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The Autisticats

@autisticats

21 Apr

Next For Autism and their partner organization, the Center For Autism and the Developing Brain (CFADB), are currently engaged in a gaslighting campaign against the autistic community.

Both organizations have changed & erased things from their websites, without acknowledging it.

First, NEXT added “Statement of Purpose” and “FAQ” tabs to their About section.

I was surprised to see that they didn’t have an FAQ section at all before they faced backlash for their association with CFADB and promotion of ABA therapy.

In the FAQ section (created as a PR front to deflect backlash, but never named as such) they say “[NEXT] provides no funding or support for research into the cause or cure of autism.”

At the time they wrote that, CFADB still had “causes, treatment, and prevention” on their site.

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The Autisticats

@autisticats

19 Apr

I’m up thinking about #ColorTheSpectrum (the media event with non-autistic celebrities, scheduled for April 30th, to raise money for an organization called Next For Autism that’s funding research to “prevent” autism).

And I keep wondering why so many people think this is okay.

Not a single member of NFA’s team is autistic. Not one of them.

And the CEO, Gillian Leek, also founded The Center for Autism and The Developing Brain.

Donations to NFA will go to that center. So what’s in the mission statement?

Ah, I see. Eugenics.

The most heartbreaking thing about this is that none of the celebrities participating in #ColorTheSpectrum are autistic, and none of the people who run NFA are autistic either.

How much longer do we have to scream, “Nothing about us without us!!” before people listen?

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The Autisticats

@autisticats

14 Apr

In one of my classes yesterday, we were talking about Sufi people who spin and chant repetitively as a form of worship & spiritual practice.

It made me think about how repetitive movement & vocalization is present in every religion I can think of (Praying the rosary, etc.)

In those contexts, repetitive movements like spinning in circles, rocking back and forth, touching & moving beads, etc. are not only socially acceptable- they’re praised as signifiers of devoted worship.

Chanting is the same. Repeating a word, phrase, or script over and over.

To me as an autistic person, all of this is familiar.

Stimming and echolalia are the words used to describe the same actions listed above, when done by autistic people.

Our repetitive actions are rarely praised. Often, we are punished or forced to stop instead.

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The Autisticats

@autisticats

13 Apr

I don’t have a long written thread for you today, just some childhood photos for #TheFaceOfAnAutisticChild tag.

Here’s me with some dandelions when I was about one year old.

I often didn’t smile in photos, even when people were smiling at me, which I now know is an autistic trait.

But that doesn’t mean I never smiled- it just means I smiled when I wanted to, on my own terms.

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The Autisticats

@autisticats

12 Apr

I’ve been feeling emotionally exhausted and overwhelmed lately, and a lot of the reason for that is the fact that I’m managing this account.

The bigger it gets, the more people read my posts, and the more people comment or DM with their unsolicited opinions on my life & work.

I’m someone who takes other people’s opinions seriously, and it can be really hard for me to know when to mentally walk away from comments that assume negative things about me.

Because what if there’s a grain of truth in what they’re saying? What if I need to change?

I am constantly self-reflecting, and constantly striving to do better.

There’s so much about my life that people who don’t know me personally have no idea about.

But I’m a highly sensitive autistic person. It’s hard to stop things from getting under my skin.

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The Autisticats

@autisticats

7 Apr

Please stop assuming that autistic self-advocates have no understanding of, or proximity to, so-called “severe” autism.

In fact, many of us were (or are) ourselves labeled “severe” ; are parents of children labeled “severe” ; and/or are caregivers for people labeled “severe.”

Many autistic parents of autistic kids have children with high support needs and communication challenges.

I know of many all-autistic families, where each child has vastly different traits and needs.

This complexity is often erased in conversations about the ND movement.

Detractors of autistic self-advocates often insinuate that we are “not like their children” or that we have no understanding of “real autism.”

But those ideas are flimsy and they fall apart upon closer examination.

You just have to be willing to pay attention.

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