rb dump sry

I found an interesting article about nose, ears and throat problems may be linked to autism. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

A new study finds that young children experiencing recurring ear and upper respiratory problems may be at greater risk of receiving an autism diagnosis later on. The findings could shed more light on the origins of the neurodevelopmental disorder.

There is no single cause for autism. Instead, scientists believe it is a combination of genetic, environmental, and biological factors. Autism is called a spectrum disorder because it affects individuals in different ways and to varying degrees. Previous research into the origins of autism has pointed out a relationship between the condition and ear, nose, and throat (ENT) issues such as ear infections, “glue ear,” and sleep-disordered breathing.

I’ll leave the article down below so that anyone can read it. I hope many of you found this interesting and informative.

i'm finding harder to do "normal" things, deal with loud noises, talk to people, do basic things like shower or teeth. will go through week long low talking periods, and will have shorter no talking periods almost every day. then parents get angry and i go back to "normal" but w/ severe distress and discomfort and fatigue and still can't do some stuff.

sorry if this is hard to understand and sorry if this question is rude or unwarranted, feel free to not answer

Yeah that sounds like it to me. Autistic regression also often happens alongside autistic burnout.

Autistic regression is when you lose skills you previously had, the amount of time it last depends on a lot of factors.

Autistic burnout is when you have less tolerance for sensory input, less energy for things especially if they aren't related to special interests, tiredness, ect.

Both of these things generally occur because needs aren't being met, that could be lack of accommodations, having too much you have to do, not enough rest, not having sensory needs met, ect.

And then other things come into play.

In Kiku's case Kiku's apraxia doesn't just make speech hard, it makes all motor skill related things hard. When Kiku is burnt out or beginning to get burnt out Kiku gets stuck in motor loops more often (repeating an action and not being able to stop, it's different from tics though.

Kiku's tics are jerky and erratic and generally random unless triggered, but Kiku's motor loops are smoother, and repetitive in a different way than Kiku's tics, and they generally aren't random (they are usually whatever Kiku was doing, so making a sound or doing a certain movement, just more times than intended).

Kiku's sensory issues get worse and are more easily triggered.

Ect.

Regression and burnout in autism often occur together. Regression is related to skills (speech, washing your hands, tying shoes, ect) and burnout affects energy levels, sensory tolerance, stress tolerance, and other things.

But yeah it sounds like you are dealing with regression and possibly burnout.

"Normal" things are harder to do because you're needs aren't being met. Not having your needs met makes it hard to do other things.

It's probably going to be a good idea to get access to an aac app, because communication is the goal. Removing stress from needing to talk can help reduce speech loss.

Also try to figure out what you're sensory issues are and accommodate them, however you can.

Kiku wouldn't have made it through highschool if Kiku hadn't snuck ear buds and an mp3 player into school and listened to it while working and sometimes the teachers just let us listen to music.

Also small stim/fidget toys can help. Anything that will fit in your pocket.

Of course be safe. If it will get you in trouble that's not helpful.

If you have any other disabilities, try to figure out accommodations that will help with that.

Because autism affects how your brain is wired, things that aren't related to autism can still affect and be affected by autistic burnout and regression, so it's important to take everything into consideration. Of course this takes time, and since you are stuggling it might take longer.

The best course of action would probably be to get an IEP if you can. Or just talk to your teachers and parents and see if they can accommodate you. Kiku didn't have the knowledge to do this, so everything that Kiku did was sneaky 😅

If you don't journal that might be a good thing to do, and make a list of what you deal with and what might help. Of course if it's overwhelming, start with one or two things, like a specific sensory issue or a specific problem.

But it's also good to figure out what is caused this and not just treat the things that are happening because of it (are you overworked? Do your parents not understand and are to hard on you? Are you dealing with internalised ableism and not accommodating yourself? Do you not know how to accommodate yourself?, Ect). There is often underlying causes that you might not be able to see right away.

Speech regression in autistic teens and young adults is really common, like really common. Kiku is one who deals with this and Kiku has met others. It's so common that Kiku has heard of SLPs just going "oh yeah that happens a lot". But it's not openly talked about much.

By popular demand of (1) person in the comments of a post I’ve made briefly touching on this subject, I have compiled all of my thoughts on the portrayal of Tanizaki Jun’ichirou—and by extension, Naomi—in Bungou Stray Dogs in reference to the works of the real life Tanizaki Jun’ichirou-sensei (who I’ll be calling Tanizaki-sensei to differentiate from his fictional counterpart). Disclaimer that I don’t have the academic background to write as an expert on this subject. I will be citing all of my sources in the text.

