I can’t begin to express the difference it makes just that I’m able to wear exclusively t-shirts, baggy shorts, and flip-flops. And the thing is, right. What you notice is that I’m wearing something slightly odd for the weather. What you don’t notice is that I’m not curled up with my hands clamped over my ears because socks make the clinking plates in the restaurant too loud.
Also, as an adult, I can organize how I run the more difficult parts of coping with my disorder for myself. I can pick out writing instruments and paper for myself, keeping a bullet journal, instead of using a school-provided planner that's formatted for an allistic person and a cheap wooden pencil that smudges when I touch it and fouls my hands and needs sharpening and breaks.
I don't have to pick clothes to wear for the day that someone else bought me that have to adhere to a set of rules I never agreed to.
I get to choose my haircuts and how often they're done.
I can say no to things and not elaborate why.
I have autonomy and freedom your 8-year-old autistic nephew does not.
“socks make the clinking plates in the restaurant too loud” is a fucking FASCINATING way to describe multiple sensory issues leading to overstimulation
[image: tweet by pot8um, transcribed below:]
So many things are out of kid's control— uncomfy clothes, loud noises, icky food, confusing rules...
As an adult, I make my own choices. I wear, eat, and do what I like, because if I don't, I get overloaded.
That's why I don't remind you of your 8-year-old autistic nephew.
generally speaking when it comes to mental and physical health, if you're asked "do you struggle with this" and your answer is "no, Because I Have A System," then your answer is actually yes
Also, for ADHD symptoms specifically, if they ask something like, "Do you have trouble waiting your turn in conversations?" and your answer is, "No I'm a grown up I don't interrupt people," but you are constantly finishing sentences for people in your head and have formulated three replies before they finish talking.... the answer is yes, yes you do.
And if you can stay in your seat but are constantly bouncing a leg, clicking a pen, tapping out a rhythm on your thigh, or otherwise fidgeting, the answer is, yes, you do have trouble staying in your seat.
Neurotypicals do not require iron clad self control and three coping techniques to sit still during a meeting.
What if your answer is "No, I don't have trouble waiting my turn because I can't tell when it's my turn so I never take my turn."?
*taps sign*
reminder that 30 isn’t old, it’s very normal to not accomplish everything in your 20s, and that it is never too late to learn that thing you’ve always wanted to learn. you’re always growing. that’s a good thing.
Who the hell accomplishes everything in their 20s? Who made that a thing?
I was 48 when I started my apprenticeship to become a tattoo artist. I was 50 when I married the love of my life.
You’ve got time.
I needed this right now. I’ve got time!!!
To anyone who needs to hear this, my aunt called my mom last year in tears and, as she talked about how things are going, she admitted that she didn’t know she could be so happy, and she didn’t know how good life could be.
She is 72. After a very rough go of things, she is now with someone who cherishes her (met him three years ago!), goes on bucket-list road trips multiple times a year, founded two nonprofits to help people who have been through similar struggles, and feels fulfilled.
30 isn’t too late. Neither is 40, nor 50, nor even 70.
You should support, love, celebrate, and uplift trans men's manhood and/or masculinity more than you hate [cis] men. Btw.
If you make a forcefemme joke towards a trans dude, I'm coming to your house and pissing on all your most prized possessions.
Trauma is not always gigahyperultra bad things that happen to people. What's traumatic to one person might not affect another person in the slightest. Trauma is individual to the person experiencing it. If you have memories of something traumatic that you have been told repeatedly can't be traumatic because its "too tame", this is your sign to start accepting that trauma
One thing about being transfem online--or in real life let's be frank--is that you must live in fear of making a single mistake lest you are punished by the fury of the panopticon
big big reminder that high support needs / severe autism / level 3 autism folk aren't very straightforward narrow topic too . we rather big spectrum as well !!! some us need very specific type supports than another some us need multiple caretakers ect !!! and reminder that just because high support needs / severe autism / level 3 autism person learn to do or can do a task independently doesn't mean theyre lower needs now.
i know level 3 autistic guy with severe cognitive impairment who can unload and load dishwasher by self, set plates on table for meals and wash body most well independently but with supervised in the room for safety, but that dont make his support needs and autism level lower he still cant take care of himself by own, cant go out home by self, cant shop by self, cant drive, doesn't understand stuff same level others do, still need that carer for life.
so please remember autistic people who high need level 3 severe ect not monolith too we are all different, different interests, different abilities, different ways of supports too!!
