I have a very powerful sense of smell.

I prefer Claude.ai

the people I know don't listen and often hear the opposite of what I say. That's why I have to repeat myself a lot.

I've been like this ever since I quit school.

cross-posted from: https://literature.cafe/post/10359040

Scientists Pinpoint Main Cause of Sensory Hypersensitivity in Autism

This study has identified the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as a key area in the brain responsible for sensory hypersensitivity in autism spectrum disorders. Utilizing a mouse model with a Grin2b gene mutation, heightened neural activity and connectivity in the ACC was observed. Suppressing this hyperactivity normalized the sensory hypersensitivity, offering new insights into treatment options

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-024-02572-y (open access)

I'm looking for online programs that help us navigate the world as autistic people. It could be anything, such as learning about autism, neurotypicals, social settings, identifying your emotions, self-care for autistic people, common terms related to autism, autistic love languages, etc...anything that helps autistic people live life.

If you have completed any programs related to being autistic, what were they and what did you think about them? Were they helpful?

The 60s and 70s (for me) had no awareness of my problems. Only now am I discovering that I did what I could, but I wasn't equipped to deal with people well.

It's too late for me, but I'm glad kids today have more resources, although the problems are just as hard to navigate.

God bless you all.

I'm not the kind of 'trendy' bipolar, although my cunt of an aunt believes I have 'convinced' myself of that, despite being to the nuthouse twice (50 days total) and several psycho-shinks having diagnosed me with several other mental disorders; the very first nuttyness I got diagnosed with was of course, ADD/ADHD. I was given Ritalin. I still take Ritalin though, 2 kinds of it (36mg extended release and 20mg regular type),

So given that I have had a natural birth, the flow of oxygen could have been cut off to my brain. So could I also be 'on the spectrum' as they say?

I am not a healthy person. I am very obsessive with shit nobody cares about. But that's the funhouse version of 'autism' that media shows. Plus it could be from Ritalin use.

How do I know that I am 'on the spectrum' without relying much on any external sources? Is it like bipolarity where they give you pills? What does exactly happen when you are known to be an autistic person?

Is it even necessary if I get diagnosed? I already know my brain is not right. So what's the use in getting the double.

But honestly I have some obsessions that could signal a bit of on-the-spectrum-y-ness? Like why do I hate Rust and all Rust programmers?

I don't do well socially either. Again I realize these are 'funhouse' and 'stereotypical' things people say about people on 'the spctrum'. But I get annoyed even if people use the apostrophe ' incorrectly!

I could just be an obsessive asshole. I am also a druggie but that's a whole other story.

My family is chockful of bipolar people btw, but not many autistic people. My second cousin, son of my first cousin once removed, is autistic. As I understand chief reason for this is your mom and dad being old. Like my first cousin once removed was 40 when she had her son, her husband was in his 40s too.

On the other hand, my mom was 21 when she had me, and my dad 26. It's a known fact that the younger humans are, the healthier you are. I am not trying to troll anybody, this is just a fact. Two things ruins chances of a healthy off-spring, one is consanguineous relations, the other is age. I live in one of those retarded countries where it's still not proven to people that fucking your cousin is bad actually. My parents were from different cities, different races even. My dad was brown-skinned and green-eyed, my mom is white-skinned and brown-haired. Both are ethnically Persian though. Although my dad's grandmother was a gypsy, these gypsies are not the ones you find in Romania, these are the gypsies who stayed behind closer to the place of origin. We call them 'jatts'; and that's how anthropologists know gypsies come from India (if people close to India call them 'jatt', and there's a group of people in India called 'jatt' then, put two and two together I guess! You are smart, your parents weren't brother and sister, or were they?)

Thanks for your help.

I'm still on my journey of understanding the differences between autism and other. My focus today is eye contact, so let's have a discussion!

Guiding questions:

• What do you think is the underlying difference that causes autistic people to use less eye contact than others?

• What does it feel like for you?

• How do you interpret other people's eye contact?

• Do you avoid it, use short glances, or maintain NT-levels of eye contact?

• Does it vary by situation?

• Anything else you would like to discuss regarding eye contact?

