Last year, a study came out which revealed that autistic people are more likely than neurotypicals to follow our morals even when no-one is watching.

This is an article that @AutSciPerson wrote about the study and its implications:

neuroclastic.com/autistic-peopl… In the study, autistics and neurotypicals were recruited to see if they would donate to a good cause that would make them lose money, or support a bad cause that would benefit them financially.

In one condition, the decisions were private. In another, the decisions were public.

Today I discovered the name of a phenomenon I’ve been experiencing as long as I can remember:

Allodynia, a type of neuropathic pain where the skin is extremely sensitive to touch.

As it turns out, this kind of nerve pain and hypersensitivity is common in autistic people. Here are some studies I read, which explain that lower C-fiber nerve density/denervation in some autistic people is a likely cause of allodynia.

hindawi.com/journals/np/20…

mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/j…

Loneliness is a health issue that affects autistic people at a rate 4x higher than the general population.

It’s a serious problem, but I think many people don’t quite understand the effects of loneliness on the body and mind.

So, I’m going to explain.

huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/peop… Humans need warm, loving contact with other humans in order to keep our nervous systems and bodies regulated.

We are fundamentally social creatures, and autism doesn’t change that.

What autism does often change, is the likelihood of being treated well by others.

When autistic people’s autonomy is stripped away from us, we’re more likely to be aggressive.

This is true of all human beings.

But when autistic people are not viewed as fully human, and people don’t recognize our autonomy, they can’t see why we lash out when it’s denied. In the documentary “The Limits Of My World,” Brian (a 21 year old nonspeaking autistic man) lashes out at one of his caregivers.

They were at a center for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, doing crafts.

It was overstimulating.

One of the main ways that nonspeaking autistic people are denied agency, is through repeated and incessant demands to communicate.

I watched a documentary the other day called “The Limits Of My World” and there was one scene in particular that drove this point home. The documentary is about a nonspeaking 21 year old autistic man named Brian, who lives in a caregiving facility.

One of his caregivers was helping him dry off after his shower, when she pointed to the mirror and said, “Who’s that? Brian, who is that? What’s your name?”

When people say they’re against eugenics because (for example) altering autistic people’s genes might “accidentally get rid of special talents and skills”…

They aren’t actually anti-eugenics.

In fact, that argument is very much in line with the core ideas of eugenics. When people say “Autism shouldn’t be eradicated because…” and then follow up that statement with things like:

- “Autistic people are intelligent”
- “Autistic people can be productive”
- “Autistic people have special talents”
- “Autistic people can be independent”…

When autistic people are emotionally overwhelmed and entering a meltdown or shutdown, we often lose control of our bodies.

For me (and many other autistic people) this manifests as a loss of the ability to speak, and extreme difficulty with controlling movement. We may become unresponsive to our environment, appear physically rigid and stuck, and be unable to speak and answer questions about what’s happening.

If an autistic person is crying and appears rigid & unresponsive, it’s a safe bet that they might be in a meltdown/shutdown.

After reading @AutSciPerson’s thread on the subject, I watched the Netflix documentary called “Pray Away.”

It’s about conversion therapy for LGBTQ people.

While watching the film I was struck by the similarities between rhetoric about homosexuality and rhetoric about autism. Here are some quotes from the film that I found relevant to discussion about autism:

“We believed that there was something desperately wrong, that there was something pathological about it, that it was not your normal state…that something must have happened to ‘make you gay.’”

Existing as an autistic person is often very lonely.

The experience of being isolated, without close friends, not having anyone to eat lunch with, etc. is something I dealt with up until graduating from high school.

It’s only in the past year that things have changed. I was genuinely unsure that I would ever have strong, loving relationships with people I see in my daily life.

That sense of precarity is hard to shake, so sometimes I find myself wondering whether all the relationships I have now are destined to fall apart.

This is a valuable article about autistic strengths that I think everyone should read.

Autistic strengths aren’t limited to those of us who can speak, and some may be stronger in people who can’t.

Regardless of support needs, we all have strong suits.

spectrumnews.org/features/deep-… Here are a few of those potential strengths, which are named in the article:

- Up to 11% of autistic people have perfect pitch, compared to 0.0001% of non-autistic people

- Autistic people are more likely to reject money that was obtained through immoral means

This is a great example of what autistic & disabled people are talking about when we say eugenics is alive and well.

This paper, published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders in 2021, calls for the “prevention of autism” in order to… save the U.S. economy. 🤦🏼

https://twitter.com/autismcrisis/status/1416925401562198027

The article uses fearmongering language, framing autistic people as “burdens” to our families and society.

