It’s me, Laina, from over at The Silent Wave. 😉 Since I began my personal Asperger’s/autism journey, I have come across an entire galaxy of incredible writing from extremely talented Aspergian/autistic blog-writers. This blog is intended to be a Gold/Platinum Collection of sorts, kind of like a Hall of Fame.
Gentle nudge…
As you come across posts you like, please be sure to visit the original source of the post and Like/Comment on their post! They deserve your compliments. 🙂
I’m Not Who You Think I Am
This definitely describes me too! All my life. I also went through different persona stages/phases during different years in my life. Very exhausting indeed! You described it really well ❤️
Most people who have spent time with me describe me as sweet, mature, smart, silly, patient, and compassionate. As a child, adults would describe me as an “old soul”. In high school I was “a good girl”.
I shocked everyone when I turned up pregnant at the age of eighteen. And when I went to college I spent another two years letting off some steam. I partied and dabbled in different things like most young adults do. Then I mellowed out, got married, and became “a good girl” again.
The person that I really was, the autistic me, was always anxious and liked odd things that my peers didn’t. I was a deep thinker, passionate, and incredibly sensitive. I didn’t like to be hugged as much as I claimed to and had an obsession with organization and tidiness. Despite being told I was pretty, I didn’t really know what to…
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Relatability – Autistic Adults and Parents
An excellent and thoughtful analysis of the dynamic between non-autistic parents of autistic children, autistic parents, and autistic children. Fantastic (and successful) attempt to see all sides and break the situation down into its underlying elements 🙂 ❤
It occurred to me the other day, that allistic (non-autistic) parents mostly focus their conversations on the things that they relate to. This is also true of Autistic adults. Most people seem to focus primarily on the things that they relate most easily to, and this is logical to me.
Allistic parents don’t relate to their children’s experiences, they relate to the experiences of other allistic parents of Autistic children. So that’s what they talk about with each other. They talk about how hard it is for them, how they feel about it, and how they can get their children to do what they want their children to do because that’s how they were raised and that’s what’s normal and expected of children in our society.
Autistic adults who aren’t parents and don’t work with children, don’t seem to relate to the allistic parents’ experience of and feelings about…
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Autistic Exhaustion
This describes so beautifully and succinctly just what I have felt all my life, but for most of it, never realized it. No further words needed… 😊
Being autistic brings various challenges and joys with it. I adore my hyper-focus and passions, but I loathe the inevitable misunderstandings and sensory bombardments.
I am a carefully balanced human. I know that things that won’t be stressors to other people will be problematic for me. I know that spending time in a group will be exponentially more difficult than spending time with people one-on-one. I know that I will always have to ‘perform’ to some extent, when I’m communicating with most non-autistic people.
When I am home, with no pressures upon me, I am energised and busy. My whole life is made up of projects of different kinds. I will have various things on the go; spreadsheets, DIY, wine-making, crafting, poetry, prose, gardening, art.
The idea that I am lazy or inactive seems anathema to who I truly am, and yet this was a label that stuck to me…
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What’s right with this picture?
Yes, absolutely! The “modification” is only happening on the outside, and it’s actually incredibly traumatic to many people on the spectrum.
Ha! One of my Autistic buddies brought this to my attention:
As pretty much any Autistic person can tell you, the creators of this handy infographic are spot-on about this:
Behavior suppression is not behavior modification.
News flash for the ABA “practitioners” in the crowd.
Behavior suppression is notbehavior modification.
And, in fact, addressing root causes not only modify behavior, but they completely remove the need for the behavior, to begin with.
See, lots of the “unacceptable” behavior that Autistic folks exhibit is in response to stressors around us. Like, the whole world’s worth of stressors. We do what we do for a very good reason, but not many people seem the least bit interested in understanding why that is.
I’m tired, tonight. I’m tired of having to think about this stuff. But yeah, I do.
And that’s unfortunate.
Oh, well. Good night.
