Susan60

Uair, 26 days ago to actuallyautistic

@actuallyautistic

Are normal people hungry all the time?

I sunk out of panic mode for a couple days and goddamn if my stomach isn't a lot more aggressive than usual. I hardly ever notice it, normally.

Is this a thing? Constant hunger when you finally calm down?

Susan60, 29 days ago to random

An autistic woman sees a news item on TV about the awful events at Bondi Junction yesterday. She sees the floral tributes, and wishes that such tributes weren’t wrapped in plastic, tied with ribbons etc, because then, when it was time, they could be swept up & composted.

That sounds totally lacking in empathy right? Why else would she be thinking about such trivial details?

I’ll tell you why. It’s because she is so distressed by the event, the fear suffered by victims at the time & since by those who survived & others who witnessed it, the loss of innocence experienced by those who have never before been so close to such an awful event, the grief suffered by those who have lost loved ones, that focussing on a practical, logistical issue is a way for her to avoid being overwhelmed by such feelings.

The next time anyone tells you that autistic people aren’t empathetic, tell them that empathy isn’t about how people look or behave, it’s about how they feel. Some autistic people are very much out of touch with their feelings, & find them very difficult to identify & articulate. Their feelings are buried very deeply within them. Some are hyper-sensitive to the suffering of others, which might be seen as being overly dramatic & making an event all about them. And the others are somewhere in between.

The fact that a person doesn’t express their feelings, or express them the way you might expect, does not mean that those feelings aren’t there.
#actuallyautistic #empathy

luciedigitalni, 29 days ago to random

Any law-talking folks here know if a civil judgement is admissible in a subsequent criminal case? My guess is it is

pathfinder, 1 month ago to Autism

@actuallyautistic

I once wrote about how it was not unrealistic, to think that there was no such thing as an un-traumatised autistic. About how so many of us have known bullying and persecution simply for being different. Not even always for what we may have said or done, but often for simply standing out; in all the ways that we didn't even know we were. How just simply being, was so often an excuse to be attacked or punished. That our very existence, even as hard as we tried to mask, whether we knew that was what we were doing or not, was the cause of so much pain.

All the scars we carry from misreading situations. Or from believing in something, or someone, and being burnt as a consequence. All the times we've tried to stand up for ourselves, or as often as not for others, and been dismissed and ridiculed. All the misjudgements and disbelieve and times when our intent and purpose have been seen in the ways that were never, ever, meant. The sheer inability for others to see us as we are, or to judge us accordingly. But, always to seem to want to see the worst and to base everything else on that.

But the more I learn and understand about being autistic. The more I realise that so much of my trauma and the scars that were left, came not just from this overt pain, but from the covert well-meaning of others as well. From my parents and relatives, from friends and teachers. From all the advice and instruction I have received over the years that was meant to shape me in the right way. As a child, to teach me how to grow up, how to behave and act. What was expected and what wasn't. And then, as an adult, how I was supposed to be and how a successful life, with me in it, was supposed to look. All the rules I was supposed to learn, all the codes I was supposed to follow. How to act, how to speak, what to feel, when to feel it. What I was supposed to do and how I was supposed to be.

Not in any unusual way. Not in any way that you weren't supposed to raise a child, well a normal child anyway. That's what makes this so covert. If you were trying to do this to a child knowing that they were autistic, then it's overt abuse. It is ABA, it is infantilising and punishing a child for always failing to become something, that they had no more chance of becoming than a cat has of becoming a dog. But for those of us who didn't know we were autistic. It was simply the constant hammering of the world trying, without even realising it, to fit a round peg into a square hole and all the pain and disappointment that came from their failure to come even close.

For me, what made this worse, was that it wasn't as if I didn't know that I was different, not in my heart, but that I thought that I shouldn't be. That I should be able to learn what I was being taught, that I should be able to follow the guidance. That I wasn't any different really from anyone else and so if I failed to act in the right way, or react the way I should, for that matter, then it was my fault. All the patient sighs and familiar looks, simply became just another reinforcement of my failure. Even being told off for the simplest things, became a reminder that something that I should have been able to do, was beyond me and always for the only reason that ever made any sense; that I was broken, that it was my fault somehow.

Is it any wonder that so much of my life has been about trying to justify myself in the light of this, of trying to become that "good dog". Of judging myself against an impossible standard. A constant lurching from one bad to choice to another, and always because I thought they were the right ones. And for each new failure and inability to even come close, another scar, another reminder of what I wasn't. Further proof that my self-esteem was right to be so low. Of how I was such a failure and a bad person. That I was never going to be a proper son or brother or friend. Because I couldn't even be what I was supposed to be, let alone what I should become.

Looking back, I can't help thinking about how much of my life I spent living this way; of trying not to repeat the sins of my past. Of not repeating the actions or behaviour that led to those past failures and trauma. Of, in fact, all the effort I put in to not being myself. Because that, I realise now, was what I was trying to do. I was that round peg and trying to hammer myself into the square hole. Because everything I had learnt had taught me to think that this was how I had to be. That this was how you grew. And in so many ways, I can't help feeling angry about this. About the wasted years, about the scars I carry that were never my fault. About the way I was brought up, even though none of it was ever meant, but only ever well-meant.

