Things I needed to learn as an autistic kid:
- how to rest & recover from overstimulation
- how to connect with other kids in ways that were meaningful to me
- how to self advocate, and how to know when advocacy could help & what to do when it couldn't
- how to notice my mind being anxious

Someone just commented on my post about internalized autism saying "that's high masking. The mask will eventually break."

Not for me. For me, it's not my mask that breaks. It's me.

Autistic relationships don’t fail because we’re “bad at connection” or “have no feelings”.

They fail when we have to perform to be accepted.

Authenticity isn’t a luxury for us - it’s the only way a relationship can last.

New autism research talking about autism and PTSD. How autistic people can develop trauma from things that may not seem traumatic to non autistic people. And how that trauma makes autism symptoms worse. That was so validating to hear.
🔻Autism
www.youtube.com/shorts/c3hRA...

When an autistic human shares their life and thoughts with you, it’s because they like you, feel safe with you, trust you.

If you use that opportunity to make them feel small, refer to them as self-centered, or reject them, you really don’t know the first thing.

High masking explains what we do to survive.

Internalized autism explains what it does to us.

Game-changing autism research not enough people are talking about... #autismawareness

Any relationship that demands you mask
is not a relationship.

It’s a transaction.

A performance.

A drain.

Autistic relationships are built on truth, not tolerance.

If I can’t show up as I am, then I’m not really there.

The neurodiversity movement has done a lot of good, but it’s often held back by its grounding in a middle-class, white, Western liberal worldview. It badly lacks a working-class and socialist analysis, something that could make it more radical, inclusive, and rooted in material reality. 1/4

Autistic anxiety aka Distinct Anxiety...

‘He nails it on the first take’: how the Beatles helped my autistic son find his voice

For nearly a century, Grunya Sukhareva’s groundbreaking work on autism was ignored.
This #InternationalWomensDay, let’s honour the true pioneers in science and give credit where it’s long overdue.

#GrunyaSukhareva #SayHerName #WomenInSTEM #AutismAcceptance #HiddenFigures #Neurodiversity

Happy International Women's Day to my wonderful neurodivergent (adjacent) women who have changed my life for the better
open.substack.com/pub/heledd42...

I have created a FREE community e-book with @emergentdivergence.com

A brief introduction to the neurodiversity paradigm. Discussing how the dominance of neuronormativity impacts neurodivergent people & why we may be burnt out. Includes supporting resources.

autisticrealms.com/product/auti...

Looking for a book to further your understanding of this neurotypical world?

Empire of Normality
Neurodiversity and Capitalism.

Book for bedtime (or anytime) is worth the read.

#autism #actuallyautistic
#Neurodivergence
#Neurodivergent
#Neurodiversity

@drrobertchapman.bsky.social

Character work exercise: Do your chores as a character! Then document what you learned about their voice, physicality, and worldview. Come back later to your notes in order to iterate and refine.
#improv #acting

New article with @tanyaadkin.bsky.social about monotropic split and the bodymind as an environment!

emergentdivergence.com/2025/01/30/m...

#ActuallyAutistic #autism #Autistic #monotropism #monotropicSplit #chronicillness #chronicpain #neurodiversity #neurodivergent

Neurodivergent people have spent far too long trying to fit in. It’s not us that must change. Society must change. We will always be seen as misfits in their eyes. We don’t want to fit we want to belong.

The AuDHD experience can be summed up as having very specific places to put your things, always forgetting to put them there, and then having a meltdown over the need to have them in the correct place when you can’t find them.