Zumbador

SaySimonSay , 1 month ago to ActuallyAutistic group

I keep going back to this situation in a previous job where the boss said that he'd invite us for a drink at the local funfair and give us the afternoon off if we joined him.

Everybody joined, so I did as well.

It was a hot summer day. The funfair was empty, but huge, noisy and overwhelming. Also, I hated the boss who egged us on to go on one of the rides. I would now say that I quickly reached my sensory threshold.

At some point, me and a coworker wandered off. We walked on until we reached the exit, then made the split-second decision to leave without saying goodbye.

The next day I was summoned by the boss and interrogated why I had left early without saying goodbye. Ashamed of myself, I mumbled some vague excuses.

I would try to handle the whole situation differently now, but back then I didn't know what was going on and I didn't have the right words. Am I still ashamed? Yeah, maybe a bit, but I'm trying to let myself off the hook. I just didn't know any better.

#ActuallyAutistic @actuallyautistic

Zumbador , 1 month ago

@janisf @pathfinder @SaySimonSay @actuallyautistic

Yes it's a source of shame to me, no matter how much I know that feeling is irrational.

Probably doesn't help that almost no one I know understands what a meltdown is, and reacts with anger / fear / judgement.

Zumbador , 1 month ago

@janisf

Thank you ❤️🦋
@pathfinder @SaySimonSay @actuallyautistic

tine_schreibt , 1 month ago to ActuallyAutistic group German

@actuallyautistic

Can someone please explain why in the assessment of the level of support needs, it's all about social and routines/repetitive behaviours, and there's nothing about how sensory overwhelm is a Very Big Problem for many autistics?
I can deal with the social stuff (avoid) and the routines/rb (don't do them in public), but the sensory storm of going to the store is A Real Problem for me.

Zumbador , 1 month ago

@tine_schreibt @actuallyautistic Do you have a link to how levels are assessed? I know that it's different in different countries - some countries don't have this as part of the diagnosis at all.

Zumbador , 1 month ago

@tine_schreibt @actuallyautistic

Thank you.

Your guess is as good as mine, but I'd guess that this is just another manifestation of autistic traits being primarily described in terms of how they impact the observer, instead of as an internal experience.

Or another possibility is that they consider social interaction the most relevant aspect, and the other traits are to be considered (or not) only so far as they affect your ability to interact socially.

(which might just be another way to say the same thing)

In other words, they don't specify which traits might lead to a person having "decreased interest in social communication", it might be sensory sensitivities or not, all that matters is if that "decreased interest" is observable.

everyday_human , 1 month ago to ActuallyAutistic group

Mental Health #actuallyautistic
@actuallyautistic

Reflective moment.
POV
Im going to try to explain something I never have said entirely.

I am a self learner, autodidact.

I try extremely hard not to assume things about people.

Why they do the things they do?
I personally know I’m not all that special.

Unique maybe.

I do have a desire for accuracy.

My version of extreme sports is learning the basics of difficult sciences that explains how the world works.

I’m not good at standard formulas.
I Frankensteined my own that get me by to survive.
Probabilistic math.

I don’t have a love for proving people wrong.

However I do enjoy getting constructive criticism that’s meaninful and helpful.

I’m an observer and a listener at a whole different level.

I don’t enjoy being right or about things.

It’s actually painful!
Why?

Well because in most situations I drill into my head not to assume things not to infer things.

So when I am right, it means I could have maybe helped someone when I didn’t but I wasn’t confident about my ability.

It also maybe means I wasted precious moments of my life figuring something out only to doubt myself. Humility

Alas I was born like this.

I have a very vivid lucid memory. Apparently it’s immersive eidetic. Which is even more of a burden. Nearly completely lucid recall even if I don’t want it.

I hear this often:

“Wow I wish I could remember verbatim like you do”

For me it’s like never being able to forget things, never to be free of pain, never be simply oblivious, sure I can act that way.

Guess what my brain still remembers!!!😭

I have had to struggle, to know the whys of everything, to every thought I’ve ever had. I’ve had alot of thoughts.

I fight with myself, to find and break l my walls and keep my mind open , all my sensory, all my icks, all my ews I’ve had to learn how to deal with them

I’ve conditioned myself over a lifetime
.
How to accept it and normalize it.

Laughing can be a coping mechanism I think in most humans.

Pretty sad when you have to learn microbiology to learn how we are basically mostly living in clean dirt and dirty dirt.

Life within life.

Symbiosis.

Every fear I’ve had to face alone, like we all do, all fears in mind

I can sit it a cemetery on Halloween and have no fear of ghosts or demons, I can fall 😴
I have my own ghosts that are far scarier. 👻
My memories of my own life.

The longer I live the longer I battle it doesn’t get any easier for me. Although
I am still Alive! 🫣

I’ve delved(not A bot or written by ai) into every facet of science to learn how to normalize everything.

I did this even before I realized I was autistic, I knew I was different.

Quite honestly for awhile my imposter syndrome I semi I questioned my own sanity. Was I delusional?

I guess in some ways that protected me as well.