I think some of you forgot that autistic people sometimes act strange and say things that are poorly worded and speak with incorrect tone and misunderstand or miss social cues because they are autistic
"I love autistic people" until the autistic person speaks too loud and you think they should be mocked because they didn't perform a social interaction correctly
"aUtIsM dOeSn'T mAkE yOu An AsShOlE!!!1!1"
"You can't blame everything on your autism you're just being an asshole"
Actually yes I can. Most of the time people think I am being an asshole/rude/insensitive because I use the same cadence for everything because it is the one I know best (monotone, and often interpreted as slightly sarcastic), I learned to speak mostly by mimicking my father. I talk like that because I have autism. I also have trouble determining what to say to people who are upset, and I often end up making it worse because of my low empathy, even though I genuinely care I often come off as accidentally antagonistic. (An example that comes to mind is sending a friend in elementary school pictures of cute dogs to cheer them up after their dog unexpectedly died in a freak accident. This did Not help.)
So yes I literally can blame "being an asshole" on my autism. If I said something wrong, maybe tell me what I did so I can avoid it? Idk. I guess I'm just a Rude Unpleasant Person Forever.
Honestly if someone can't distinguish "good intentions but struggling to communicate" from "being an asshole" that's a them problem not an autism problem. It's amazing how allistic people are sooooo good at empathy right up until an autistic person is obviously trying their fucking best and might need a crumb of support to be understood.
Vaguely remember skimming this post that was meant to 'explain' the lack of trans men in history and it was like 'they all went off and lived happily in rural farms without anyone finding out they were trans.'
And it just read like a parent telling you that your pet didn't die they went to a beautiful farm with lots of other soft cuddly kittens.
Like no, the reason why there was a lack of trans men is because they got put in 'crazy woman' facilities, got married off young to abusive husbands, got lobotomies, never had a chance to exist in public life as anything but an extension of their husbands, were drugged into submission, usually unable to legally leave even if they somehow got the money while being unable to work or have a bank account.
Thats the reason there was a lack of trans men.
No one talks about who did it first and inspired the NAACP to do a publicity stunt in which Rosa Parks did it.
Claudette Colvin is a civil rights activist who, before Rosa Parks, refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. She was arrested and became one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, which ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional. Colvin later moved to New York City and worked as a nurse's aide. She retired in 2004.
Claudette Colvin was so important to the movement but so few people know who she is. Rosa Parks did what she did because Claudette was pregnant and unmarried at the time. The activists who were promoting her case thought that her circumstances would be used to discredit her, and they were almost certainly right. A pregnant unmarried teen would be dragged through the mud today, let alone 1955.
It's so wild that people think that the Civil Rights era was so removed from us. Claudette Colvin is still alive. She was only around 65 in 2004. I was a child in 2004. My mom is only 10 years younger than her. A lot of the people who fought for our rights are still living today. So are the people who tried to stop them.
When you kill a healthcare ceo, it’s terrorism. When someone shoots your kid in elementary school, it’s thoughts and prayers for like a week and then they move on. It truly shows the fact that terrorism is whatever the american government wants it to mean.
They say "we need guns in order to fight back against tyranny".
Then, when someone does exactly that, the same people call him a terrorist.
when usamericans try to say they have it as bad as people in the global south it just reveals that they genuinely do not believe or do not comprehend the fact that real people are currently being killed with bombs