@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

EmilyMoranBarwick

@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social

In elementary school, my teacher sent a note home saying "Emily asks too many questions.” I’ve yet to correct that behavior. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

#artist #writer #educator #activist #climber #multipotentialite would-be #coder (learnin!) #neurodivergent #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD (#Autistic with an #ADHD booster pack 🚀) 🌱 #searchable

Despite witnessing some of the worst humanity has to offer, I still have inexplicable faith in the good of people.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

Alice, to random
@Alice@beige.party avatar

I’m an adult and that means I can put a tent on my bed and nobody can stop me.

EmilyMoranBarwick,
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

@mentallyalex @Alice

Well (tragically) I don’t have a bed tent…but I do have that same 1963 version of Cat’s Cradle :)

(it’s not obvious in the photo, but this “bookshelf” is my repurposing of a planter because no matter how hard I try, I cannot keep plants alive.)🥀☠️

EmilyMoranBarwick, to ADHD
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

I ate the exact same lunch from kindergarten through high school.

Then I really "mixed it up" in adulthood and would eat the same lunch for 2-5 years before shifting to the "next lunch" phase.

Yet it took till my mid-30s to learn I'm 🙃

...just one of so many things I look back at and think "All the signs were there!"

//

On a related note: I know I'm not alone in having my missed...

...then misdiagnosed as neuroses 🙄


@actuallyautistic

EmilyMoranBarwick,
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

@nddev
ha! Same same. My breakfast is “static” as well but dinner varies more.

For me a lot of it is my lifelong drive to “reduce variables”. There’s so much coming at my brain all the time. Anything I can “lock down” is one less thing I have to lose cognitive energy to.

(Man sometimes I sound like a robot ¯_(ツ)_/¯ )

@actuallyautistic
@Woofman

EmilyMoranBarwick,
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

@ritabwray
Same! I also am the one who suspected, sought out and paid for my own evaluation. Despite having my current therapist and family tell me “you’re not Autistic” and treat it like some silly thing I was “stuck on”. (Cause guess what? I get really deep into things…guess why? Autistic…ha)

And yes I also started seeing (and still do) my past through an entirely different lens & framework that finally made it all come together.

@actuallyautistic

EmilyMoranBarwick,
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

@elizabethveldon
Well hello fellow Autistic 👋

I don’t know about you, but I have always seen my Autism as inextricably linked to my

So much so I made a whole video & article about it...which was...challenging and vulnerable to do.

It TOTALLY skeeves me out to ever share crap I made for some reason...but if you have any interest: https://bitesizevegan.org/how-autism-connects-me-with-animals/

@actuallyautistic

EmilyMoranBarwick,
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

@Aerliss exactly! Unfortunately, this completely logical (and helpful for an Autistic brain) way of operating is often pathologized.

In the case of food, eating the same thing all the time is misdiagnosed as an eating disorder.

So many “treatments” for the misdiagnosed pathologies are often more destructive than helpful to brains. If you see the as neuroses it’s a recipe for disaster.

@Woofman @nddev @actuallyautistic

EmilyMoranBarwick,
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

@elizabethveldon Yep!

It’s that hyper-empathy that flies in the face of traditional concepts of people lacking empathy

For me, I also see a connection with my difficulty communicating my interior life. I knew that I had a LOT going on inside that I couldn't communicate

So I never assumed that just because non-human animals couldn’t speak in a way humans could fully understand, didn’t mean they weren’t capable of thought, emotion, or communication.

@actuallyautistic

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

When I hear older people say they wish they had the energy they had in their 40's:

EmilyMoranBarwick,
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

@RickiTarr
When I hear anyone of any age talking about having energy ever…

Also, when I hear people say things like “remember the care-free days of our youth?”

No…no I do not…

EmilyMoranBarwick, to Help
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

Would love #help: I find I'm fixating on #Mastodon the way my brain locks onto all #SocialMedia/#tech

Like "when is the best time to post?!"🙄

I only ever used social media as an educational content creator & the ever-shifting #algorithm (& more) REALLY messed me up (hardly alone in that!)

I came to Mastodon to have a space that's NOT my nonprofit—that's ME

I want #connection, not clicks

But it's creeping in nonetheless...

#AskFedi #FediTips #ActuallyAutistic #ADHD #AuDHD @actuallyautistic

the_etrain, to random
@the_etrain@beige.party avatar

Mitch Hedberg would be 56 today. Happy birthday, Mitch. I hate that you're dead.

EmilyMoranBarwick,
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

@the_etrain Was fortunate enough to see him live in Chicago, along with Stephen Lynch.

One of those moments in life seared into my memory like a full sensory experience.

EmilyMoranBarwick, to ADHD
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

While I sincerely value how my brain so deeply & fully engages with anything I encounter...

...sometimes I REALLY envy the ability to engage with many things simultaneously on a surface level

(Like, for example, be able to stay semi-active on Mastodon while writing a research-intensive article instead of having to ghost out entirely in order to focus 🙃)

Any fellow / folks able to do this?

@actuallyautistic

EmilyMoranBarwick,
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

@Uair
Oh I constantly have a billion things running simultaneously in my brain.

But it seems like the only way for me to stay "fully oriented" to something (whether it be a research paper, the Mastodon community...anything) is for it to be a primary-to-the-point-of-exclusive focus.

I can't seem to successfully shift in and out of many things without then doing ALL those things crappily, rather than one thing well.

