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The Autisticats

5 Apr, 9 tweets, 3 min read

The other day, Abby found five white hairs on my head in the span of about five minutes. It was slightly unsettling, because I’m only 19 years old.

So last night I did some research on premature greying, and found this article: nature.com/articles/d4158…

Persistent activation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) can turn hair grey, because hair follicles are highly connected to sympathetic neurons.

I have POTS and several anxiety disorders, on top of being autistic and having lasting trauma from childhood experiences.

All of those factors mean that my SNS is basically in a constant state of alarm (hence the grey hairs).

I wanted to better understand how all of the dots connect, so I did some more research and specifically focused on autism.

What I found is important.

There is something called the HPA-axis, which is basically the body’s main stress response system. It involves the SNS.

If it’s activated for too long, it can end up causing negative long-term health effects.

Autistic people’s HPA-axis is especially sensitive & reactive.

In this article (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…) researchers measured cortisol levels to determine the degree of HPA-axis activation in autistic people who were exposed to stressors.

“There is a significantly greater biologic reactivity of the HPA axis... in [autistic] children.”

So, autistic people are especially sensitive to stressors.

Unfortunately, we are also significantly more likely to experience traumatic events (and to develop a form of PTSD that’s characterized by hyper-arousal of the nervous system).

scientificamerican.com/article/does-a…

Trauma often leads to a chronic state of activation in the SNS and HPA-axis, even in neurotypical people (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…).

So imagine what the effects are in autistic people, who are already predisposed towards hyper-activation of the HPA-axis?

I was bullied and socially isolated in school, I’ve experienced prone restraint and seclusion during meltdowns, and my parents used ABA techniques and punishments to “discipline” me as a child and teenager.

Is it any surprise, then, that I have grey hairs at age 19?

I’m not shocked by it, but I do find it sobering to look at the physical effects of stress on my body.

And this knowledge & experience only strengthens my resolve to help other autistic people who have gone through (and are going through) similar things.

Love to you all ❤️

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More from @autisticats

The Autisticats

@autisticats

31 Mar

I have made so many posts about the fact that most autistic people prefer identity-first language, but a lot of non-autistic people still leave comments like this when I use the word “autistic” in my writing:

“*People who have autism. Person first language is important 🙃”

Comments on our Instagram page are limited to people who follow us (to limit abuse and ableism).

So, whoever commented this ostensibly considers themselves an ally to autistic people.

But they are still acting in a way that betrays their arrogance in this space.

I’m not going to explain why people should use identity-first language for the 100th time (you can just go to identityfirstautistic.org).

Instead, I’m going to explain why it’s totally inappropriate for anyone to “correct” an autistic person on this issue.

Read 8 tweets

The Autisticats

@autisticats

29 Mar

Today is the first day of #AutismAcceptanceWeek, so I have a request for everyone who interacts with autistic people (particularly nonspeaking autistic people):

Don’t talk about us while we’re right in front of you as if we’re not there, and don’t infantilize us.

I used to volunteer at a school for disabled people, and we had a lot of autistic students.

Almost all of the teachers would talk to each other about the students, and even complain about them, while they were right there in the same room.

It was so viscerally wrong.

I knew for a fact that the students understood what was being said about them. I watched as their facial expressions and body language changed.

But the teachers didn’t really seem to notice or care.

I was afraid to tell them to stop, in case it would cause me to lose my job.

Read 10 tweets

The Autisticats

@autisticats

25 Mar

April is just a week away, which means autistic people everywhere are bracing ourselves for what is known in non-autistic circles as “Autism Awareness Month.”

Here are some things you should know before all of that starts, and misinformation/propaganda start being spread:

1. Autism Speaks (AS or A$) is a corporate, eugenicist group that has done immense harm to autistic people.

They are widely viewed as a hate group by autistic people.

Do not give them your money, no matter how convincing you think their rebranding is. It’s all fake.

2. Autism is not a disease or a tragedy.

It’s a lifelong, genetic developmental disability. And it is also one of many ways of being in this world.

A$ and similar groups will try to profit by manufacturing fear and grief. Don’t fall for their lies.

Read 10 tweets

The Autisticats

@autisticats

23 Mar

Yesterday I did an interactive experiment in my online psychology textbook. The section was about “concept hierarchies.”

The experiment measured my reaction times when categorizing objects in their superordinate, basic, and subordinate levels.

According to the textbook, most people are faster at categorizing things at the basic level, and slower at the subordinate level.

But when I did the experiment (several times to make sure it wasn’t a fluke) my results were totally reversed for those levels.

My pattern of results seems to be in line with the local processing bias of autistic perception.

Autistic brains tend to process things from the bottom up.

So it makes sense that I would be faster at recognizing things at the subordinate level.

Read 9 tweets

The Autisticats

@autisticats

19 Mar

Hi everyone, I’ve received a lot of feedback on the thread I made the other day with the story about Liza.

I want to apologize to anyone who was upset by it.

A lot of people have been asking for clarification on what I meant, so that’s what I’m going to do here.

I actually agree with all of the critique that the thread received.

There was nothing I read from an autistic respondent to the thread that I thought was untrue.

A lot of people were just responding to things that I wasn’t trying to say. (Hence why I agree with them)

The main issues arose from the fact that Twitter has a strict character limit, and the fact that I hadn’t fully considered how everything I said might be perceived.

I didn’t know what to clarify until people asked, basically.

So that’s what I’m doing now 😅

Read 13 tweets

The Autisticats

@autisticats

19 Mar

Parents of autistic kids: here are some tips on how to better interact with the autistic community.

These are based on observations I’ve made over the past four years doing advocacy work.

If you’ve read my thread from the other day, make sure you read this one too.

1. Remember that the people you’re talking to are autistic, and might have a hard time modulating their “tone.”

If the person talking to you seems blunt, it usually doesn’t mean they’re trying to be rude.

Try to focus on the substance and direct meaning of their words.

2. A lot of the beliefs you have about autism, especially if you’re new to the community, are probably wrong.

That’s not a moral judgment. It’s okay to not know things. You just also have to be willing to learn.

And learning will probably make you uncomfortable sometimes.

Read 10 tweets

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