Diagnosis: Autism Rediscovering My Autistic Self

This page has more information and recommendations for some basic exercises:

So like what is meant to happen is the chemicals increase, peak, then either plateau for a bit (thing causing emotion is still happening) or drop back down again. You actually do the mental processing part of feeling emotions once that level has dropped lower again.

For allistic people (who may also be fully NT) the time it takes isn't very long. So they'll get the burst of emotion & then it will pass and they can go "I was feeling x" and then start processing the whys and stuff and work on regulating responses.

For autistic people however, the initial release of chemicals in response to _stimulus_ is often higher to begin with, and it often takes longer for the body to reabsorb them. So you remain in the feeling stage far far longer and it can actually measurably be more extreme of an emotion (in terms of the chemicals). And so it can be quite confusing. As the amount finally starts to drop (can take hours in some cases) that's when you can finally start figuring out what the emotion was (at the time the chemicals are highest it might just be feeling like Big Feel™️) and then work on processing it and mitigating things going forward.

The processing stage can also take longer, particularly if you have any level of alexythymia (difficulty identifying emotions). And so it's usual at this stage to be thinking over what happened repeatedly as you try to figure out what the emotion was & why the thing affected you as much as it did. People sometimes mis-identify this bit as rumination and may tell the autistic person to "just move on" or "stop overthinking it" because for them the processing doesn't take as long, but it can often just be delayed processing. And you'll get there when you get there.

The important thing I think is that you have to give yourself patience if this is what you are dealing with. It may actually take you hours (or possibly longer, particularly if prone to ptsd) to get over an extreme emotion and to have processed it. Beating yourself up at this stage is actually counterproductive as you're introducing new emotions (and chemicals) into the mix. So best to be gentle with yourself and allow yourself that longer time to process so you can actually process fully. Trying to shove it away at that stage because you "should" be over it by now (by NT standards) is not actually helpful long term.

But giving yourself that grace period to take longer to process everything actually helps you figure out the whys behind it and lets you identify triggers and things you can do to mitigate them. Even just knowing "I respond like x feelings when y" can really help because then you can sometimes catch that as it is happening and go "oh, this is the x y thing, I'm going to be feeling x for a little while, let's go somewhere safe to feel & process that". And eventually after lots of work you can skip to being able to recognise and solve for the problem feels before they get too problem-y.

Parents who use leashes aren't using them 24-7. Most reserve them for situations that are confusing, distracting, crowded and/or dangerous.

My sibling had to have the reins put on (backwards so they couldn't undo them) even when in the pushchair because they'd get bored of the slower moving speed, would undo the pushchair straps and would just run off in the direction we were going. They never ran off/into traffic/danger, it was more just that they'd been walking since 7 months old & knew they could walk/run quicker than the pushchair was going. So the reins went on to stop them going too far.

MY HOME IS ON THE LIST/LIKELY TO BE TARGETED, WHAT CAN I DO?

* it may bring you peace of mind to have a go-bag ready, just in case. A go-bag is a bag with everything in it that you need to get out a volatile situation quickly. Any bag that can be secured (buttoned or zipped) will do. In your go-bag, you should include;

- identifying documents; passport/driver’s license/asylum card/ILR certificate/British Residency permit card

- Wallet and/or banking books

- A spare charger & cable and/or a power bank

- any shelf-stable medication (tablets, inhalers etc.) if you are on medication that needs to be refrigerated, leave it in the fridge until you have to leave

- Sanitary items; toothbrush, toothpaste, sanitary pads & tampons, deodorant. If you have very young children with you, you may also want to take your nappy bag.

* If you have to leave, a go-bag is a convenient way to ensure you have everything of importance with you.

* If you are being supported by an asylum seekers or refugee charity, or are a member of a gurdwara/temple, mosque, synagogue or church, reach out to your religious leaders. They may be able to provide direct support, or put you in contact with organisations or other congregants who can help. If you are friendly with your neighbours, it may be worth contacting them too.