It causes me to triple rethink every thought I think.

I stayed grounded. Conserve energy know when to use it. Timing
Action or lack of action will change the outcome.

Oh and that memory that everyone wants that recall, makes you feel like you’re crazy btw.

When everyone else remembers through thier world view.

I remember through every lens I can see it at the time and every lens I acquire as I expand my world view constantly adding to my updated schema.

Often time people use me as translator to what people mean.
More then once I’ve been asked to read people for people.

I don’t like it.

I reply I’m confident with x amount of accuracy but I could be wrong.

Do most people think in Confidence Intervals?

I am likely biased. I know
I tell people this even though i can pretty accurate about other people in my life I see.
I remain situationally aware.

I’m choose mostly to say silent and mind my own business.

I’ve grown to know myself fairly well, a work in progress I guess.

I dislike being me.

I do love life though with every ounce of my being despite the pain.

I try with what time I have left to advocate for education and acceptance of those who are marginalized and suffer because of ignorance and stigma.

I wish I could wish away my ability, I dislike the highly functional part. I dislike being viewed as better off when I’m truly not. I feel fucking cursed.

The stress and pressure and anxiety is killing me.

When people fight, grow learn and change you notice. You wonder why they didn’t get the version update.

“I didn’t change they will say”.

Debating whether they did or not is usually not worth the effort.

That isn’t the only curse, this savantish type of ability makes me feel alone in a world of billions of people.
I know I am not.
You can talk and explain until your dead yet others may fully get you.

I thought when I was younger. I wonder if I could train my brain like a computer!

I would challenge myself on accuracy of rough off the cuff calculations.

I thought if I remained situationally adaptive and objective and humble and just learned a little more, listened a little more, worked a lot more I could actually manage my own mind.
That was wishful magical thinking 🤔

Turns out I think I did become more accurate.

Again this is impossible right?

To what scale exactly?
I don’t know
To have a basic mechanistic understanding of everything I learn and how it maybe connected to every other cog through different frames.

A liquid pretending to be a solid

Then there’s the devils advocate.

There’s people who have it worse. Some people don’t have these gifts yet have the same deficits or worse than me.

Unless you live in my head you don’t know how much I suffer 😭Do you?
I know that as well and that is even more painful as I know many have it worse.

Does it make my pain less?

No, it doesn’t bring me comfort or feel better, for they seems is too many.

It brings to me compassion and humility.

I swear some people find people find comfort in knowing some have it worse.

News is classed as entertainment blown out of context for engagement.

Social media polarization? Engagement.

Did you get the update we became the product for AI training?
We are the product in a capitalistic merit based economy.
Did you get that update?

Framing is important. Don’t understand change your lens.

How does it make you feel better that there are people out there starving or being violent or mean to one another?

Does it distract you from your own life?
Not me, it compounds mine, ediditic memory.

Everytime I hear someone say , eww this isn’t good enough or too this or too that, it saddens me. I picture people dying of starvation.

Water is yucky?
I have images in my video memory of people in countries not so lucky without clean water and getting diseases and lead or shit in their drinks.

Do you still want my memory or awareness. I’m biased and flawed.
It’s far from perfect, I am human like everyone else. I don’t know much. With every fiber of my being I try to remain objective.

I realize autism adhd ptsd rsd pda hits everyone differently.

I know we have all our preferences and routines and they bring us comfort.

Nature= You and me.
a part of everything even if minuscule.

I see you out in the wild, not intentionally. I swear most of the time I don’t want to know but my brain seems to save it. Unless it’s occupied with something.

However I try to enjoy the simple things like acorns birds,cats,plants, clouds, stars art, and most importantly MUSIC.

I’ve never felt more connected to everything yet so alone. It’s so incredibly lonely.

I just want anyone to know who read this. I am not what I appear. I’m just like you.

Perhaps it will bring some soul comfort and understanding.

It’s pretty much my only hope in writing this.
Perhaps it makes it more real for me.

The funny part is I can’t force myself to memorize.

Even with this recall, I cannot seem to remember my own shit, I guess my mind is trained on the world most of the time while also trying to be present in the moment.

I will admit a knat has more of l attention span than me.

I have far too many faults to judge others.
I’ve made far far far too many mistakes.
When I was younger I thought I was invincible and had shit figured out.
I understood survival, people were a mystery.

I’m a childhood trauma survivor

I am sorry if I seemed a like an asshole.

I didn’t healthily express my displeasure at times when I was overwhelmed.

I didn’t know how and I didn’t know if anyone actually could understand. I still don’t.
•

I’m sorry for seeming like I don’t care about your problems. I do!

I’m sorry.
I truly am.

As bad as my luck may seem to me. For some reason I’m alive at the moment.
I also have tachycardia most likely from hypervigelence and my anxiety which is tough.

#Exercise

I don’t know how to solve all my own problems. I try always

#Therapy helps. Medicine helps. Less stress is the best.

#Kindness,self care. #Writing
Community.

I’m not being critical, judgemental of anyone else I’m genuinely asking, is this easy/difficult to read?