Tanizaki-sensei (1886-1965) was an author who was well known for writing about sexual obsession and fetishes, and the exploration of Japanese versus Western culture in his works. His female characters were particularly reputable for having strong personalities (drawing upon the dofuku - “poisonous woman” or femme fatale troupe), and frequently fulfilled the domineering role in sadomasochistic relationships with men. This recurring theme is most likely the basis for Tanizaki and Naomi’s relationship in Bungou Stray Dogs.

In a similar vein, motifs such as dreaming, delusions, and fantasies (oftentimes of the erotic nature) frequently appear in Tanizaki-sensei’s works. This could be the basis for Tanizaki’s illusion projection ability, “Light Snow”, which is named after Tanizaki-sensei’s great novel, Sasameyuki (1948), also known as The Makioka Sisters, the title of the English translation, which was changed due to the nuance of the original title being difficult to convey in English. 

Going on a slight tangent here, Tanizaki-sensei also wrote a handful of works depicting blindness, such as A Portrait of Shunkin (1933) and A Blind Man’s Tale (1931). In these works, blindness can be interpreted as a metaphor for blind devotion and obsessive worship of one’s love interest, even to the point of martyrdom. For example, in A Portrait of Shunkin (1933), the character Sasuke destroys his own eyesight for his vain mistress, who did not want to be seen after an incident destroys her beauty. Tanizaki and Naomi’s deep affection for each other is reminiscent of these themes (Tanizaki’s willingness to throw away his morals for Naomi, Naomi taking gunfire in Tanizaki’s place).

Unfortunately, we aren’t given any other concrete pieces of information about Tanizaki or Naomi that can be reliably connected to something in regards to the real life author…

Or, how Chuuya is actually the most qualified character to land a victory over Dostoevsky.

I just want to preface this with: I think Chuuya has woken from the brainwashing. We can't see his eyes, he's holding his hat again, and look at the progression of his face and expression from the last few chapters with him (these are in order btw from left to right).

I'm not completely sure how he did this, but I chalk a lot of it up to sheer stubborn determination on Chuuya's part, mostly because it's funny and he was clearly fighting back before Dazai's speech. However, I find it likely the speech did contain some kind of code - others have pointed out how "Goodbye!" might be a reference to the original author's last unfinished book and we know skk's codenames for things generally are based off their real counterparts' works so, maybe he'd already broken out of it, maybe there was something in there that gave him the final push - who knows at this point honestly? Either way, it means Chuuya had the capacity to break out of the vampire curse on his own and that's incredibly funny to me for many reasons but mostly:

Fyodor: "Bold of you to assume Chuuya's ability can't overcome flooding."

Dazai: "Bold of you to assume Chuuya's personality can't overcome brainwashing."

But really, this highlights something interesting here, both in what Chuuya's role is ultimately intended to be in this arc, and in the way Fyodor and Dazai manipulate and value others in very different ways.

But there’s also that point in stormbringer where Dazai was willing to change all the plans to make way for Chuuya’s choice. I think the moment he found out Chuuya was in the playing field, he already did change the plans. Maybe the drowning wasn’t even his initial plan but he just wanted to make sure Chuuya makes it through/snaps out of the brainwashing by getting an opportunity to talk to him (via the speakers).

I’m almost a hundred percent sure the speech contained some sort of code and a hidden apology with a lot of emotional factors that Dazai would never deliver under normal circumstances. I think that this is something—a nuance—that only Chuuya would get. Maybe it was indeed his farewell, but I’m pretty sure that he was confident Chuuya would survive the waters, he’s sorry he had to make him go through it. They’ve been partners for so long, dealing with tricky things like liquid is definitely something they had to find a solution for at least once during their partnership. So maybe this farewell is kinda symbolic too. That Dazai chooses to prioritize the ADA over the Port Mafia’s executive. I refer to PM’s executive bc that’s an entirely different thing as to Chuuya as his partner. If Dazai was still in the PM or working with the PM as his top priority, he would definitely deal with how to get Chuuya—an important asset to the mafia—back first. But that is not the case here. What Dazai’s actions meant was that he trusted Chuuya’s strength and personality, believing that he will make it through even if he himself is working towards a different goal.

