If you're like me and struggle with overwhelming anxiety and the basic ability to keep it together to the point of not having energy to pick up a goldfish cracker that's been on the floor for days let alone actually clean/organize your living space... I have a life hack for you.. First of all, if you're struggling with your mental health and feel like you're drowning 100% of the time... you need to focus on that first. You'll never have mental or emotional space to focus on improving your environment if you can barely breathe 100% of the time.

Why I think autistic people are often accused of being manipulative (in 5 steps)

1. Autistic person and another person have a misunderstanding

2. Other person (OP) accuses autistic person of something based on their perception of the situation 3. Autistic person feels they need to defend and explain themselves, so they do their best to get OP to see their side.

10 signs that you might be autistic...

1. You've always felt a bit "different" and have struggled to form friendships

2. You have a hard time understanding and expressing your emotions (there is actually a name for this... it's called "alexithymia") 3. Eye contact makes you uncomfortable... and when you force yourself to do it, you have a hard time concentrating on what the other person is saying

4. Social interactions are often challenging and/or draining for you

Are you autistic and also really good at puzzles and games like Tetris... or really good at organizing small spaces to fit more than what seems like is physically possible?

I have an explanation for this... So, according to research, autistic people have enhanced visuospacial skills... which is the ability to identify visual and spacial relationships between objects...

I think autistic people are often mistaken for being argumentative and needing to be right, when in reality, it's more about needing the information to be CORRECT... because we get overwhelming anxiety when we're convinced that it isn't. Proof that it's not about being right, at least not for me...

When I encounter evidence that challenges what I previously thought was true... and realize I was spreading incorrect information... I'm immediately overcome with a desperate and intense need to correct it.

3 reasons autistic people struggle with open-ended questions

Reason #1

About half of autistic people have alexithymia... which is the inability to verbally express emotions or feelings. So, "How was your day" can be extremely difficult for an autistic person to answer because they might not actually KNOW how they felt about it.

My mind was blown when I discovered that autistic people are more likely to have sleep apnea than nonautistic people... and I have literally never seen anyone talk about this on social media before.

So... let's talk about it... Before I get into it, for those who don't know...

Obstructive sleep apnea is when an obstruction blocks the airway during sleep, which causes the brain and lungs to not get enough oxygen. This can have serious health implications over time if left untreated.

"Autism isn't a disability, it's a different ability"

Respectfully, no. Autism, by definition, requires that a person be hindered in their day to day living as a direct result of their autistic brain wiring. The definition of disability according to the CDC...

Any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restrictions).

10 signs you might be autistic... workplace edition...

1. You cry easily when confronted, even about something small, and have a hard time holding in your emotions

2. You ask a lot of questions when being shown how to do something or when trying to understand expectations 3. You have a hard time modulating your voice, so people around you often hear your personal conversations

4. You are either too hot or too cold, and there is nothing in between

So, in honor of pride month (happy pride btw 😊🏳️‍🌈) I want to take a minute to talk about sexual orientation and gender identity in relation to autism… because, according to research, autistic people are more likely to identify as LGBTQ+ than nonautistic people. I'll get to the why behind this in a minute, but first... I want to share some of the stats I found in 2 recent studies... one conducted on autistic individuals related to sexual orientation, and the other conducted on transgender and gender-diverse individuals related to autism.

So, what might seem like a compulsive need for me to correct others... or look like stubbornness when I'm convinced I'm right about something and someone is saying something incorrect based on what I know... Is usually me having painstakingly and methodically gathered information about a subject by obsessively researching and reading about it, learning new facts about it, and then formulating thoughts and opinions about it based on a thorough and in-depth analysis of the information.

3 things you might not know about sensory overload...

1. If you experience sensory overload daily and it gets in the way of your ability to function... there is a condition called sensory processing disorder that might explain this. SPD has to do with brain wiring that takes in sensory information and doesn't know how to interpret it, so it either over responds or under responds to the sensory input.

FYI... Autistic people tend to think in complexities.

Someone can ask us to do something seemingly straightforward, but our brains will often make it into something extremely complex and nuanced.

We ask questions to untangle our thoughts. So, the other day, I stumbled upon a research study that I think could explain why we do this.

The researchers found that autistic brains have 50% more synapses than non autistic brains... in some cases, they even found up to 2/3rds more.

9 signs you might be autistic

1. You have a hard time finding people you connect with in a deep and meaningful way. You've struggled to make friends because of this.

2. You have a really hard time with unspoken rules or rules that don't make sense to you. 3. You feel misunderstood a lot of the time when you're talking to others.

4. You find social events extremely overwhelming and/or draining.

5. You have intense interests and have a really hard time not talking about them. This has had a negative impact on your relationships.

A new study just published this month has found that "mild stress" is enough to trigger post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in autistic individuals, and I want to talk about it for a minute. So the journal article stated that "A single mild stress can form a traumatic memory" for autistic people.

What I want to talk about is what "mild stress" actually means because I don't think it means what the researchers think it means.

Yesterday I talked about how autistic people are often indecisive because they feel the need to gather as much information as possible to make a decision that will lead to the best possible outcome... And then someone came into my comments section with this and we HAVE to talk about it.

Let's talk about how autistic people often struggle with decision-making.

By the way, if you're autistic and have wondered if your indecisiveness is related to autism, the research does support this... now you know 😊

So, let's talk about why... According to the research, autistic people are more likely to struggle with decision-making because they often collect and analyze all relevant information in an exhaustive decision-making process in order to identify the best possible outcome.

(This MAJORLY resonated with me)

If you're autistic and experience any of the following...

- Temperature regulation issues
- Food & water intake issues
- Difficulty mediating your emotional responses
- A higher or lower than average sex drive
- Sleep issues

I have an explanation that might offer some insight.. Research has found that autistic people have reduced gray matter in the hypothalamus, and the hypothalamus is what helps keep the body's internal functions balanced.

It helps regulate
Body temperature
Hunger and thirst/sense of fullness
Mood
Sex drive
Sleep
And many other things

5 common autistic experiences that might surprise you...

1. Sleep issues, including sleep apnea and insomnia. According to research, up to 80% of autistic people have sleep disorders. 2. Gastrointestinal issues, including constipation, diarrhea, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), and IBD (inflammatory bowel disease). According to research, up to 84% of autistic people experience GI issues, which is 3x higher than non autistic people.

Dear neurodivergent friend,

You are not lazy... slow... annoying... fake... bull-headed... self-centered... manipulative... or any other derogatory term... just because someone else thinks you are.

Their wild misperceptions of you do not have to become your inner monologue. You know the truth.

Realize that your behaviors have reasons they don't understand... and their unwillingness to even try... and their judgements of you based on their own ignorance... is a "them" problem... not a "you" problem.

When I was in college, I remember having days, even full weeks sometimes, where I literally couldn't get myself to leave my apartment or do anything.

At the time, I had no idea what I was experiencing or way... but I remember feeling intense embarrassment about it. \1 And any time this happened and I was asked to go out with friends, I would make up an excuse that I thought sounded less ridiculous than "sorry, I just can't get myself to do anything."

But since discovering I'm autistic, I now know exactly what it was. \2