I’m explaining how my mind works.

Often people use me to remember accurately and fight their battles for them.
Why?
I can see through most masks.
I can see something even if I don’t know what it is then my mind uses some inference to give me possibilities.
Too many far too many!
Sort function sure.

Then with all this, can I even be truly loved if I can never be understood?

In the right frame.

I could be wrong. There’s too much to know. That I know for sure.
Are other people like me?

Do they not understand how it affects them?

Do they feel like they didn’t have a voice which diminished their emotional capacity or was a voice for others? Or is it Alexithima? Likely

I spent a lifetime trying to interpret human behavior. My own included.

Most of my life I was so confused litterally. I somehow emerged from the other end of the tunnel since childhood wondering why

I was audhd dx 2022.

Mostly I found out why.

Perhaps they can’t remember. . They are battling for thier life the best they can.😔 I wrote this to maybe see if anyone else knows what this is like.Maybe someone else will find this helpful. You aren’t alone!
♾️🧬❤️

Zumbador , 1 month ago

@pathfinder @everyday_human @actuallyautistic

Interesting question, wether facial aphasia has to do with memory.

I have an acute visual memory and I'm really bad at recognising people.

I remember a story of a child who didn't understand the news story about bank robbers covering their faces so they would not be recognised. The child didn't realise that to most people, the face is more important than the rest of the person when it comes to identifying who is who.

Or the joke about the guy who dealt with being naked in public by using a small wash cloth to cover his face as he walked naked through a crowd.

I think other people focus their ability to recognise and recall visual detail to the face alone, and I take in every detail of the whole person the face isn't more important. And looking at the whole person is not an effective way of recognising them because so much of that changes.

LehtoriTuomo , 1 month ago to ActuallyAutistic group

I've been trying to understand what it means that an autistic brain is bombarded with so much information. We spent some time at our summer cottage and I think I got some insight in this.

Instead of seeing the lake in front of my eyes, everywhere I looked I saw a detail. Its size would vary but it would still be a detail. A swan there, its partner there, no leaves on that tree yet, what a cool pattern on the small waves, what does it look like when I move my eyes this way, or that way, a car on the opposite shore, the shadow of the tree, I wonder what seagulls those are etc. A new detail with every single glance.

At the same time my attention tried to keep track of the dog and listened to birds singing and bumblebees flying around.

Now I wonder what it feels like just to see the lake.

#ActuallyAutistic @actuallyautistic

Zumbador , 1 month ago

@melindrea @roknrol @LehtoriTuomo @actuallyautistic

To add some other context, typical training for drawing (especially figure drawing and landscape) is to start with blocking in the big picture, and then add the details.

This is because it's an efficient way to ensure you get the proportions "right".

If you're drawing a person, for example, and start with the mouth rendered in detail, and then the nose in detail, and then the eyes etc, you're more likely to end up with those features being out of proportion large.

But it's just another way of drawing, of course, and no less correct or valid than the "proper" way which would be to lightly sketch the entire figure using general shapes, and then go back with multiple passes, adding more detail at every pass.

Very difficult to prove which method is inherent to a particular neurotype especially because people are trained to draw in particular ways.

Zumbador , 1 month ago

@roknrol
Good question. From what I've seen of beginner drawing, people generally tend to go for the "details first" version unless they've been trained.

No way for me to know their neurotype, but it's common enough for me to assume that "details first" isn't necessarily an ND thing.

@melindrea @LehtoriTuomo @actuallyautistic

Zumbador , 1 month ago

@bhawthorne @dorian @actuallyautistic @callisto @alexisbushnell @roknrol @melindrea @LehtoriTuomo

Bottom up processing is very relatable, especially in the way I have to have a thorough understanding of the underlying principles before I can grok the more complex layer.

How many times have I felt stupid because I'm the only one to ask "but how does x actually work?" only to find that everyone else is happy to just accept received wisdom that "x works somehow, never mind how let's move on. "

JeremyMallin , 2 months ago to ActuallyAutistic group

I believe that autistic burnout is something that other people do to us rather than something we do to ourselves.

It's not simply that we mask too much or work too hard; society requires us to do those things. The choice is not ours.

Those are not the only things that cause burnout. Bigotry and abuse from others also causes burnout. Constant sensory Hell also causes burnout. Anything that keeps us out of equilibrium causes burnout.

#MyUnpopularOpinion #ActuallyAutistic
@actuallyautistic

Zumbador , 2 months ago

@JeremyMallin @actuallyautistic

Yes this is a problem.

It's empowering to find ways to help ourselves and improve our mental health. Things that are in our control. Resting, self care, etc.

But when the harm is caused by systemic problems out of our control, then these "solutions" quickly become just another way to shift the responsility onto the person being harmed.

Most advice for dealing with autistic burnout is incredibly frustrating, because how many of us can take time off work to rest and recover, or access the accommodations we need?

My husband has resigned from a job he loved because burnout was affecting his physical and mental health. He had no alternative, it's either work, and sacrifice your health for financial security, or resign.

It's so frustrating because the accommodations he needed were minor.