Then again, I think Dazai’s always been flexible with planning. I have a whole theory that he began to plot for Sigma’s entrance exam as soon as he chose Sigma to be with him. (Something that Asagiri had been foreshadowing since the sky casino is ADA!Sigma so yes.) I love how you pointed out how Dazai’s plans rely on other people’s strength and choices so much. it shows his endless fascination in human life ngl. And Chuuya’s arrival at the prison being out of his expectations is so important. I think it’s something that will be putting him on the edge. It’s gonna be something he will change all of his plans for.

I believe that Dazai saves people since the very beginning. But he’s always been selective of who to save. He saves those who he somewhat sees himself in. A quote from No Longer Human says a lot about it which i think Asagiri adds into his character, “If ever I meet someone society has designated as an outcast, I invariably feel affection for him, an emotion which carries me away in melting tenderness.”

First, we had Chuuya being save from the Sheep’s exploitation. Then Dazai joined him on his journey of questioning his humanity/Stormbringer stuffs. We had Odasaku’s lonely and dangerous life as a special postman and former assassin being invited to the Mafia for protection. We have the Akutagawa siblings who have been seen as a meaningless and neglected existence in the slumps. All of which he brought into the PM, a place he thought was a reasonable and ‘safe’ and enough to give a reason in living. Which I think just shows how twisted his perspective in life and its comforts already is at an early age. After moving to the ADA, I love how he immediately thought of pairing Akutagawa the moment he saw Atsushi. It makes me wonder if he ever thought of bringing Akutagawa into the light after experiencing it himself (which also involves my whole other theory how Beast AU is closely interconnected with the current canon events like—how did Dazai know Atsushi’s ability upon first encounter sjdjfjjsjs unless its a hidden feature of his ability to know if someone has an ability by mere touch—). Then we have Kyouka who just like him moved from the PM to the ADA.

Now we have Sigma who (1) is not truly human, which is something both Chuuya and him had experiences of (i think that’s a really important factor here!!) and (2) is a former criminal who has been used/treated as nothing important in their whole life (both like Odasaku, Kyouka, and Akutagawa respectively) and (3) longs for a home (like Atsushi and Kyouka). So really, Sigma fits the bill so well.

Wait, I’m going off tangents now skdjdjsjks but I truly believe the many of Dazai’s plans have the end goal of saving someone. I think the next steps of his plan heavily relies on Sigma’s and Chuuya’s Choices.

Maybe just like Dead Apple, he’s got something on his sleeves about the poison. But idk there are so many hidden factors (like Atsushi’s Dazai visions sndjjsa) and unrevealed surprises that makes reading this arc so fun. It’s selfish of me but I really hope the latest chapter caught his raw emotions. I want shocked Dazai, mr. Demon prodigy being expressive and not acting. Even if it’s just one of those panels being it. I’m sure he did something on the elevator already in preparation but still. I also want Chuuya to kick both his and Fydor’s scheming plans off the rail. Maybe this will also be Fydor’s arc in realizing that human’s ability to make changes is what makes the world run as it is.

(It took me a while to figure it out; anon was bothered by this post.)

Okay, sure, I’ll try to do that. That said, I want to encourage people engaged in anti-ableism efforts that take the form of asking people not to use certain words to put their energies elsewhere. Firstly, I think they make the disability advocacy community inaccessible to a lot of people, since having to relearn which words are “allowed” is overwhelming and particularly difficult for people who have limited access to words in the first place.

Secondly, every time I’ve seen this implemented it…hasn’t made anyone less ableist? People who scrupulously remove “crazy” from their vocabulary in favor of “irrational” still treat the people they’re talking about like unpersons. Often the recommended replacement words are just as good at suggesting “less valuable person” as the words they replaced. I think there’s some value in asking “does our use of words surrounding disability to mean ‘bad thing’ come from a place of treating disabled people like tragedies?” and often it does, but that doesn’t mean that challenging that mindset is as easy as changing out the words. Thirdly, I think it emphasizes the wrong concerns. I saw a newspaper headline the other day saying “the president’s plan will be a crippling blow to the economy” and one about the “crippling burden of student debt”. I’d think that the fact the president’s plan includes making it harder to get SSI, or the fact disabled students are way less likely to graduate and likelier to end up in debt, is a much more urgent problem than the turn of phrase used in the headline. 

