#actuallyautistic

My two daughters relaxing in the front yard. The gray one is Mandy, 11 years old, and the black and white one is Tie, the same age.
#cats #catsofmastodon #kittens #daughters #actuallyautistic

I've moved my account from @bughuntercat to this @cesarpose.
The idea is that I want to return to using my real identity online, as part of the change that the diagnosis of autism and giftedness brought to my life and the understanding of what it means.
I'm grateful to the online friends who have helped a lot with this over the past two years, especially here on Mastodon.

@actuallyautistic @pathfinder
#actuallyautistic

Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 523 , Thursday 03/04/2025

Thursday started early, just after 6am, I thought that I would support my wife in looking after her mum - she had to take her to an appointment today - by making breakfast & generally being there - she ate breakfast then vanished as usual until 8:30am when she left the house.

I washed the dishes then did a few chores.
I went out around 11am for an hour finishing off the last bits & bobs on the gravel cleaning front.
I just need to tidy up the garden now then I can plant out the reed bed again.

Caught up on here this afternoon & spent a chunk of time being annoyed with a blind person who was failing to understand that his NT view of the world did not match the reality of the ND world that I & quite a few of the Peeps I share a TL with experience. Only goes to prove that everyone occasionally needs a reminder that they shouldn’t ’be a dick’.

For the avoidance of doubt, I personally do not knowingly use AI to generate content, however I see no harm in using content that has already been generated - it exists, the argument that me not using it in some way prevents it’s spread is not a valid argument as far as I am concerned. AI is not going away anytime soon, no matter how much we would wish it otherwise.
Also I feel that if other folk have life challenges that are made easier by using AI as a tool then that is perfectly reasonable.

Mrs S. got back just before 4pm, so we settled in to start watching ‘Stranger Things’ - yes I know that I’m decades behind!

Final Thoughts.

I’m pleased with what I managed in the garden today, there was a lot of work for not much visible result but things were achieved!

I’m also pleased that I managed to stick up for a friend without triggering myself too much - although I did get a bit cross at the end. Intolerance is such an ugly habit.

Thank you to all those who are helping me on this journey, in a myriad different ways. I am thankful to each & every one of you! 🫶

@actuallyautistic
#TimsASDjourney #ActuallyAutistic #Neurospicy #TheMammutMoves

I need to go out and talk to a human about something that will require an improvisation style conversation.

Improvisation means it’s much harder or impossible to script beforehand! As an #ActuallyAutistic person that means I am more likely to make a mistake in what I say, miss vital context, and/or be slow to process all the unexpected input… (my slowness to respond is usually interpreted as something else, usually people assume something negative).

Must be brave and just do it. Must. Can’t keep hiding on here!

It's #WorldAutismAwarenessDay, and I attained autism awareness at 6:30 this morning, although to be fair I tried to get back to sleep.

#ActuallyAutistic

Autism awareness, autism acceptance…

No one asked autists apparently because I have a pretty solid suspicion that if they did we would be talking about autism *understanding*

#ActuallyAutistic

Today, I’ll be getting a vaccine to boost my autism to SuperMegaCyborgTism! It comes with stimmy laser eyes that shine at neurotypicals expecting eye contact during conversation, 11.245 kHz hand flapping, 402 petabytes of special interest knowledge storage, and a HyperEmpath power boost!

#AprilFools #ActuallyAutistic

As Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month begins, I want to encourage you to support autistic individuals like myself who have faced challenges in finding or maintaining employment. Your support helps us build better lives and thrive.

Read more about me and how to support me here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/seththebrave/p/who-am-i-and-why-you-should-support?r=5bhbya&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

#trans #autistic
#autism #actuallyautistic #transgender #lgbt #adhd #neurodivergent #AutismAwareness #AutismAwarenessMonth

Happy Well-Intentioned People Who Don't Know Much About Autism Saying Somewhat Harmful Things And Then Forgetting About Us Entirely For The Rest Of The Year Month to those who celebrate.

@actuallyautistic #AutismAwarenessMonth

#ActuallyAutistic #AutismAwareness #AutismAcceptance #AutismAcceptanceMonth

Ah, it's Autism Awareness month when people pretend they care and raise money for an organization that spends donations on exec salaries, and funding tests to see if the child is autistic before it's born so it won't be born.

Let's just call this Autism Acceptance Month instead.

#ActuallyAutistic

#Autismus kann so sein:
Feiertage sind ein Problem für dich, weil sie deinen Rhythmus stören. Gleiches gilt für Verabredungen, Veranstaltungen, Termine - du brauchst Zeit, dich geistig auf ein Treffen mit anderen Menschen vorzubereiten. Jedenfalls wenn du dort sozial interagieren sollst.
Und nach so einem Termin bist du mehrere Tage „auf Tauchstation“ und wie verkatert, weil es dich so viel Energie gekostet hat (trotz netter Menschen)
#ActuallyAutistic

April ist der #AutismAwarenessMonth bzw #AutismAcceptanceMonth . Leider gibt es oft das Vorurteil, jemand könne nicht #Autist sein, weil er /sie arbeitet, sprechen kann, studiert hat, #Kinder / #Familie hat. Oder alle Autisten seien mathematisch begabt, orientierungslos im Freien, empathielos, ordentlich. Vergesst es. #Autismus ist ein #Spektrum. Fragt einfach Personen, die #ActuallyAutistic sind, was das für sie bedeutet und wie es sich anfühlt. Ihr werdet staunen.

@actuallyautistic

OK, my bash at something for Autism Awareness (or, as most of us would prefer, Acceptance) month.

