I’ve spent many years teaching myself how to pass as a Neurotypical person for at least a few hours a day. While my ability to mask in public has served me well in helping me to hold down jobs and such, it’s also taken a […]
We talk about “masking” a lot in the Autistic community – the strenuous process of pretending to be neurotypical. There’s a lot of discussion around whether masking is healthy or unhealthy, the toll it takes on our mental health, and whether it’s good, bad, or […]
This isn’t a great, well thought out post, but it’s necessary today. If you’ve ever dealt with well-intentioned NTs, I think this situation will be familiar to you and I honestly don’t know how to handle it, so I think we should talk about this. […]
As you know if you’ve been keeping up with my work stress lately, in all the upheaval of COVID-19 I have been moved from my usual no-contact-with-people information synthesis duties and instead put on phones. PHONES. Luckily, I’m not answering them – a decade in […]
I’m sorry y’all. I was supposed to have a post for you this week. I have it outlined and hopefully I’ll have it written in time for next Thursday’s post. But this week I couldn’t do it. So I apologize, and I’ll do my best […]
Perhaps the number one tool any autistic person has for keeping themselves regulated and calm is stimming. We stim at home, at work, at school, in public, in private, wherever we need it to add to or detract from the sensory input we’re getting. But […]
As the saying goes, clothes make the man – or woman. As autistic adults, we can use this idea to our advantage to give us more confidence in social or overwhelming situations. When we feel good, we can cope better. When we feel at ease, […]
I’m a big believer in stimming. Even before I knew I was autistic, I was always a big stimmer – constantly fidgeting, bouncing, biting things, etc. In general, I think everyone should be free to stim as they like. But I also have a controversial […]
A big part of my autistic experience is the fact that I have no social circuits. I’m just not programmed for social niceties, small talk, chit chat, etc. Over time, I’ve managed to write some scripts for myself, but it doesn’t come naturally. It requires […]
Stimming is a necessity for autistic people. It allows us to manage our sensory overload, keep our stress levels down, and generally maintain an even keel. If we’re going to hold a job, stimming is even more essential to keep us functioning well in that […]
