Autism
A community for respectful discussion and memes related to autism acceptance. All neurotypes are welcome.
We have created our own instance! Visit Autism Place the following community for more info.
Community:
Values
- Acceptance
- Openness
- Understanding
- Equality
- Reciprocity
- Mutuality
- Love
Rules
- No abusive, derogatory, or offensive post/comments e.g: racism, sexism, religious hatred, homophobia, gatekeeping, trolling.
- Posts must be related to autism, off-topic discussions happen in the matrix chat.
- Your posts must include a text body. It doesn't have to be long, it just needs to be descriptive.
- Do not request donations.
- Be respectful in discussions.
- Do not post misinformation.
- Mark NSFW content accordingly.
- Do not promote Autism Speaks.
- General Lemmy World rules.
Encouraged
- Open acceptance of all autism levels as a respectable neurotype.
- Funny memes.
- Respectful venting.
- Describe posts of pictures/memes using text in the body for our visually impaired users.
- Welcoming and accepting attitudes.
- Questions regarding autism.
- Questions on confusing situations.
- Seeking and sharing support.
- Engagement in our community's values.
- Expressing a difference of opinion without directly insulting another user.
- Please report questionable posts and let the mods deal with it. Chat Room
- We have a chat room! Want to engage in dialogue? Come join us at the community's Matrix Chat.
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Helpful Resources
- Are you seeking education, support groups, and more? Take a look at our list of helpful resources.
That's sad your parents took your stuffed toys away ): Its never to late to get diagnosed but if you can't there is nothing wrong with being self diagnosed. People will give you a hard time about being self diagnosed but almost all autism communities are cool with self diagnosis.
Yes, I had a stuffed anatomical stomach, he was my favorite. I found him years later when I was helping my family clean the house, but my stepdad destroyed him and made me clean up the mess.
That last part is fucked up, it's only little context but he seems like a pretty toxic person for you
Yeah, he's pretty toxic, that's not even one of worst things he's done, but my family is toxic in general.
Welcome! And thanks for the introduction post. Personally, I find it extremely interesting to hear other people's situations and experiences.
Hi! Welcome to our community! I appreciate you sharing your persona experiences. They help me understand other autistic individuals' experiences and my own. In particular, we both share our families telling us we were odd. My family even had a nick name for me: Arnold Mal (I bet you can imagine how difficult it was to not only live with them, but be raised by people that nickname kids to make fun of a mental condition). My family are immigrants from Latin America, and I was the only US-born family member. Being that I was anglophone and odd, the name had double meaning. One, it's in English. The other is that when read in Spanish, it sounds like they are calling me abnormal in Spanish.
Since middle school, I knew I was different, but my family told me that I too sensitive or overly emotional and picky. Once I ran away as soon as I graduated high school, I tried to adjust, but still ran into difficulties, again blaming myself for being sensitive or socially dumb. I tried learning a lot about mental health disorders as a special interest, and figured I had a personality disorder that wasn't defined. It wasn't until I saw a relationship therapist that I asked her what was wrong with me. I said, "I know I'm different. I read the personality disorders in the DSM like 10 times, and I don't relate to any of them. What's wrong with me?" She was the first person in a long history of seeing psychiatrists, therapists, and getting misdiagnosed, that told me I wasn't broken, but instead seemed like a highly sensitive person. She had me investigate the phenomenon. She also told me to test out a lot of different social settings and told me to notice the people in settings I felt the most comfortable. She was guiding me to realize I was autistic.
While going through that journey, a friend that was a psychologist and also autistic finally told me that he thought I was autistic. I sought a professional assessment from an autism specialist that confirmed it. Getting diagnosed was so helpful at making sense of my life and how to adjust it so that I can finally be happy without always wondering the the hell is going on. I say all this to relate and give some personal experience on the benefits of a diagnosis because I saw that in another comment you ask if that was worth it. For me, it has been more than worth it. I would happily have paid double for the evaluation. It has been so impacting, that I can divide my life to before and after diagnosis.
Again, welcome to the community!
That's amazing. Thank you for sharing your experience. I would like to get evaluated someday. My speech has gotten better over the years but it's still not consistent, I still have trouble with speech speed, stuttering, and pronunciation and enunciation. Edit: Also it feels like I have an auditory delay. Someone will say something, but it's as if there's a delay in the processing as it won't click. Sometimes I don't immediately understand and it may take a few moments for it to register.
You're welcome!
I have that auditory delay as well. It makes it hard to have engaging conversations, especially when I've already been taxed out with other mental issues. I can hear a whole statement, and it wont register until seconds later. I can come off as rude or uninterested, but really, it's just the way my brain is functioning. 🤷♂️