* IN THE EVENT THAT “PROTESTORS” DO COME TO YOUR HOUSE, CALL 999 IMMEDIATELY, AND FOLLOW ANY INSTRUCTIONS THEY GIVE YOU. MOVE AWAY FROM ANY WINDOWS. DO NOT OPEN YOUR DOOR UNLESS INSTRUCTED TO DO SO BY EMERGENCY SERVICES.

I’M AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT/CARE WORKER/NHS WORKER, WHAT SHOULD I DO?

* Contact your student welfare office/NHS Trust/agency for advice, support and referral to organisations that may be able to provide assistance

* if you live in or commute through an area that is likely to be targeted, contact your lecturers and your faculty to find out whether remote study is possible; if you work in care or as part of the NHS, find out if it is possible to change shifts.

* If it would provide peace of mind, prepare a go-bag as listed above

* Reach out to your the uni society or student’s organisation for international students or students of specific ethnic origin; they may be able to provide you with direction to resources and peer support. If your university has a Marxist or Socialist society, reach out to them for mutual aid with a travel buddy etc., for getting to and from your place of study/work

* If you are a member of a gurdwara/temple, mosque, synagogue or church, reach out to your religious leaders. They may be able to provide direct support, or put you in contact with organisations or other congregants who can help.

* If you are friendly with your neighbours, it may be worth contacting them too for assistance with travel to & from work.

* Report any racism or racialised violence you are subjected to. NHS staff have a right to refuse to treat patients who harass, abuse, threaten or insult them; if a patient is racist to you, where possible, ask another member of staff to take over their care.

PERSONAL SAFETY:

* do not leave your home unless strictly necessary. If it is necessary to leave, don’t do it alone.

* use NextDoor, WhatsApp, social media and word of mouth to avoid commuting through “protestor” road blocks, areas of active conflict etc.,

* When travelling, use Share My Location or Life360, and keep at least two people aware of your expected time of arrival at your destination with instructions to contact the police if you do not let them know you’ve made it safely

* do not directly confront any individuals involved, or allow them to bait you into becoming confrontational

* only record if it is safe. Do not record individuals directly/from up close

* Do not directly intervene. If you see violence occurring, contact emergency services and if safe to do so, record what’s happening.

ALLYSHIP & HOW TO HELP:

* if you have neighbours, friends, coworkers or acquaintances form targeted communities, reach out to them. Ask them what you can do to help them feel safe.

* If you live in an area likely to be targeted, reach out to any vulnerable people you know. If safe and possible, offer to let them shelter with you in the event they need to leave home

* If you see any incitement to violence online screenshot it; it may prove useful in the event of individual “protesters” being prosecuted

* If you see any specific areas being discussed as targets, alert anyone you know at risk in the area

* Reach out to local refugee & asylum seekers’ organisations, to organisations supporting foreign national care & healthcare workers, and to churches, mosques, gurdwaras; they may be looking for short term assistance in helping to provide for vulnerable members of their community

CHARITABLE ORGANISATIONS FOR ASSISTANCE & TO SUPPORT:

* NASC Ireland; refugee & asylum seeker charity

* Doras.org; migrant, stateless persons, refugee and asylum seeker rights advocates

* Jesuit Refugee Service; religious refugee & asylum seekers charity

* Irish Refugee Council; supporting stateless displaced persons & refugees in NI & ROI

* International Student’s House (IE & UK WIDE): provides hardship funding and help to international students

* PathFinder (UK WIDE); supports international students

* Care International (GLOBAL); global carer’s charity

* Choose Love (IE & UK WIDE); charitable organisation supporting refugees and asylum seekers

* Praxis UK (UK WIDE); supporting refugees & asylum seekers

* The Runnymede Trust (IE & UK WIDE); antiracism education charity

* Migrant’s Rights Network (IE & UK WIDE); advocacy and support for migrants and refugees

* ShareTheMeal (GLOBAL); providing meals for refugees and those fleeing conflict globally

* Amnesty (IRELAND, UK & WORLDWIDE); human rights NGO

First: THIS RECALL IS NOT STATE SPECIFIC. IT IS NATIONWIDE.

here are the specific products and dates:

FDA page on this:

It’s almost always queer spaces that take “ambulatory wheelchair users exist!” to mean that a venue with a step (or even multiple steps) is wheelchair accessible because the wheelchair user can just get up while someone lifts their (small, manual) wheelchair up the step.

