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breaking news!
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There are better ways to support our communities than ABA. Learn more in our resource, “Beyond Coercion and Institutionalization: People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and the Need for Improved Behavior Support Services”: https://autisticadvocacy.org/2024/05/beyond-coercion-and-institutionalization/
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Sometimes it can take some time to process...
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rare vent art from a few months ago
I feel this!!! Also love how you muted the color along the way, I think it makes it that much more impactful!
This is the thing!
…Takes a while, sometimes.
Keep looking tho - they are out there and it is worth it when you find them.
Love it every time.
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My doctors know I have adhd + autism but every time I bring up my sleeping problems they insist that my problems are due to me taking a nap during the day.
The only thing is I need a nap to function recharge after a long day and to prepare for the rest of the day.
It has gotten so bad that I say I am sleeping fine when I’m not.
What is your opinion on all of this?
Naps are good. Naps are good!
Short term memory is stored in the hippocampus and is only filtered during sleep! That's why you feel able to think better after a nap. Because that full brain feeling has been reduced by memory consolidation.
They boost moods, reduce inflammation, improve memory etc etc
And considering the fact that autism and ADHD are linked to poorer sleep quality, and more sleep difficulties, a nap is a great way to get more rest.
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executive dysfunction is telling yourself for two and a half hours that you need to shower bc you smell like your workplace and you absolutely Cannot do Anything Else until you shower, doing Any Other Thing before showering is illegal!!! but you still haven’t for some reason??? you’ve just been sitting on your bed in a towel scrolling tumblr for 2+ hours thinking “I need to shower right now immediately” and growing increasingly frustrated that you are still not clean and you haven’t eaten or done your laundry either
mememic-bry
ok actually no I’m reblogging this because a) I am clean now (and I smell amazing, thank you), and b) I had a heckin Realize and I wanted to share it with y’all in the hopes it’ll help someone else with a brain like mine.
I figured something out about myself a long time ago– it’s only just now occurred to me that I was in fact solving a problem caused by executive dysfunction, and I haven’t been implementing this solution lately because my brain went “that’s a relatively new term to me and therefore a Different problem that requires a Different solution”. thanks a lot, brain.
anyway, long long ago, before I knew these fancy schmancy Official words, the problem, as I phrased it to myself, was such:
sometimes I get Stuck. I was doing something, or on my way to doing something, and then… I just. got stuck.
“Stuck” looks like refreshing my feed or dashboard repeatedly. or it looks like staring at a spot on the wall. or chewing my fingernails. or picking at a stubborn sticker. all the while, my brain drifts through various unrelated topics I wouldn’t be able to recall if asked. sometimes I can get Stuck for hours before realizing I am Stuck. sometimes I get so Stuck that I go to bed that way (feeling especially bad for being unproductive) and I have to just reset everything by sleeping.
one day I asked myself, “why is this happening? why am I stuck, right now, at this moment in time?” the answer, as it turns out, was pretty simple: I was trying to make a decision, and I got distracted. I haven’t moved forward because I haven’t answered that one question or made up my mind.
let me rephrase this in terms of executive dysfunction: many people have expressed that it feels like knowing you need to do a thing but not feeling “ready” to do it. many with ADHD may also be familiar with the feeling of needing things to be “just so” before you embark on a task- you need your setup to look a certain way, or you need to set a timer, or have the right music playing, etc.
when I get Stuck it’s often because I got lost somewhere in that setting-up process, and my brain took the opportunity to nyoom off into Distraction Town.
getting myself Unstuck is solved, 95% of the time, by tracing my steps back to the original decision I was trying to make- often something small and inane- and then troubleshooting from there. (out loud! verbal processing is totally punk.)
- “what was I trying to do?”
- “was I trying to decide between two things?”
- (the answer’s usually yes.)
- “what were they?”
- “okay, let’s decide.
- “okay, that’s settled. let’s move on.”
- and then I am free as a bird to nyoom in the direction of The Thing I Wanted To Do All Along, in the amazingly disorganized, scattered, yet rapid-fire way that I do many things.
so!!! in the case of my first post, where I hadn’t showered for 2 hours? turns out I had been trying to decide what music to listen to in the shower. (another hack: my chances of getting Stuck while showering decrease by 75% if I have music playing to help me keep track of time.) I couldn’t immediately make up my mind, got lost in thought, got distracted, and drifted. once I stopped and asked- “why am I stuck?”- then I remembered- “oh yeah! I wanted to listen to music”- and then decided- “I want to listen to Daft Punk’s Discovery album”- I was finally heckin able to shower. and also eat, and also throw my clothes in the dryer.
and may I add I only zoned out once, during the slow part of “One More Time.” :P
I’m not saying this is a foolproof method. sometimes I don’t have a reason for being stuck, and that’s okay! I’m also not saying this is how every adhd brain works. it’s just how my brain works, and I’m sure there’s at least a few who can relate. for those few, I hope this helps!!
mememic-bry
a lot of people are reblogging the original post without the update and leaving frustrated comments and that makes me sad! if I can find ways to hack my brain than so can you! executive dysfunction is a real and frustrating challenge, but don’t buy the lie that there’s no way to work with it or around it!!!