Question is open to anyone. If not identified, then the assumption is the user is autistic. Otherwise, if you're NT or other ND, please state so 🙂

My partner and I just had a talk about it. Basically, she celebrated her birthday today. I was on her party, and it was fun, but I left after around 2 hours to get home and relax a bit. After I arrived, a friend of mine texted me and asked me if I wanted to go to a lake and see the sunset. I agreed, we went to the lake and went swimming in it; it was really nice. Later, after arriving at my partners, she talked with me that it hurts her that I went out with someone else on her birthday, doing a romantically coded activity.

To be honest, I realize that I don't have a single clue what is coded as a romantically coded activity. For me, this was something completely okay and appropriate, because it is for me clearly a friend-thing; but my partner explained to me that the combination of going out with another person on her birthday and going to a sea, which is a secluded place, just heavily connotates it in a romantic way.

I understand that what I've done here wasn't right, and that I have responsibility here. Even though I didn't want to hurt my partner, it is still my responsibility to inform myself here on romantically conmotated things you shouldn't do in a partnership. So, dear people of Lemmy, what does constitute a romantic moment?

Edit: I've left out some information which seems to be important for the whole picture . I've copied it out of my comment and adding it here:

Me and my gf got together in August of last year, so basically 8 months ago; we were friends for half a year before that. She got cheated on in her long distance relationship before.

The friend who invited me to the sea I actually know for almost as long as my partner, from the beginning of Uni. She had a breakup from a three-year old relationship a few months ago, and I was there to support her. I didn't clarify before though if she was okay with me cuddling with people or not; I assumed it was with her, because it was okay in her LDR before - which was wrong of me. I overstepped the boundaries of my partner here.

The friend in question kissed me at the neck while I was at hers. I talked with her about it and let her know that I wasn't okay with it, to which she reacted quite hurt. She then told me that we shouldn't be friends, but two weeks ago she collapsed at Uni and I brought her home. Now we are meeting again.

While I'm writing this down, I'm actually starting to notice that there are a lot of other factors playing in why my partner is upset here. She has been cheated on in the past, which definitely leads her to feel uncomfortable about my actions, even though I obviously don't want to cheat. I broke a societally unwritten rule of not meeting people in romantically coded settings on your partners birthday. And I overstepped the boundary of my partner before by cuddling with the friend without my partners consent.

I want to be more respecting of my own sensory needs, and notice certain fabrics are incredible uncomfortable, as opposed to others. I've also noticed loose clothing feels more comfortable for me, then tight clothes. Cotton feels good, polyester does not. I understand this may potentially vary for each person, but wanted to ask about it anyway.

I think it would be interesting to share lessons we've learned about socializing that didn't come natural to us like they do for NTs.

• What social difficulties did you have, and what did you learn to compensate for them?

• Also, since there's a difference between autistic and NT cultures, what lessons did you learn about socializing with NTs and in NT environments?

Infodumps are welcomed! 😁

If you have, how well has it helped? Did different colors, such as those driving yellow tinted ones, help more? I have some transitions glasses, but that only helps outside. I saw on at least one site rose colored migraine glasses and am thinking about getting a pair.

A video covering what they look like and what can trigger them.

I am reading "Unmasking Autism" by Devon Price and the introduction has an exercise that requires you to come up with 5 moments in your life where you felt fully alive. I have spent the better part of yesterday trying to remember such moments, but I am not even sure what it means... I was hoping the community here can provide some insights, either by sharing their moments or their definition of being "fully alive".

Full text of the exercise for anyone interested:

Instructions: Think of five moments in your life when you felt like you were FULLY ALIVE. Try to find moments from throughout your life (childhood, adolescence, adulthood; school, work, vacation, hobbies).

Some of the moments might leave you with a sense of awe and wonder—“wow, if all of life was like that, life would be amazing!” Some of the moments might leave you feeling deeply recharged and ready to face the next challenge, or satisfied and fulfilled.

Write down each of these moments. Tell the story of each moment in as much detail as possible. Try to think specifically about why the moment stuck with you sodramatically.

