them: oh you’re autistic, what do you collect?

me: I guess I’m not that kind of autistic cos I don’t really collect anything*

(*except shoes, handbags, bracelets, makeup, table linens, dishes, books, vapes, black trousers, skin care, notebooks, yarn, wrapping paper, etc, etc) basically, if I like something, I have multiples…often many multiples (or used to anyhow, before becoming unemployed) and there are sedimentary layers to the collection phases I’ve gone through…there are a lot of unused items now 😶

Why do stupidity and bravery so often look like the same thing in retrospect? “You’re not stupid. You just think the best of people.”

😑🫠

My psychiatrist: ok but do you take negative feedback badly?

Me, autistic af: only when it’s WRONG 😤 This was part of “our” ongoing efforts for me to “feel proud of myself”, a thing my brain couldn’t be less interested in. So she asked me about positive feedback I valued & I told her a lot of that was meaningless to me (ie, b/c it has to be RIGHT **and** smthg I care about) 🤷🏻‍♀️

Rest is the only way. Not like eat healthy veg/do a daily run rest, but Do Nothing rest. Reduce stimuli of all kinds, try to eat somewhat regularly, engage in SpIns if it helps. But mostly rest…lots of time being/hearing silence. “Exposure therapy” approach is counterproductive.

https://twitter.com/GeraintWorks/status/1438456120272728073

This point by Hantu is also key: “If you only want to recover from burnout to get back to where you were, it's a bit hard to accept where you are at.”

You’ll likely never be the same as you were before, best to accept that and be open to what is still possible or not.