*Photo Credit: Eye Test Vectors by Vecteezy Imagine that someone is colorblind, yet they have the job of identifying and detecting colors, and everyone around them thinks they are doing a great job getting all of the colors right. There's no oversight or check by someone who sees in color. No one even thinks twice … Continue reading The Neurotypical Autism Diagnosis
*Photo by Katerina Holmes on Pexels.com It is hard to know what other people expect from you when growing up in general (and when you're autistic). Most expectations other people have of you are not explicit, even from a young age. That ambiguity can make you go to extremes (i.e. perfectionism) to make sure that … Continue reading Literalness, Uncertainty, and Perfectionism
Essentially, by not providing that social response, people can read whatever they want into my still/unsmiling face. This explains to me why I often become the backboard of people's emotions and assumptions.
[Disclaimer: This post is targeted towards parents, as I have been seeing a lot of parents recently ask about what to do about their child's behaviors (trying to figure out what is best for them, and asking autistic people). Similar versions of this can happen as autistic adults, especially when people misinterpret us as complaining … Continue reading Anxiety Looks Like Anger
[My current personal experience on disclosing: I have luckily never had to officially disclose to anyone in my lab, as everyone is honestly very supportive and understanding of my hyperacusis in general. If I need to, I just say "sorry I'm literal, do you mind rephrasing that?" or tell them I just have a hard … Continue reading Disclosure, Jobs, Networking
I don't have a blog post this week, but I did send in a piece to an AutCollab project. The project is to have lots of autistic people write about "what constitutes the essence of autism." It seemed like a very vague question, but I felt like answering it for some reason, so I had … Continue reading AutCollab Mosaic
What do I need to do to make non-autistic people understand that we have different sensory experiences than them, and have had different sensory experiences since birth? They can be overwhelming, unpleasant, and painful. They can be beneficial in some circumstances, and honestly, debilitating in many neurotypical environments. They can be both. But one thing is certain: They exist, and are real.
Once, I took a class about leadership, but really it was a presentation class. Every class period, we learned to be more aware of what we were doing, how we were sitting, how it felt. I was waiting for them to say what I was doing wrong, how I wasn't speaking well, or not making … Continue reading Leadership Skills
*Photo by Matheus Bertelli on Pexels.com Part 1: Autistic Burnout - Playing on the Social Field Autistic burnout = I literally can't pretend and devote 90% of my energy to being on your social playing field anymore. Metaphorically, I have to go lie down in the grass because I've played too many games on the … Continue reading Autistic Burnout, “Regression,” and Identity Crisis – #TaketheMaskOff Week 4
"I think we understand that everyone else is trying just as much as we are to form friendships and connections, and that autistic people's neurotypical-based social skills don't correlate to effort. We know we are always trying even if it doesn't look like it to other people."
Autistic Science Person 