Stress and Overwhelm
This really spoke to me – story of my life in recent months 😉
Many a calm river begins as a turbulent waterfall, yet none hurtles and foams all the way to the sea.” —Mikhail Lermontov
Photo by Emiliano Arano on Pexels.com
The dictionary defines stress as “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances”, and for autistic individuals, stress is one of the greatest challenges to living life well.
Research shows autistic people have a higher stress-response and are more susceptible to stress disorders than their neurotypical counterparts. A combination of childhood adversity and heightened sensitivity to emotions, hyperawareness of the environment, and interpersonal challenges with others create the space for stress to grow.
Autistics find it hard to “let go” of a stress-response; their bodies hold the stress-response longer, meaning that they need to be more mindful of stress-reduction activities, and become aware of how stress affects them.
Stress Response – What it can look…
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Aspie Xmas Survival Guide
Excellent tips here 🙂
Photo by Pixabay
Ah, it is that time of year again: Christmas. There is so much to enjoy about this festive period, yet – being autistic, it can also be hugely exhausting.
Managing your energy levels during this busy time can be a delicate balance act, however you can enjoy the celebrations and take care of yourself.
You can get involved and still honour yourself. It’s just a case of being self-aware and giving yourself what you need.
If you find Christmas often leaves you tired and worrisome, this post will help ensure you do not end up running on empty.
1. It’s okay to say NO
Just because people are inviting you out does not mean you have to say yes. Saying No is self-care. Make sure you build some breathing space into your calendar to allow some time to re-energise yourself. You can block out hours or…
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All I Want To Do Is Be More Like Me And Be Less Like You…
I’m cheering over here 😍 I second this 👏🏼
One of my favorite songs by Linkin Park was always Numb. Partly because it is yet another song that really helps me with my diagnoses, especially autism and when it comes to the ignorance of people or society. Here is a beautiful and very well done cover by MGK of Numb by Linkin Park. MGK is a rapper and when honestly the cover blew me away the first time I heard it as I have only heard him sing in few main chorus etc. Also the take and mood of the cover felt very different from him. I was impressed and am listening to it again. Think I will also go on a much needed Linkin Park binge today. 🙂 I have been listening to a lot of LP lately and not just because of the passing of Chester, but since a teen Linkin Park was always in my top…
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What is disability? Social vs Medical model
Applauding vigorously 👏👏🙌
Sharing a Co-Morbidity Doesn’t Mean Autism Doesn’t Exist
A really enlightening and informative post! I really appreciate this 😊👏
My wife shared this image on Facebook. The things surrounding “autism” are all things that can be co-morbid with it. For example, I have general anxiety disorder–meaning I have anxiety all day every day–but I don’t have Tourette’s. Not everyone who has general anxiety disorder has autism, of course, but if you are autistic, you have general anxiety disorder. And not everyone with Tourette’s is autistic, but a higher percentage of autistics have Tourette’s.
There are those who think that having daily rituals is having OCD. Having rituals is not really quite OCD. Rituals are a way to create order in life, and is therefore something you will find autistics doing at much higher rates than, again, the non-autistic population. True OCD would involve someone who cannot leave a room without turning the light switch on and off exactly 15 times each time, or who gets “fascinated” by a…
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“Sensitivities”
Every word in this post is gold! 👏👏👏
Things neurotypicals (most of them anyway, hopefully, really) now understand are not a “choice” but are genetic:
Being gay/bisexual
Being transgender
Things neurotypicals (most of them anyway) now understand are different brain processes:
Being colorblind
Having synesthesia
(maybe?) having prospoagnosia
The thing I still don’t understand is why can non-autistic people not believe that loud sounds, or bright lights, or light touch, can literally cause us physical pain?
I don’t understand why non-autistic people can listen to someone who had a concussion, or who just got their eyes dilated, and so are sensitive to bright lights, and respect, understand, and accommodate them. In those conditions, people usually understand and go “oh ok I’ll turn the lights down.” But if for some reason you just grow up with that sensitivity, that you’ve always had – somehow it’s impossible for them to understand that that could be your life ALL the…
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Laina's Collection 