Even the title alone is extremely negative:

“Autism Tsunami: the Impact of Rising Prevalence on the Societal Cost of Autism in the United States.”

Tsunami? Really?

One of my lifelong special interests is language learning.

That might seem strange because autistic people are seen as uninterested in communication, and the whole purpose of language is communication.

But I actually think being autistic helps me learn new languages. I am a native English speaker who had some degree of fluency in Spanish as a child (I lived in Texas and was in bilingual classrooms in elementary school).

For seven years, starting in middle school, I learned Mandarin Chinese.

Now, I’m learning Scottish Gaelic.

What’s happening at the Judge Rotenberg Center is actually much worse than I knew.

The JRC is a facility in Massachusetts where autistic & disabled people are being given powerful electric shocks as punishment.

Those shocks are incredibly dangerous. More than you might think. First, some background:

Milliamperes (or milliamps, abbreviated as mA) are a unit of measurement for electricity, which refers to the amount of electrical current passing through an object.

In this case, the amount of electrical current passing through a person’s body.

If you’re averse to candid discussions about bathroom topics, this thread is not for you.

For everyone else, welcome to this thread about autism and using the bathroom.

This is an important topic that is often seen as too taboo to discuss openly, but it’s vital to talk about. What are the reasons an autistic person might eliminate waste in places other than the toilet, even if they’re “potty trained”?

I won’t be going into details about my life and the lives of other autistic people I know, but I have a lot of personal experience in this area.

After an autistic person is officially diagnosed, their family members and friends may start noticing their autistic traits more.

This can lead to accusations that the autistic person is exaggerating for attention, being inauthentic, etc.

But that’s rarely (if ever) true. The reason why others may notice the person “acting more autistic” is twofold:

1. Now that there’s a word to describe the person’s traits, they are ascribed to autism instead of just being seen as “weird,” and

2. The autistic person feels less pressure to mask who they are.

Ableism and anti-autistic attitudes within families can have a significant negative impact on autistic people’s self esteem and mental health.

When the outside world is not accepting or safe, and home isn’t either, we have nowhere to turn.

Many autistic people are trapped. My family has come a long way over the years, mostly due to my own stubbornness and self-advocacy.

In 2017 my dad said this to me (I wrote it down directly afterwards, so this is verbatim) when he heard me vocal stimming:

Pro tip for parents, family members, and partners of autistic people who need them to help out with chores around the house:

Help us choose tasks that play to our strengths.

I’m really bad at sorting and packing because I get overwhelmed. But painting and cleaning? I’m on it. As is common for autistic people, I get very caught up in the details of whatever task I’m working on.

This is a barrier when trying to organize things, etc. but it’s a strength when I’m painting over tiny spots, washing dishes, or scrubbing gunk out of the windowsills.

During AAPI Month, it’s important to listen to the voices of AAPI individuals. For example, me! I’m Abby, Eden’s girlfriend.

First, some background: My grandmother is Korean and my grandfather is Japanese. This makes me 1/4 Korean, 1/4 Japanese, and 1/2 French Canadian. The beginning of this month has made me think a lot about my Asian identity, and how it intersects with my neurodivergent identity.

I have never felt truly “Asian,” for a number of reasons- like my mixed race, light hair and eyes, and the assimilation my ancestors went through.

Autistic people’s sensory sensitivities are not “phobias.”

We are not “afraid” of loud noises, etc. for some irrational reason.

We become distressed by those things because they are causing us physical pain and overstimulation.

Let us wear ear defenders and earplugs!! @AnnMemmott posted a thread today about a study (link.springer.com/article/10.100…) where an autistic boy’s auditory hypersensitivity was treated as though it was a phobia.

Very unsurprisingly, the “coping skill” he chose the most was the use of earplugs.

I wonder why? 🙄 /s

If you are someone who, like me, finds it difficult or impossible to speak when you’re overstimulated:

You don’t have to keep all of your thoughts in your head just because it’s “easier.”

You’re allowed to use AAC, sign language, text-to-speech apps, etc. In fact, you should. Yesterday I went to the mall with Abby and two of our friends. I had forgotten how busy malls can be.

One of the shops we went to had colored strobe lights inside that I had to move & look away from. Others had loud music playing. There were people and bright lights everywhere.

I’m doing a linguistic ethnography for my final paper in one of my classes this semester.

I’m going to be comparing autistic people’s speech when they’re talking to other autistic people, versus when they are talking to non-autistic people. In order to accomplish this, I need autistic people who are 18 or older to email me recordings.

You should to collect two different recordings:

One of a conversation with another autistic person(s), and one with a non-autistic person(s).