asperguides

Brain: okay but get this. what if we just daydreamed about our special interest for five hours straight

Me:

Do you tend to overload your food with what is in some people’s eyes is “an absolutely preposterous amount of salt oh my god how have both of your kidneys not failed”?

Hi, I’m glad you appreciate how many words I need to answer even the most basic questions! (half joke)

Interestingly enough, my icon here is a drawing of myself with raptor hands. 

Raptor hands (also called raptor arms, meerkat hands, and many other things of this format) are a way of holding one’s hands/arms at rest. It’s when a person has their arms in a resting position where their elbows are bent. 

A common way that this can look is that the hands are right at chest level, and loosely hanging down. The hands don’t need to be as high though for me to still consider it raptor hands. Elbows at a right angle such that the hands are hanging down from around the waist still strike me as being a bit raptorish in this sense.

The reason this is talked about in the actuallyautistic tag is because autistic people tend to be the ones who do this naturally. I’m not sure what causes it, but a lot of us find it much more comfortable than having our arms hang down to our sides. I have a friend who tries to hold her arms down to her sides, but because having them bent is so much more natural feeling, her elbows are still a bit bent, and so when she walks you can see her arms bending away from her a bit. It’s actually how I first thought to ask if she’s autistic too (she is). 

Here’s the original drawing I did that I turned into my icon, since I think it’s a good example. (Copic markers and a pigma micron for the line art)

Dafuq?

I have enough self-esteem problems. I DON’T need this. I don’t need to be questioning whether I look masculine or feminine.

This has to be bullshit. Bullshit to perpetuate the idea that autism is a male disorder and shame girls who are autistic but don’t “look” autistic.

[Caption]: Please take the time to read the quote, and understand why the #ActuallyAutistic community is calling for a #BoycottToSiri

my new coworker costs me so much energy. It’s like I constantly have to watch what i’m saying because she scrutinizes everything and I feel like I’m in constant competition with her. 

Brain: you know this is a bad idea…

Me: Oh! Top charts, okay, let’s see what the rest of the world likes…

brain: alright, here we go

Me: *listens* 

Brain: 3.. 2.. 1..

Me: OH GOD HOW DO PEOPLE-

Me: *flaps*

Me: - LISTEN TO THIS, nope, nope, nope, nope *Goes back to comfortable music that I’m used to*

i’m autistic. i have severe social phobia. i never know what to say. i fumble over words and struggle to arrange sentences. i often make mistakes, such as improper word order and odd collocations. i have to go back and edit almost every sentence that i write. writing isn’t easy, and speaking is hell.

you get it, languages/communication isn’t my strongest area. yet i somehow managed to teach myself fluent english as my 2nd language at a young age (7-9). which i thought is surprising given how many difficulties i’ve had because of my neurological differences. i’m not complaining though? but after this grand feat, everything changed. i somehow became unable to learn any new languages??

when i began studying russian in school at age 12, i struggled so much it was unreal. it just wouldn’t get into my head. i studied it for a total of 7 years, and still i can’t communicate more than a few very basic sentences (which sucks balls because 95% of the workplaces where i live require average/fluent knowledge of russian, rip me lmao).

additionally, i tried teaching myself swedish at 17, but that was just as futile as my attempts at learning russian.

why is it that i could teach myself english, but couldn’t learn other new languages even if my life depended on it? even more - how come i could learn english which is completely different from my 1st language, yet i struggle with russian which is similar to my 1st language in many fundamental ways? initially i assumed - it’s because of the age at which i started picking up each language. my peers didn’t seem to have any problem however. and i worked hard to learn, so i doubt it’s lack of effort is to blame either.