#Autism
#Actuallyautistic

compost, 1 month ago to climate

Starting to read articles about farmers warning that for the first time, since WWII, we could have a year with no harvest in a lot of crops.

I have seen many documentaries warning us that because of the topsoil being washed away we will see events like this happening.

The consequences of the #ClimateChange are that it becomes more difficult to provide a crop with safe conditions to grow.

My point is mastering compost at home and learning to grow your food is a very valuable skill.

timrichards, 1 month ago to random

Am I right thinking that it's just plain WRONG to charge the same price for a sausage roll as for a pie? To my mind, sausage rolls should be about two-thirds the pie price.

Discuss.

DenisCOVIDinfoguy, 1 month ago to auscovid19

Push for COVID-19 booster vaccines as Australia heads into 'uncertain' winter | canberratimes.com.au

"With each wave of infection, even if you're not infected, you're brushing up against exposures in the community.

"It means with each wave, there's been a bit more resilience, a bit more of a mature immune protection across the community." - Professor Catherine Bennett said 🤦‍♂️

#COVID19 #PandemicIsNotOver @auscovid19

Source: https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8585315/booster-vaccine-encouraged-as-covid-wave-expected-before-winter/

But no such variants have caught their attention. JN. 1 remains Australia's dominant variant based on wastewater reports from NSW and Victoria. A long break from a JN.1 COVID-19 peak could mean people are susceptible to reinfection with the variant, Professor Bennett said. She recommends a booster shot for those who haven't been infected with COVID or vaccinated for more than six months to improve immune response. "Over the next two to four weeks is the right time because it can take a couple of weeks to get the benefit of a booster," Professor Bennett said. Virus management continues Surveillance systems and strong public health communication remains crucial as people learn to live with the endemic virus, the chair of epidemiology said. "Health departments will let people know when the risk is starting to shift again," she said. "Knowing that information is really powerful, it gives people the opportunity then to respond to that change in their own risk situation," she said. "It's possibly about the variants themselves becoming slightly less severe but a lot of it is about the population immunity," she said. "With each wave of infection, even if you're not infected, you're brushing up against exposures in the community. "It means with each wave, there's been a bit more resilience, a bit more of a mature immune protection across the community."
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Susan60, 1 month ago to actuallyautistic

Watched the final episode of The Boy who Swallowed the Universe (excellent), then the 1st episode of 3 Body Problem, also excellent. A certain amount of stimming got me through the tension & drama of both, & now I’m listening to a long classical playlist & will do a few sudokus before bed to calm down.
@actuallyautistic

DivergentDumpsterPhoenix, 1 month ago to actuallyautistic

Today I am 8 years Sober!

The past 8 years have not been simple. I have had to build a new life. I have spent time in institutions and been diagnosed Schizophrenic. Importantly I was also diagnosed Autistic (that will be 8 years ago next November).

@actuallyautistic @neurodiversity @autisticadvocacy

davidaugust, 1 month ago to random

Susan60, 1 month ago to random

How do you “curate” your feed? I follow most followers, but that can result in quite a lot of stuff that doesn’t interest me, or an excess of US politics which does interest me, but only up to a point.

OTOH I don’t like to block or mute someone unless I find their posts offensive or hugely irrelevant to my interests. I have created a favourites list, but laziness means I’m sometimes slow to add people to that list, aggravated by the fact that I don’t bother to look at my “home” feed very often.

I love being on a platform that is free of algorithms, but there are drawbacks. At this point I must confess that I’m pretty slack about using hashtags. And I’m not into digitech. I use it to communicate, learn etc, but I like it to be intuitive & not require me to think too much about the mechanics involved.

mightyspaceman, 1 month ago to random

I was just thinking...it's probably highly likely that in the near future some tool will come out for teachers and the like to attempt to mitigate the use of generative AI for writing tasks. Some kind of proprietary 'writing DRM'...I hate to say it, but I can just feel it coming. Think of a captcha but for writing...

#ai #chatgpt

timrichards, 1 month ago to melbourne

Rusting old neon sign above the Star Dance Studio in Bentleigh, Melbourne (still active, I believe). I took this a year ago.

#Melbourne

timrichards, 1 month ago to Cruise

Crikey. Moral: don't be late.

Norwegian Cruise captain refused to let eight passengers who were late reboard ship https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/02/stranded-cruise-ship-passengers

#Cruise #Travel

timrichards, 1 month ago to coffee

Fun read:

Who invented the flat white? Italian sugar farmers from regional Queensland likely played a big role https://theconversation.com/who-invented-the-flat-white-italian-sugar-farmers-from-regional-queensland-likely-played-a-big-role-224747

#Coffee #Cafe #Australia

luciedigitalni, 1 month ago to random

🍿🍿🍿

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2024/apr/02/bruce-lehrmann-defamation-trial-channel-seven-reimbursed-lehrmann-for-drugs-and-sex-workers-court-documents-allege-nfbntw

autism101, 11 months ago to actuallyautistic

Anxiety is common amongst autistic people. It can build up over time and lead to a meltdown or shutdown.

Do you deal with anxiety? Share any helpful tips that work for you.

image: @Autism1o1

#AskingAutistics #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD @actuallyautistic