Autistic Keely

After finally allowing myself to actually be myself my life is already 100 times better. I feel so much more free!! I think it’s important to teach children in schools about lgbtq+ relationships, because I grew up not even knowing that I didn’t have to date men. And being an autistic person who masked her way through life, I just copied the people around me and dated men for years. I wish I had the opportunity to realise sooner that I didn’t have to be with men, because the experiences I had were not nice and I never enjoyed them. I wish I had learnt from a young that it’s okay to date people of the same sex/gender and that there’s nothing wrong about it. It’s important we help autistic people to accept themselves and allow them to be themselves so that they don’t have to mask and they can discover their true selves sooner rather than later. This can also help to prevent trauma from being put in situations that they really don’t wanna be in.

Hiya! What type of shakes are they, are they full body involuntary shakes? This is a difficult one because when you’re anxious your muscles tense up which causes shaking and trembling. I wouldn’t consider this a stim because it’s caused by stress hormones which increase your heart rate and blood pressure, causing the muscles to tense up. When you’re excited, adrenaline stimulates your nerves which can give the same muscular response causing shaking and trembling. I wouldn’t say this is a self-stimulating behaviour because full body shakes are completely involuntary and can’t be stopped immediately without medication or other medical help. Whilst stims often happen subconsciously, they can be stopped (obviously I don’t think they should be!). As long as the shaking isn’t caused by underlying medical issues such as low blood sugar then it shouldn’t be anything to worry about and could just be your body’s normal response to emotions. In that case there is a possibility the shaking could be considered a stim, but I can’t say for certain without knowing more about your experience. Feel free to message me if you have any other questions!

I don’t know too much about alexithymia so I did some research. It is a condition that causes difficulties in expressing and identifying emotions. If you don’t understand what you’re feeling it’s likely your facial expressions won’t express accurate emotions or they will appear blank, however, that doesn’t mean you won’t have any facial expressions. Studies have shown that most people with alexithymia have more trouble with identifying emotions rather than being able to express them, so their facial expressions may follow their frustration from not understanding what they are feeling. It seems many people with alexithymia are told they have no empathy, but this simply isn’t true. Just because they have difficulty recognising those feelings it doesn’t mean they are not there. It’s important to never assume someone’s emotions purely from their facial expressions anyway as facial expressions aren’t always reliable. For example I don’t have alexithymia but I’m always told I look angry and annoyed when in fact I’m feeling happy so my face just doesn’t match my emotions. If you have alexithymia please comment your experiences in the comments if you feel comfortable doing so!

It feels like life is one big soup, and I’m a fork 🤷‍♀️

Autistic people are underappreciated, undervalued and underestimated members of society. We are treated as if there is something wrong with us, we are told we need to be “cured”, we are discriminated against and bullied for the way our brains are wired. We don’t just deserve awareness, we deserve acceptance. Life for autistic people will never change unless we are accepted and appreciated in society for the amazingly wonderful people we are. We deserve more than just awareness!!!

I have covid and it’s absolutely awful, I never expected to get it this bad due to only being 18 years old. I am on a lot of medications though so maybe that’s impacted my immune system? I’ve had both doses of vaccine as well as a booster jab so it just makes me wonder what my experience would have been like if I had no vaccines to protect me. It just goes to show how covid affects everyone differently, and that you can get really sick even if you’re considered young and healthy and fully vaccinated. My mum and nanna have both got covid too and yet my symptoms are more severe than theirs, and they’re both over 50. This is crazy to me!