Edit: A few people have interpreted the title as serious, so I wanna clarify that it was meant as a sarcastic joke about how little sense the neurotypical world makes to me, but it is still legitimately me asking for help understanding said neurotypical world.

Was having a conversation with a friend today about why I seem unapproachable to people online. Apparently it's for 2 reasons.

One is that I say "K." all the time, as a short way of saying okay. She pointed out that most people find this rude and offensive. This kinda baffled me, because like why? She explained that like, if somebody were to give a long emotional speech and I just responded "K." that would be offensive. That confounds me. So it's rude in one context, and neurotypicals have decided to be offended by it in all contexts? But the reason it's rude is what confuses me more. Apparently it's considered lazy because you could have just typed out the word, but like, that applies to all text speech and nobody's mad about people shortening those words.

But it got more confusing when she explained the second reason, which is that I end all of my sentences with proper punctuation, which she said "makes people feel like I'm done with the conversation and not interested." But just a second ago improper grammar was rude, and now proper grammar is rude instead.

It baffles me. You can't just use proper or improper grammar. Use too much improper grammar and you're lazy and rude. Use too little and you're also rude. But you can't just use any improper grammar, you have to use the very specific subset of improper grammar that's been deemed acceptable and not lazy (even though it's exactly as lazy as what they do consider lazy.)

To be clear, I'm not bitter, and I'm definitely gonna adjust my behavior to hopefully seem a little less rude to people. I think that's just a nice thing to do. I just find the neurotypical mind utterly fascinating. I don't think they even realize how many contradictions exist in the social rules they all so easily accept.

II have thought about this off an on for a while, and decided I will talk more about it here since I haven't been able to find a more welcome place for someone who is considered spiritual and on the autistic spectrum. I'm not even sure what the right place is though as there are times I tend to feel lost in more ways than one and perhaps cut off when I get mistaken for an AI bot in a few places.

My story starts where I was born into a family with a Mormon Church ancestry, even though I wasn't actually connected to the Christian Church. I'm not going to go into religion here since I don't want this to turn into some religious argument. Anyway, when I was six or seven years old living in a house further away from my grandma's house, it seemed apparent that I was more connected to nature where I would watch water running along the ground in little rivers.

After my family had moved back closer to my grandma, I found myself going out into the woods behind her backyard almost every time I was visiting her and going to the stream back there to look at it. I remember during the time it seemed magical and mystical while I was exploring on the frozen marsh there in late fall and was looking at the twilight in the sky at sunset realizing I needed to head back to the house.

During one of the times I was out in those woods as a kid, I had encountered something that looked human that said "hey there' and I ran all the way back to the house scared not knowing what it is. Sometime after that, there was upheaval going on between my parents which may have been due to the time the chimney was blocked and the house was smoking up, I ended up being brought to my grandma's house with my siblings to spend the night. I have memories of wearing footed pajamas with the vinyl feet, but had developed holes in the feet for some reason. It was night and I could sense there is something out there.

When I was home again and it was sometime around late spring or summer, I had become interested in the Care Bears and while I was playing with brick blocks, wooden blocks, and large train tracks that were plastic from a riding train in the basement playroom, I was writing letters to Tender Heart Bear and leaving them in the kitchen window where they were being answered. I think it may have been because I was looking for a friend since I was friends with the neighbor girl Carrie before, but then she stopped being friends of me and my siblings weren't being kind to me either.

At some point, I was allowed to get this three foot tall Tender Heart Bear plush from Toys-r-Us after getting good grades in school, and it became my only friend. Sometime later, there was upheaval going on between my parents again and we ended up being forced to leave there and go on a cross country trip to Washington State. I couldn't bring much of anything with me and so I lost a number of things including my three foot Tenderheart Bears.

While I was in the van traveling by woodlands, I had this mystical sensation of something out there calling me to come back out into the woods for some reason and couldn't do anything while in a van. On top of that, I remember seeing the darkening sky and sensed some kind of mystical connection with the western sky for some reason as well, and this might be related to the feeling of being disconnected from nature and lost.

