Autism

Hi, I'm flying home for my birthday (moved out of state for work, then lost my job, and been unemployed for 4 months). My mom asked what I would like her to make me for my birthday dinner, and I have no clue what to ask for. I'm just at a loss because I don't know what I like. I'm not picky, but if left to my own devices would eat mueslix for months at a time. I hate feeling attention, and worst of all pity... But that is the primary feeling when I return to my mothers home. I feel lost and trapped, as more if my life falls through my fingers like a hand desperately grasping into dry sand. Everything feels wrong and I hate that I agreed to come home at all.

Like the title says, recovery from alcoholism has been pretty rough. I fucking love drinking, but the amount of times it's gotten me in bad spot is crazy. I haven't been formally diagnosed, but my last therapist was going to refer me because I have several traits of ASD ("high-functioning").

I just can't stand being around people. Like I just can't think around them because the sounds they make and the things they talk about drive me up the wall. Also the fact that "isolation" is a no no in these places, it's all about "community", so having time to myself to gather my sanity is hard to come by.

Not to mention the anxiety of having to talk about myself.

It's forced me to leave programs time after time and now it's all starting to make sense. I know that I can't blame all my problems on ASD (especially if I haven't even been given the diagnosis by someone qualified, and I'm sorry if this offends anyone) and I know that this 100% is on me and not everyone else.

I'm running out of options and I'm starting to think that just living on the street is my only option.

Edit: Also lately, I've been dabbling with methamphetamine. It's like everything I don't want to do is now possible.

Hi everyone.

I was diagnosed with high-functioning autism at age 3. I am smart, shy, kind, and nice. Many times, people take advantage of me. I think this caused me to be bullied in high school. As the autistic brain is wired differently, it is impossible for me to fit into the mostly neurotypical (NT) world. I cannot make any NT friends as they all think I am 'weird' or 'odd'. All the NT social skills are very hard for me to learn. However, when I come on autism forums such as this one, I feel like I am welcomed, accepted, and understood. I feel that with time, I might make friends on this forum.

I have some special interests such as electricity (plugs, voltages, electrical sockets/outlets), the battery health of electronic devices, and time (clocks, time zones). They are so intense that they are the only thing I think and talk about.

Hopefully I will make some friends on this forum.

Nice to meet you all!

Yours Truly,

SRSAutistic

I need headphones that only an audiophile would love. I practically LIVE in my headphones and almost never take em off. I also dont wanna spend heaping tons of money on em tho ;w; maybe a budget of like- 100-200 I guess... I dunno what do yall recommend?

I know I can over share. I know I say things way too "deep" for neutrotypicals. I know how I take small talk into big talk with just one sentence. What are ways that you keep yourself aware in conversation to just be casual. I imagine something small to fidget with that isn't obvious and I can use to keep me centered on being not so outright. Obviously I don't like wearing anything but maybe something like a normal but moving or spinning finger ring would help, I can always take it off.

Is this something you guys experience, maybe recognize now, or have realized this behavior and have some mechanism to stay "normal"?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.autism.place/post/311746

Recent in this question is however you define it 🙂

It makes me want to crawl in a hole and never speak to anyone again.

i genuinely feel like my entire life and mindset have done a... at least a 90 by now, by somehow, somehow getting this hail mary pass off and setting this up. i can't believe this is real life it's very bizarre, i'm just shaking with anxiety and energy

i just feel like she'll hate me upon first sight (this was thru an app) for some reason, she'll sense the autism, she'll know i'm off and the next hour will be awkward and she'll politely say goodbye.

i mean, alternatively, it could go well, she could be cool. she seems cool which i suppose is why i did this. what is happening i cannot believe these are things that are going on in my life i feel like i was just in a major major hitting slump for 10 years, strikeout after strikeout

and then also what if she ghosts me or stands me up like in the films. what then? add it to the list of failures and try to rebuild my self image?

aghufasdf

I just really hate how my friends label me as a child, they are not 100% NT but way less autistic than me, yesterday she admitted they viewed me as a child, at first she stated that she viewed all of her peers as children since she felt she had more lived experience which is fine she can do whatever she wants. but then we met a new friend who she took a liking to and who she views as an adult, and recently on the way home our friend group got to talking about something and I asked something jokingly. She said rather seriously "Sky, there are some things that stay between adults" I reply I am legitimately a year older than you, she then said rather seriously not in any of the ways that matter. In general, there have been plenty of other times I felt like I was treated as a child, and generally, she and others have capped the level of closeness they have with me to protect me, which in practice only creates an environment where I do not have any close friends at all, I legit usually sob to myself in my room when and think about killing myself. I also understand I am a failure by most traditional metrics, no job, no car, no place, I have been trying to get a job for over 8 months, I wrecked my car 6 months ago, but I am not a fucking child.

I regularly feel like people pretend to be interested in what I am saying since I am being viewed a child and most people do not want to be mean to a child, I just feel like such a loser in general and I really hate the fact I am autistic which is 100% why this keeps happening.

I have Special Interests (pixel-perfect UIs, the overall 'feel' of software, old computers, obsolete media like floppies, useless machines, etc.) that my brain finds extremely stimulating and rewarding and I'm able to devote hours to creating things that scratch these itches. Unfortunately neither the job market, nor anyone else actually, sees beauty there where I see it and so they will not value it (that includes financially). Meanwhile, there are other things like machine learning or cell biology that my brain is also very well equipped for but I don't spend time learning them because they don't draw me to them the way my SIs do (I have ADHD so the stimulation level of activities is quite decisive). This is a handicap because it leaves me fixated on several irrelevant things which I did not choose. How do you guys deal with this?