Access Points: Understanding Special Interests Through Autistic Narratives
Author: Rebecca-Eli M. Long
Publication: Autism in Adulthood
Abstract
Background: Although autistic people have shared how important their interests can be, sometimes using the phrase “special interests,” autistic interests are commonly pathologized. Research has begun to recognize the benefits of special interests for autistic people. These benefits are often investigated primarily in childhood and in relation to neuronormative aims. In addition, existing research leaves the definition of “special interests” unquestioned. This study adds to the literature by examining not only what autistic adults mean by “special interests,” but how they explain why these interests matter.
Methods: The researcher interviewed 15 adult autistic advocates in the United States about their “special interests” to understand what this term meant to them based on their own life experiences. Through critical qualitative analysis of interview transcripts, including iterative inductive-deductive coding, hierarchical code organization, and positional mapping, the researcher looked for similarities and differences in how participants conceptualized special interests.
Results: Participants used three different narrative strategies to describe special interests and their importance: explaining the amount of time spent on the interest, discussing how they experience the interest, and comparing special interests with other types of interests. Autistic people said that their interests mattered to them personally, as well as helped them communicate and connect with others. Participants also shared that it was important for non-autistic people to know about why special interests matter to autistic people and create a more accepting society.
Conclusions: The concept of “special interests” meant different things to the autistic people in this study. Even so, participants saw special interests as generally important and an aspect of their lives that should be societally supported. The narratives of special interests collected in this project challenge stereotypes of autistic people as disconnected and asocial. Instead, this study demonstrated how special interests take on increased individual and societal importance for autistic people.
"Widespread misrepresentation of findings from Hirvikoski et al,4 particularly the erroneous portrayal of 16-year reduced life expectancy, underscores the critical importance of research dissemination accuracy and provides an empirical example of scientific communication and miscommunication beyond the intent of the original authors. This misrepresentation has been amplified by high-impact publications that conflate the study’s findings on decedent mean age of death with unsupported claims of premature mortality and reduced life expectancy. While not the fault of the original authors, the inaccurate portrayal of findings by citing authors has potential repercussions for autistic people, including psychological distress, altered retirement planning, insurance denials, and exacerbated health disparities. We assert there is a moral imperative for authors, peer reviewers, and journals to accurately represent findings from cited studies to avoid perpetuating misinformation and associated harms."
Last month, six autistic academics published a letter in “Autism,” a journal dedicated to autism research, with an explosive assertion: Sociologist Judy Singer, who has been described as the “mother of neurodiversity,” should not be regarded as such and did not originate the concept she has built her career on.
The claims come on the heels of a rocky year for Singer, who has been accused of making transphobic statements on social media, allegations she denies. The letter’s authors say it has been those comments that spurred them to speak out.
“She was getting away with taking credit for the whole neurodiversity idea, presenting herself as the inventor, not the observer. The rest of us were tired, and it wasn’t worth the fight. But her attacks against some of the most marginalized among us were impossible to ignore,” said Martijn Dekker, a computer programmer who helped to host an online forum in the mid-1990s called Independent Living on the Autistic Spectrum, or InLv, where he and the letter writers say the term “neurodiversity” first appeared.
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Hii! I was just looking for some advice on how to cope with anger or like being screwed over by the education system??
In my first years of middle school I was going through severe bullying (choking, SA, giving out my phone number to the entire school, etc.) and when I reached out for help (while being extremely depressed) I was laughed at, ignored, told no one would believe me, and told "boys will be boys"
They also told my parents that I didn't qualify for an IEP or 504 plan because I was "Too smart"
A few years later now I'm suffering from PTSD because of it all and I recently had a psych eval where I told the doctor(?) about it all, and she said "Wait, you're diagnosed with ADHD right?" and I went "yeah" and she said "Then you qualify for a 504 plan no matter what your grades are" and that just made me so pissed off, because so much of my pain and trauma could've been avoided if I had a 504 plan.
They gave me some accommodations but not many and they weren't protected or anything.
Now I'm just really upset and I was wondering if you had any tips for coping?
(and maybe some cat pics? ,:3)
Thank you!!
Firstly, I just want to say that this answer is a personal opinion based on my own personal experiences. So, it may not be helpful to you.
I think the anger is the symptom here, not the cause.
I think the root cause is C-PTSD and everything that entails.
ADHD has the additional aspects of emotional dysregulation, which can lead to heightened emotions, too.
The past is the past, normally. But you didn't experience normal. You experienced abuse that is labelled with the innocuous word "bullied".
And here's a cat pic, too.
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Trying something a little bit new today! A young Autistic person living in Utah emailed me, asking how they can use their personal story to advocate against ABA Therapy's abuses without incurring additional psychological trauma. I have a lot of thoughts on the role of personal narratives in advocacy, the limitations of individual vulnerability in advocacy work, and which kinds of emotional appeals work best, so I threw together a quick video. Enjoy!
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Autism Speaks Canada is "concluding its operations" on January 31st 2025!
- This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access
- Discusses mental health issues in youth and elderly, addressing threats to epistemic justice in each life stage
- Advocates for patients’ involvement as a key tool to reach epistemic justice in mental healthcare
- Featuring entries from clinicians, psychologists, and philosophers, this collection is available online free of charge