Years later, when I was back on the east coast and was living in a town house in northwest New Jersey after moving a couple more times, I recovered my three foot Tenderheart Bear and I also had a dream about seeing a white mouse who was named Heather in the backyard who was sad. She told me her husband was killed by a croaker while searching for one of the two greatest treasures in the world, and she was pointing to a steep grassy hill that appeared in the distance from the house as she continued saying one of the two greatest treasures lies just over that hill.

This may been related to where I used to live in Pennsylvania where there is a tree covered hill in a similar location from the front of the house, and over it is where my grandma's house is located. During that time, my mother had met someone who was having me forced to be going to a Christian Church and I really didn't seem at all comfortable with it, but thankfully I was no longer going there after she broke up with him. Sometime after that when I was beginning to look at Pagan and Druid stuff out of interest, I was visiting my grandma's house again thanks to my sister.

During a visit out there again, I was sensing this presence there and wasn't sure what it was even though it led to me having dreams about a fox. I ended up looking for help and was soon hooked up with a seer calling herself Yotewah and Coyote's Green Eyed Daughter, She also went by the name of Kikyo and I told her about the presence I felt at my grandma's house while showing her a sketch I did of a fox wearing blue clothing I had seen and remember from one of my dreams, and she astral traveled afterward to find that it is a fox boy called Kane.

A while after that and feeling like he is a friend I lost years ago at my grandma's house, I ended up with my getting someone to make me a custom Kane the Fox plush so I have something physical I can cuddle up to. Sometime after that, I had a dream about a girl outside the first townhouse I was moved to in Northwest New Jersey, and brought that up with the seer who found it was a fae girl named Lindsey who is an elf girl. She saw she was being chased by something dark and evil and took care of whatever it was. That later ended up with me having a custom plush I made of her using her description that I remembered,

When I started having a couple dreams about darkness out in the woods behind my grandma's house that may be related to what I saw out there when I was a kid, I told the seer about them and she had astral traveled there to cleanse the woods and my grandma's house. She told me there was some sort of guardian that she cleaned as they were being harmed by something that had the form of the Sprite from the Secret of Mana game.

After I had been moved out into a rural area with a yard that had some trees, I remember having a dream being in the yard there and could feel this pulling sensation. So I had contacted the seer about there and she found out there is a vortex and guardian there nearby. Then while I was back at my grandma's house and talking to her about Kane the Fox, she assumed it represented me due to having the Todd as one of my surnames. After I told her about the seer I had been talking to and showing her all the records that I kept, she had wanted to know her credentials even though she had not asked for money or anything in return. I later did that and ended up learning the seer was taught by the Elder of Serpentstone, it let to a little bit of an argument with her and I continued talking to the seer.

Not long after that, I had a dream about something pretending to be Kane that had a crescent moon on its cheek and I was uncomfortable. I also remember seeing an eclipse in the sky in the dream. After I had another dream where I could hear Kane calling for help, I contacted the seer and she looked into it and found that it was a Kane Pretender who trapped Kane away from me. She not only found and brought him back to me, but sealed the Kane Pretender away in an ice sphere of love and placed it in an ice glacier somewhere guarded by a dragon.

After that ordeal, I started having dreams again with Kane in them and was better. I continued having the dreams about him off and on as well as a few about Lindsey, and soon I had moved one last time into a house with a larger piece of property that included woods out back. Just after the move, I was feeling rather uncomfortable and had a couple dreams about fairies. I told the seer about this and after investigating, it turned out that I have fairies that are not only fond of me, but had been told the name of their queen. I continued having dreams about Kane and my grandma's house off an on and at some point, I have lost contact with the seer.

Some more years have passed and now I have been feeling worried and a little depressed (lately around the winter solstice when the days are short and no greenery to be seen outside other than bamboo, plus too cold to go outside). It may be due to the state of the world and things being forgotten and taken away leading to the feeling of them being lost, and the fact that recently I have been seeing trees dying off. It could also be the fear that I'm having on and off about emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, the fear of an artificial super intelligence, and brain computer interfaces and stuff that are a threat to the innermost privacy of the mind, and there being too much change happening and autistic people cannot adapt to change well.