I'm looking for sleeping tricks and thought some other people here might have similar issues or good tricks. Can be anything from getting the motivation to go to sleep to actually tricks to falling asleep.

My current trickbook is basically this:

Podcasts, but it has to be in some goldilocks zone of interesting to enough to keep attention but not too good so it gets exciting.

I've also done meditation in bed when falling asleep that tends to work.

Consistent routine is good. Shower, brush teeth, lights off, episode, sleep.

I'm curious to see what other autistic people are working with here.

Mostly asking for other people on the spectrum, but allistics are free to comment also.

Like - what do I write in the card? What the hell do I get them? They come up so quickly as well.

Mine in meme format

Link to meme creator for convenience.

I don't stutter or fuck up my speech over a text.

cross-posted from: https://lemy.lol/post/30077456

Stolen from Mastodon.

Brain enlargement may be linked to symptom severity in kids with autism spectrum disorder

Specifically, social and communication symptoms appear to be more severe in children who display brain overgrowth on MRI scans. Experts believe this overgrowth may be associated with alterations in the activity of the Ndel1 enzyme, which is related to embryonic neuron differentiation and migration.

Study: https://molecularautism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13229-024-00602-8

For some reason I find vests, and specifically down vests very comfortable. I know that some of you have problems with polyester though, so I'd love to hear about your comfy clothes! (I kinda wanna test out some new stuff)

cross-posted from: https://reddthat.com/post/24388390

Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out to ask for advice and insights on how you manage emotional dysregulation. Lately, I’ve been finding it challenging to handle intense emotions, especially when they seem to come out of nowhere or are triggered by small things.

I know this is something that many people in the AuDHD community experience, so I’d love to hear about any strategies, tools, or practices that have worked for you. Whether it’s specific techniques, coping mechanisms, or lifestyle changes, I’m open to anything that might help.

Thank you in advance for your support and for sharing your experiences. I really appreciate hearing from others who understand what this is like.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

I'm the father of a 6 year old boy diagnosed with autism when he was 4. He's considered non verbal although he has some stock phrases and sounds he uses daily.

The thing is I'm worried if I've made the right decisions and I'm worried about his future.

Will he ever talk more? Will he do well in mainstream school? Will he be OK?

I'd be interested in hearing your experiences especially if you started as non verbal.

Did it get easier for you? When did you start talking more?

Today I went to buy clothes. And I found one!

I also found a store where they did an effort on the fitting rooms (two mirrors, large enough bench). But more interesting a wheel to dim lights. And I could dim it enough to a comfortable level.

I'm a grown-ass adult, and was diagnosed as being on the spectrum quite late; Aspergers wasn't even a valid diagnosis until after I had graduated from high school.

So, haven't really had a lot of support.

Just wanted to check in with other people - what does a meltdown mean for you, in terms of communicating? When I'm feeling emotionally overwhelmed, I have words in my head, but I can get them out of my mouth. If I try to write things down, I either have the same block, or I'll write, erase, re-write, erase again, and repeat tens of times until I give up.

I recently conmented on a meme with a little personal experience and would like to know what you fine peoples take is?

Thanks!

(Link on top)

Am I crazy to assume that, if I tell one person but don't specify any particular privacy settings, they would leave it to me to decide when I disclose it to others?

I guess I should get specific here. I was officially diagnosed a couple of weeks ago, as having autism spectrum disorder level 1. I have so far only told my mom, who I live with, and my best friend, who I suspect is also autistic. Today, I overheard my mom talking loudly on a video call to my brother and his wife, catching up and sharing their latest news. Apparently her latest news included the fact that I have been diagnosed with ASD. I hadn't yet decided how to go about having that conversation with my brother, and now I'm pretty upset that I don't get to make that decision. While I'm venting, she also mentioned that I've been less conversational lately, which she attributes to my diagnosis and to me no longer wanting to make the effort necessary to talk to neurotypical people (in reality, my chronic fatigue has been playing up lately, which always leaves me with less energy for conversation - she knows my chronic fatigue has been playing up lately, but apparently thinks I'm just choosing not to bother).

Am I crazy to think she was way out of line to share my diagnosis with someone without running it by me?

I'm also not sure how to move forward with this information in any way without it seeming like I was eavesdropping - which I wasn't intentionally doing, she was in the living room / kitchen area, I was heading down there to make myself a cup of tea (which I do every night at that time, in the room that she was talking in) and froze halfway down the hallway when I heard her sharing my confidential information. I didn't know how to deal with the situation so I just stood there for a bit and then returned to my room without making the cup of tea. If she had directly told me that she had told my brother about my diagnosis, or that she was bothered by me being less conversational, it would give me an opportunity to provide input on these matters, but as it is I don't feel comfortable raising the subject, or noticeably increasing my level of masking (to accomodate her apparent discomfort with me not doing so), without the eavesdropping issue potentially becoming part of the conversation and complicating matters.

I'm also bothered because I have a tradition of once a year going to stay with my best friend for a while, and typically stop off with my brother for a few days when I pass through his city. Last year unexpected travel complications left me burnt out, so when I made the bookings a couple of months back for this year's trip, I made it as simple as possible, including skipping the stay with my brother. I haven't yet told him, and now I'm worried that he's going to take it as me no longer socializing with neurotypical family members (even though the arrangement was made before my diagnosis). The whole thing is complicated and no longer under my control because my mother decided to share my diagnosis and her thoughts about my behavior behind my back.

Anyway, I guess I'm venting, and looking for input on whether this is as infuriating as it seems, and maybe advice on how to approach the situation.