And each and every one of them failed. Within a very short time of going mainstream, the words that were supposedly neutral and less pejorative became, in practice, every bit as nasty and horrible as the word they replaced.

This is called the euphemism treadmill.

Why? Simple.

If someone thinks a group of people are scum who shouldn’t exist, and you tell that person “please don’t use [old word] for that group, use [new word] instead” you have not actually changed their mind about the group they hate one bit. They still think they’re scum who shouldn’t exist! It’s just now they have two words that mean “scum who shouldn’t exist,” [old word] and [new word]. There is no vocabulary change that will make them think about the group they hate any differently. You can shame them into not publicly discriminating (if you have the social buy-in from other people) and sometimes, sometimes if you have a relationship with someone you can over time influence them to be less hateful*, but just changing the word they use does absolutely nothing.

*If you want to work to change peoples’ perspective, the Hidden Brain podcast has an excellent episode on how to handle conflict that touches on “how can you influence people who disagree with you to move their position closer to yours.” Relationships 2.0: How To Keep Conflict From Spiraling

crippling /ˈkrip(ə)liNG/ adjective

1. causing a person to become unable to walk or move properly.

“a crippling disease”

2. causing a severe and almost insuperable problem.

“interest rates rose to a crippling 13 percent”

I can assure you that depression can be crippling in that the problem was, for me, insurmountable and almost killed me. I had to have outside intervention, intense months long medical attention, and a prescription for a medical aid that enabled me to navigate recovery for the wreak of my life and start to do the work to create a new life that accommodated my newly diagnosed illness. Since then, there are days that I can’t get out of bed and days when I feel invincible and accomplished.

A couple people reblogged my brief complaint about neurotypical feminism yesterday to say “yes, someone finally described the thing” and a couple other people reblogged it to say “huh, what?” so I thought I’d expand on the thing.

An advice columnist tells a man with crippling social anxiety that an anxiety disorder is nowhere near as bad as being a woman, so “get a fucking grip and do not come to feminist blogs for comfort about this issue.”

Some people say “#yesallwomen experience street harassment and fear of men!” A woman says “as a visibly disabled autistic person, I’m desexualized and treated like a genderless unperson. and, no, I don’t experience street harassment and I’m not hit on.” Another woman says “as someone who was abused by women, I feel much more comfortable around men than around women. Women scare me. Men don’t.”  They are ignored, or yelled at for derailing.

Making fun of men for dressing badly, struggling with hygiene and being socially awkward is okay, even though disabled women who struggle with the same things keep on saying “when you joke that way about disabled men, I feel unsafe.”

An autistic woman talks about how her disability gives her some strengths in her field and a perspective on it that isn’t represented in sexism in STEM conversations. She argues that listening to autistic women in tech might make us better at fixing the gender gap. A bunch of people explain to her that she is femmephobic and has internalized misogyny and just wants to say “I’ve got mine, so screw you”. 

I feel like these have a thing in common. That thing is winning political points with the suggestion that your opponents are disabled, as if that’s good for women. That thing is dismissal, erasure and contempt directed at any women whose experiences don’t fit the narratives, experiences that are specifically often not shared by disabled and non-NT women. That thing is an insistence that the harms to disabled and non-NT people (through advocacy that erases and dismisses them) is negligible compared to the harms done by misogyny to abled NT women, and that complaining about this is therefore itself a form of misogyny. That thing is the repeated insistence that asking feminists to accommodate disabled people and especially people with anxiety or scrupulosity disorders is an unfair and sexist demand for emotional labor. 

(previous editions) bold = favourite

class, race, & labour

socialism for the rich

farmed: why were so many black children fostered by white families in the uk?

blunt-force ethnic credibility (via @noodledesk)

gender, sexuality, & intersectionality

what ethiopia can teach the us about abortion rights

saying goodbye to my chest

she helped expose girls do porn, but she can never outrun what it did to her

what #metoo changed in hollywood—and what it didn’t

politics & current affairs

from temples to offshore trusts, a hunt for cambodia’s looted heritage leads to top museums (pandora papers)

google is quietly providing ai technology for drone strike targeting project

welcome to demokrasi (türkiye)

more bullets, more bloodshed (haiti)

meth is turning fiji from a tropical paradise into a narco’s playground

behold, emperor xi (china)

the world’s newest republic (barbados)

history, culture, & media

france’s nuclear colonial legacy in algeria

the utopian machine

does tiktok empower autistic people or pigeonhole them?

credit to easygoingscans

Disregarding the squicky nature of their implicit relationship for a moment, Tanizaki’s devotion towards Naomi borders on obsessive, surpassing the extent of that which could be normal between either siblings or lovers. We can only speculate what kind of upbringing would have caused this.