This could very well be because of my strong connection with the woodlands and there being decline of woodlands that is upsetting to me like I can feel the pain of what is happening to nature and to the fae folk. At this time, it seems I'm feeling so lost and so cut off since I haven't picked up much friends. There were also were attempts to get me back into the christian church and be cut off my attachments with the woods and the spiritual friends I have. When I first brought this up in a Pagan subreddit on Reddit, someone alerted Reddit Help Resources which I don't think if that was right as I wasn't even talking about committing suicide as its not quite that bad, and I'm not thinking that for that matter.

Right now, I have been thinking positively on what thinks can be talked about or done, and it feels like we need to bring back something like a Koala Kafe in the comforting woods to talk about stuff like this. I also keep thinking about the Last Mimzy movie where it feels like Gaia, the soul of our world, has become sick and people are becoming isolated and warlike (see what is happening to Ukraine and Israel), and our world is frightened and is dying. And has feeling like looking for a great scientist to try many times and is willing to try once more, this is the Last Lindsey (based from the elf girl with a strong affinity for the forests since she is of the forest). Her task feels like it would be teaching of how precious the woodlands are and saving them, as well as finding a soul not contaminated by the technological pollutants that fill our bodies and minds like our precious quality of humanity has been turned off, and it is said the soul's tears would contain an instruction for an awakening that would spread like wildflowers.

Anyway, sometimes I feel like we could use something like a Koala Kafe in a peaceful woodland place that is like being among the comforting koalas, even though they are listed as endangered in Australia and need our help. I also have lots of created characters and ideas and had been trying to work on a few stories, but I feel bringing them online in the wrong place will lead them being scraped by AI Bots and be used against me to make things worse. I'm just afraid whatever I create and write to give to be helpful would also end up be given to the elite few thanks to their AI bots. I feel that I currently need someone to talk to about this and figure out what the solution to this is.

Makes me wonder about what other amazing things are out there that I'll never find just because of bad luck. Gives me anxiety sometimes

I'm always surprised when it happens. 99% of the time I'm just tolerated, but every once in a while someone asks. Happened last night. I was sooooooooo happy.

Hi, I have recalled that I had been invited to post here sometime ago while I had some other issue going on, which I think it involved Reddit. Right now, I'm feeling okay, but perhaps feeling a little worried, and I'm wondering if I could talk about it here even though I'm on the spectrum as I had been diagnosed in the past with having Asperger's Syndrome. I must let you know that it may run long as it will probably also include experiences I had in the past since when I used to be a child.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14976977

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14976953

I guess I'm just Single Minded

P.S. my store is on sale!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14945997

The Pedants Club

Author IG

For me it's always been a huge issue. I am not even that old but I've still noticed a massive change in how autism is seen from when I was growing up until now.

Many people didn't fully understand what autism was and I was just blanked with the term "special needs". A term I hate with a burning passion. I only realised this as I entered adulthood but I was always told that I a different but never really told how. I knew that it would be more difficult for me to learn, I knew I would have meltdowns and I stim. That's it. And that lack of knowledge lead to me having such an internalised ablist few of myself. It saddens me when I realise that 14 year old me deep down thought of themselves as weird freak.

I could go on and on about my experiences as a teenager but this post can only go on for so long. I suppose the biggest thing was not being told about executive dysfunction. I was the brightest in my class but then it became impossible to get myself to study. My grades started declining. I would get upset and then my inability to focus and study made me feel an intense self loathing. It got to the point where I would frequently have meltdowns and punch myself in the head. When that happened I would just be sent home or suspended. The process would continue without my school or parents trying to get me any help. They all just brushed it off as my autism. And I was told repeatedly that I should be grateful that I wasn't expelled. Naturally, my repeated meltdowns lead to people avoiding me which worsened my self esteem which made it even harder for me to study which lead to more meltdowns. I was constantly just sent home.

Looking back. If one person just explained to me what executive dysfunction is the first time I had a meltdown. I dunno, my life would be completely different. No one ever told me this. I had to figure all this out about myself by myself.

Being able to understand yourself and how your condition affects you is important. I have myself fallen into pits of intense self loathing because of it and I've sadly seen other people on the spectrum do so as well.