Or, even worse (like the “inclusive” salon my friend wanted to go to) they call a space with absolutely no wheelchair access “accessible” because they have fidget toys.

The filters on the website for searching for properties has a whole section of accessibility options to select depending on need. So you can pick to look for only properties with level access to the front door, and door width, plus for the bathroom section search for grab rails for each area you might need one, height adjustable sinks, and shower chairs! There's options in the kitchen section to show you properties with height adjustable hobs (stove tops) and kitchen sinks!

I just do not know of anywhere else here that makes so many accessibility information things available up front without having to call. Like I just picked one property at random and it's accessibility info pdf is 9 pages long and there is still info on calling or emailing them if you need any more info.

I have a friend really good at sea. But I don’t think he’s allowed to go to under sea/level 2 sea just because he’s super good at level 1 sea.

So sometimes you can go from level 1 sky to level 2 sea if you just fuck up enough.

(His punishment was some months on a submarine and out of all the war stories he had, that wasn't an experience he wanted to ever think about let alone talk about in detail).

For another picture of the guy, his mother had asked him to check in with his brother if he ever got the chance to do so and so when he heard his brother was dealing with malaria, he got his higher up's permission to scuttle the aircraft (a rescue aircraft!) so that he could hitchhike from India to visit his brother who was stationed near Alexandria in Egypt (because for some reason he thought that was close enough and he'd promised his mother!). You know, just in the middle of a fucking world war. As you do. But when he got there his brother's unit had moved out. So he dejectedly made his way back to where his unit was based only to find his brother sat on the porch of his bunk house. The higher ups had heard his brother's unit was moving so given he was sick & not going to be in action himself for a bit, flew him there. In the middle of a fucking world war!

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Now then.

A key takeaway from the massive amount of almost universally negative feedback to the reblog change should have been: Tumblr users do not, as a rule, care about clout. We do not want quantified "credit" for how good our addition to a post is, and we don't want influencers who are anointed as more important than everyone else because they are popular. That's not what we do here; it's never been what we do here. If we wanted that, we could get it from ANY other social media. The fact that we're here instead makes it pretty clear that clout is not important to us, and in fact is actively repulsive to us. Anointing particular Tumblr users as "top Tumblristas" and putting them on an "advisory board" that gets special access to new features and the opportunity to give feedback on them would constitute the exact type of hierarchy we despise.

Furthermore: When a corporate entity proposes an "advisory board of power users", what they're actually doing is trying to pre-empt wider user pushback against executive decisions, by creating the illusion of user buy-in while using social pressure to enforce decisions that have already been made. The actual reasoning behind selecting "top" users is because they are popular, which suggests they have influence over other users. The idea is, rather than convincing the community as a whole, you convince a smaller subset of influential people, and then they convince everyone else. Again, this depends on a kind of hierarchy and clout-based "influencer" system that we don't have and don't want.

As for the "top users" board themselves: By choosing someone and telling them "you're a Top User and you get to be on the special committee and have special privileges," you are giving them something (supposedly) desirable: social status, (the appearance of) influence and power, etc. And you can take it away. That means now you have power over them. If they don't want to lose their special status, they will avoid displeasing you. Which means they are less likely to give you significant pushback, and they are more willing to pressure others to go along with what you want to do. That makes them incredibly useful to corporate, but completely undermines their supposed role as a voice for the community. We see this already with influencers on every other platform, who become de facto spokespeople for corporations and brands and stop meaningfully criticizing them out of fear of losing the access that is critical to their status.

I'm not saying all this because I think it's news to the CEO of a tech company. I think you know all of that perfectly well already. I'm saying it because I think you assume we don't know it, and because some people might not. But I have played this game before and I know how it goes. It never benefits the community. It is always a way to control the community.

He'd never talk about the exact details but he wasn't even at a very high security place (so not somewhere with the "worst" offending prisoners) but did talk briefly about the violence there & how the guards were expected to behave (by the other guards).

Example here: