for a good moment so I whipped out a picture of twilight sparkle with the text “overstimulated” on top of her to explain myself

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i went nonverbal, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

Please help me. My name is Shirley. I am autistic and disabled. I ran away from my abusive parents a few years ago. I’ve been moving from place to place. A man offered me a place to stay when I was homeless. He knew I had Asperger’s syndrome and took advantage of me. I basically slept with him for shelter. A couple of months ago I was able to find my own apartment. Things went downhill when I was fired from my third job. It has been very difficult for me to find employment due to mental health issues. I have been transferring money out of my credit card to my debit card in order to pay my rent. I also have to pay interest, which makes it worse. My credit card is about to be maxed out and I could get evicted.

It would mean so much to me if you could donate or share the link to my GoFundMe. Thank you so much

https://gofund.me/a6fcefdc

I went to a new classroom to take a test and the proctor immediately called me out for ‘rolling my eyes’ and I got intense flashbacks to getting reprimanded for doing something unintentionally rude as a kid

I��ve always refused to take ‘because I said so’ for an answer. My parents learned this about me early on. It’s the kind of response that makes me angrier than almost anything can. I guess it’s the restrictions being imposed, choices being made ect for completely arbitrary reasons. That’s what frustrates me. It feels so patently irrational, in a world that claims to run on a rational basis (note: it’s okay that people don’t act purely on rationality, I know I don’t. My issue is more the hypocrisy of claiming to do so when you don’t.)

And the worst thing is if you push back against this, you’re met with a firmer shut down. It’s an unstoppable force (little autistic me) meeting an immovable object (my parents).

And the thing is I’m not just being contrarian for the sake of it! If a decision I don’t like on its face is made, if there is a genuinely good reason behind it I will be satisfied with that. Even if I don’t entirely agree with the reasoning, I will at least understand where you came from. But if there simply is not reason- if it’s simply an appeal to one’s own authority, I think I’m justified in being upset by that.