It's frustrating.

@actuallyautistic

EmilyMoranBarwick,
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

@MarkRDavid
I guess I could have worded this all better... I absolutely value it when I can hyper-focus.

What I'm struggling with is the fact that I can't seem to do things well or stay properly "oriented" with them without excluding ALL other aspects of my life (which I very much want to have in my life).

It's how I ended up erasing SO much of myself to keep my educational nonprofit going for the last 10 years.

That kind of "flattening" of my life has been devastating.

@actuallyautistic

EmilyMoranBarwick,
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

@MarkRDavid
Ha! I’m currently writing at a cafe. But I’ll do a combo. Yes I’m in public around people, but I also have headphones on playing brown noise :)

@actuallyautistic

EmilyMoranBarwick, to workersrights
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

I'm reading the book "ADHD 2.0" and they have this list of what to look for in your environment (for it to be friendly).

Whelp...as someone who works for and by myself...I guess I AM the problematic workplace ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Would love to hear from / peeps:

How do you create a friendly workplace for yourself?


@actuallyadhd @actuallyautistics @actuallyaudhd

EmilyMoranBarwick, to ADHD
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

When people find out I’m & (well-meaning but problematically) say something like “Don’t worry, you can’t tell!”

I think to myself “You’ve obviously never seen me zoned out at the grocery store w/my over-ear headphones, making clicking noises in my throat & doing god-knows-what kind of hand movements that feel good in the moment”

Y’know…just in my groove 🎶

Fly your flag high wherever you please, my friends⛳️

@actuallyautistic

EmilyMoranBarwick, to ADHD
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

To my fellow or otherwise folks…

I would appreciate any tips on how to use Mastodon without it causing overwhelm/getting lost in it.

🧠My blend of has a REAL hard time with this kind of platform (never got Twitter either), but I’m drawn to the community & connection here.

I’m like instantly a confounded 105-year-old when it comes to Mastodon/Twitter 🙃

Ps - I’ve seen @actuallyautistic but not clear how that even works

EmilyMoranBarwick, to Autism
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

How my brain handles transitions:

- Give me at least a 6-month advanced warning. Better make it 12. Actually, you know what? I think we're good right where we are...

- Jerks the wheel, pulls the handbrake, leans into the slide with abandon

@actuallyautistic

EmilyMoranBarwick, to Autism
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

"Studies investigating autistic community research priorities indicate a mismatch between what research focuses on and what people want to see researched."

A MILLION times this.

Listen to what people actually want & need.

@actuallyautistic

twan, to actuallyautistic
@twan@mastodon.online avatar

One big advantage of being is, for me, that I'm so used to in my life (heck, life is one big to me), when something happens that NT's perceive as a crisis, I usually don't blink an eye.

"Oh, but you stayed so calm and handled the situation!" – Nope, you're just used to see me on a daily basis in constant crisis mode.

@actuallyautistic

EmilyMoranBarwick,
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

@twan This truly is an superpower!

It can also be a bit absurd…I’m remarkably calm & level-headed in “legitimate” life-threatening crises. But change my schedule suddenly?!?

On a related note…I used to think I was “weak” because everything was so damn hard & intense

Once I learned about my , I realized I’m weathering things every damn day that would break most people. We’re actually strong as hell…we have to be

@actuallyautistic

EmilyMoranBarwick, to ADHD
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

Gonna try an

– I'm in search of how to use digital spaces authentically

– I'm interested in re-humanizing the web. Using it to connect, not consume or be consumed BY

Among other things, I am...

  • ( with an booster pack 🚀)
  • an artist, activist, writer, educator, speaker
  • a would-be coder in another life
  • sometimes mistaken for a pessimist (though I'd say realist) who still has inexplicable faith in the good of people
  • horrible at this
EmilyMoranBarwick, to ADHD
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

Hung out with a friend yesterday and he was able—ON THE SPOT—to ACCURATELY estimate how much time it would take us to go to thrift stores and eat lunch.

My brain: WHAT MAGIC IS THIS?!?


@actuallyautistic
@actuallyadhd

EmilyMoranBarwick, to science
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

I'm all for recognizing #WomenInScience...

...but can we do it without suggesting that the reason a woman would dedicate her life to #science & #teaching was to fill the vacuous space of never having children?

...and maybe also without suggesting some intuitive maternal instinct as the source of her #scientific reasoning?

– Image from "How #history forgot the woman who defined #autism" https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/history-forgot-woman-defined-autism/

#WomenInSTEM #EquityInScience #ActuallyAutistic #feminism
@actuallyautistic

EmilyMoranBarwick, to climate
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

As a primarily online-based educational #activist focused on areas of #SocialJustice #ClimateJustice, etc, I fear I often sound "whiny" when trying to explain the utter demoralization of digital platforms / social media giants / #Google

After all, isn't the cause more important?

This passage from @pluralistic 's lecture on #enshittification finally put into words what I've been grappling with.

And validates how very vital the fight for an open internet is.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/

#activism

EmilyMoranBarwick, to Cat
@EmilyMoranBarwick@mastodon.social avatar

For the first time in months, I forced myself to get off the f—ing computer and go for a f—ing walk, where I met this little guy...

If at all possible, go outside sometime...

...your brain may stay in its spiral

...you may not notice any beauty

...but you may just encounter a random in the middle of Amish farmland (who has no respect for it not being ) and be reminded for a moment that life...life is a thing

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