I think so much of the problem why people can struggle to see us and to accept how we can be so diverse, is simply the language that is used to describe autism. And, perhaps, specifically, the English language. Because as everyone knows and to bastardise the original quote, English is basically a bunch of languages in a hooded robe, lurking in dark alleyways simply to mug other, more innocent, languages of their spare words.

It all too often this means that not only can the same word be used for different things, but that its meaning is all too often determined by the context and technical field in which it's being used. Different fields can use the same word to mean radically different things. But, unless you are aware of that, people tend to assume that it simply means what it generally and as far as they are concerned, normally does.

Autism is diagnosed.

The simple fact of the matter, is that nobody in history has ever been diagnosed with autism, either officially, or by themselves by being self-diagnosed. Not, in the way that most people understand the word, diagnosis. For them, it means a series of tests with definitive answers. Qualified people to administer and over-see those tests and in the end to interrupt, understand and give a clear-cut and unquestionable decision, backed up by those facts.

What we are is assessed and more specifically the likelihood of whether we fit within the current criteria for autism and the difficulties and therefore the support needs we may have because of that, is assessed. Well, in an official-diagnosis. Whereas self-diagnosis is a realisation, a recognition of the way so much is now explained, where it never was before.

To most people, there is a world of difference between a diagnosis and an assessment/realisation. Especially when it is used in a medical context.

Autism is a disability.

Well, this one is easier. Everyone knows what a disability looks like. In terms of autism, at best it ranges from "rain man", the idiot savant, to the absentminded, slightly, mad professor, or Sheldon Cooper look alike. But, all too often, it's the image and memory of all the children dragged across our screens by a certain well known charity/hate group, or during the height of the vaccines causes autism shit fest. It's the relative with genuine needs, or the relative of a friend of a friend, of a friend, who they have happened to have heard about once. It's not their teacher, or the friend they have who can't seem to hang onto a job and definitely not the person next door, who they nod to and talk to normally.

Autism is a spectrum.

People always think about a spectrum as a simple path from A to Z. A clear graduation of ability, or proficiency. As clear as the bands on a rainbow and as permanent. To think of it as the ever shifting and variable thing that it is as it applies to us, is understandably hard.

Autism isn't a disease.

But, doctors deal with it, diagnose it, it's clearly on the rise. Something must be causing it. If it's not a disease, then why are they involved?

I could go on. But, hopefully you get the point I'm vaguely trying to make. Language determines understanding and at the moment the language we use to describe ourselves, isn't really understood. Not in the ways that we want it to be and not because it's hard. But, because there are not enough stories out there that use it in the way that allows its meaning in this context to become more generally understood. The stories that include us and are from us and are not just about us. The stories that we can tell and show, often by simply being, that reveal what these words actually mean for us and that can allow others to understand and accept that, in the ways they can't, or struggle to, at the moment.

#Autism
#ActuallyAutistic

@dramypsyd

Which reminds me.

Doctor: I have the results for you. They show you are #autistic.
Patient: And how can you help me.
Doctor: We have a lot of therapies that will help you behave normally.
Patient: Fuck you.
Doctor: We’ve got treatments for Tourette’s too.

#ActuallyAutistic

Some of us just don’t like being touched & that’s ok.

Sound advice here about how to interact with cats. Coincidentally this is Exactly the approach needed by #ActuallyAutistic people like me. And, in my experience, by kids.

I wonder, how is this not obvious to everyone? The answer, I think, is that so many of us learn when we’re young that we’re not entitled to have boundaries. Not entitled to be safe.

Cats can teach us So Much about #consent. We are all entitled to be safe. @actuallyautistic

‘She treats everyone with a deep growl’: can you train an angry cat to be more sociable? https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/mar/30/she-treats-everyone-with-a-deep-growl-can-you-train-an-angry-cat-to-be-more-sociable?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating:

to every #ActuallyAutistic person who has been abused or neglected by their family of origin, or who has lost them to severe misunderstanding or other failure to accept you as who you are.

I plan to travel to the UK this summer. Does anyone has combined autism / ADHD printouts that fit a sunflower lanyard? #ActuallyAutistic #ActuallyADHD #AuDHD

If an autist muses they've noticed a pattern developing in something, no matter how unlikely it seems, chances are you'd be better off taking it to be real.

If an autist jokes about a pattern developing, and all the hilariously horrible consequences of that, you better go into an emergency mode, like, right now. That shit is serious, and absolutely certain to happen.

#ActuallyAutistic

Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 517 , Friday 28/03/2025

Friday started around 07:30, came down & got breakfast then did my chores.

Mrs S. went shopping & then went to see her mum so I had the house to myself for the morning.

Read a little, played a little NMS.

We watched ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Robert De Niro & Leonardo DiCaprio were excellent as was Lily Gladstone - who was amazing. The movie was much too long though, at 3½ hrs. Martin Scorsese didn’t need to squeeze every last drop out of the story, it made it overly slow.

We had pizza for tea & watched a couple of episodes of ‘Waking the dead’ to finish the evening.

Final Thoughts.

Another quiet day, back to normal next week.

Thank you to all those who are helping me on this journey, in a myriad different ways. I am thankful to each & every one of you! 🫶

@actuallyautistic
#TimsASDjourney #ActuallyAutistic #Neurospicy #TheMammutMoves

There is a man who was deported to an El Salvador concentration camp for a tattoo….of a rainbow autism awareness ribbon symbol in solidarity with his autistic brother.

I expect tattoos in support of any diversity are getting called ‘gang’ tattoos.

https://youtu.be/7gJFeOFUC70

#autismawareness #actuallyautistic #tattoo #uspol #us