We only really see glimpses of Tanizaki’s true capacity a few times. But it’s not just his ability that’s downright terrifying (crashing a civilian truck into Steinbeck, almost assassinating Mori during cannibalism), but his personality too. Tanizaki is always teetering on the edge of morality; he makes the conscious choice to be on the side of good, but he canonically offered to join the Port Mafia in Yosano’s place, which says a lot about what kind of person Tanizaki is. That’s not the kind of offer anyone could make if they were truly opposed to committing atrocities. Rather, Tanizaki making this offer is telling of the idea that although he understands where the line between right and wrong lies, he wouldn’t have second thoughts about crossing it, given a half decent reason.

I could argue than Tanizaki has roughly the same amount of ethical integrity as Dazai, that is to say, none at all. Their employment at the Armed Detective Agency happens to be a result of their conscious choice to be morally upright, in contrast to someone like Kunikida, who could probably never offer to join the Port Mafia, even if it were for the sake of an friend, due to his strict moral code.

Despite all of this, we know nothing about what made Tanizaki this way. We know that he used to be a student alongside Naomi, but that’s about it. Tanizaki’s innocuous previous profession tends to misdirect our thoughts away from reading deeply into Tanizaki. It creates an illusion of normalcy, you could say. But, upon second glance, it’s bizarre that Tanizaki could get written off as boring or simple, by both the characters in the story, and by us, the readers.

Genuinely don't think I've seen anyone talk about chapter 25 as a pivotal moment for Dazai so I'm gonna put this out here because I think his reactions here kind of negate that whole omnipotent Dazai interpretation which I hate with every fibre of my being.

Firstly, he's like, clearly caught off guard here. And don't try to tell me he wasn't, because this is just one instance of his genuinely horrified reaction to Q's release and when he realized what was actually going on with Atsushi, Naomi and Haruno.

Him being caught off guard carries significance here because you'd never catch him screwing up this bad later in the series - which is exactly my point.

Because I am a bit bored today and doesn't have the motivation to get back writing, I decided to share this a little information where you can read the Ensemble stars english translations that were taken down due to some copy-right and shit. I am fully aware that some of you must be absolutely devasted as hell, especially the newcomers who is still new to Ensemble stars. You will be grateful for the assistance I am about to give you, saving you the time it would take to search Enstars english translation, Anyhow- shall we get started fellas?

(1) Okay, In order to find the English translations, you must first search "Wayback Machine" this is where you are going to be able to read the translations (You can also read Enstars!! here, however the translations hasn't been finished because it got removed)

(2) Once you are on the website, the next step is you should do is search for "Ensemble stars wiki fandom" the english one okay? not that one from japanese one etc. Ehem- after you've done the search, the next thing you got to do is copy the link

(3) After that, you simply need to paste the link into to the search bar like in the image above. Then, for obvious reasons, you must click "Browse History."

(4) The moment you click it, you will be directed to this. It will display the years, months, and days that the Enstars fans updated the English wiki, along with any translations.

Step Five: Click the year 2021

(5) Scroll down to August, after that. the next thing you have to do click is day 18.

(6) Once you click the day 18, you will see this. then the next thing you have to click again is- 00:33:08. Please click the top option, okay??

(7) Blah, Blah, Blah. Once you've clicked '00:33:08' this will appear on your screen, click story, then click Ensemle stars(!) or Ensemble Strars(!!) Then it will show the mainstory, Event & Scout story and so forth. At that point, you could read the entire english translation of Enstars! with your heart contents, there is no need to struggle and hurriedly seek the translations on Google, pretty neat :DD

It will show you this when you clicked the Main Story

And then it will show you this if you clicked the Event & Scout story, all events and scouts are complete in Ensemble Stars! I think? Oh and btw you can read the Reminiscence event or scout in "Timeline"

(Note): That's all I have for now. I hope this was helpful and that I was able to explain it well. Let me know if you have any more questions. Please feel free to enquire in my blog. Goodbye!