Recording Autism Month Posts
Apr. 7th, 2021 07:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormI wanted to write some on the idea being "a little bit autistic" but I haven't been finding good words.
Very briefly, saying that seems to be pretty invalidating. Autism is when folks lie so far outside the norm in multiple specific areas that it's reasonable for them to expect punishment from our society -- that's people like you and me -- for letting their guard down and being genuine. Autistic folks have generally experienced a great deal of stigma and rejection around their essential way of being in the world, leading to trauma and alienation. So when you say "everyone is a little autistic" you're missing the forest for the trees, you're missing the intensity of the difference being expressed, and you are essentially not believing the level of work these folks are doing during their day-to-day to seem normal to you, because they're being successful in this work. They've been doing this work all their lives. That front of everything actually being ok? Probably not real.
However. It's super common for autistic and neurodiverse folks to run in packs. It's generally more difficult for communication across the neurodiverse/neurotypical divide than it is within each group.
And so if you're looking at the list of autistic traits and thinking: but everyone has to pretend all the time! No one ever feels seen or comfortable around people and society! The wrong sensory input really is disabling, akin to pain, for everyone! And so on, when an autistic person is describing their experiences, if you relate to having those experiences at a disabling and unbelieved-by-others level, if you're dismissing it because you feel the same way and others dismissed you...
...no, not everyone has that experience. Lots of folks don't! And might I recommend hopping on to an autistic adult fb group and listening for a bit, or watching a bunch of videos, or finding writing by #actuallyautistic folks, and maybe realizing you're not as alone as you thought.
Written on my phone keyboard, oof.
Very briefly, saying that seems to be pretty invalidating. Autism is when folks lie so far outside the norm in multiple specific areas that it's reasonable for them to expect punishment from our society -- that's people like you and me -- for letting their guard down and being genuine. Autistic folks have generally experienced a great deal of stigma and rejection around their essential way of being in the world, leading to trauma and alienation. So when you say "everyone is a little autistic" you're missing the forest for the trees, you're missing the intensity of the difference being expressed, and you are essentially not believing the level of work these folks are doing during their day-to-day to seem normal to you, because they're being successful in this work. They've been doing this work all their lives. That front of everything actually being ok? Probably not real.
However. It's super common for autistic and neurodiverse folks to run in packs. It's generally more difficult for communication across the neurodiverse/neurotypical divide than it is within each group.
And so if you're looking at the list of autistic traits and thinking: but everyone has to pretend all the time! No one ever feels seen or comfortable around people and society! The wrong sensory input really is disabling, akin to pain, for everyone! And so on, when an autistic person is describing their experiences, if you relate to having those experiences at a disabling and unbelieved-by-others level, if you're dismissing it because you feel the same way and others dismissed you...
...no, not everyone has that experience. Lots of folks don't! And might I recommend hopping on to an autistic adult fb group and listening for a bit, or watching a bunch of videos, or finding writing by #actuallyautistic folks, and maybe realizing you're not as alone as you thought.
Written on my phone keyboard, oof.
