Suger, she/her

[note: this is not an extensive representation of all of autism. have fun but remember to copy the whole question out when sending asks for everyone. short term memory is a fuck]

1. If you have a diagnosis of autism would you choose to get that undiagnosed, if you have no diagnosis would you choose to get a diagnosis? Would you like to change when you got a diagnosis? Do you want a diagnosis off-record?

2. Are you able to maintain a routine by yourself or do you need someone or something to impose a routine upon you in order to follow it?

3. Which part of autism do you wish was better understood and more well known about the general populace?

4. Have you ever been in any in-person autism support groups? What were they like?

5. Have you taken part in any autism research as a participant? What was it like?

6. Which aspect of being autistic is most frustrating for you?

7. Do you experience The Rage? How is it for you?

8. Imagine a society that is geared towards catering to the needs of autistic people. What sort of reforms would you implement if you got to be in charge?

9. Do you collect anything? If you could collect an unlimited amount of anything, what would it be?

10. Money is a lie. True or false?

11. When people say "autism stereotypes" what do you think they mean by that? Does it describe you or anyone you know?

12. This will determine if you're in the clubTM. Did people joke about you becoming a serial killer/mass shooter just for being slightly different on account of being autistic?

13. Do you have autistic family members? Could you take them in unarmed combat?

14. What co-morbidities of autism do you have? How are they treating you? You deserve 500 in money.

15. Is there a topic or activity that just lives rent free in your head? Like it comes up and everything else fades away.

16. Autism on autism violence. Describe a bad interaction you had with another autistic person.

17. Autism plus autism alliance. Describe any good interactions you have had with another autistic person.

18. You get to direct the new upcoming research in autism studies. What are you researching and why? Feel free to lay out your whole methodology and write a literature review but I only accept APA, APSA, or ASA citation style. You can use Chigaco author-date but anything else is pushing it.

19. Do you observe occasions such as autism awareness month or similar? Why, or why not.

20. Imagine I am a 19 year old psychology student. You've just told me you're autistic/have autism, and I ask you what that is and what it's like? How are you going to explain.

21. Who is the best autism icon? It must be someone from death note. If you haven't read death note people go read it first and come back to me.

22. Autism is getting a slogan! What is it? You get to decide.

23. What does being autistic mean to you? It's an open ended question so write a lot.

24. How are you with mouth sounds? Do you make them? Repeat them? Are mouth sounds simply out of your reach?

25. I would like a funny or strange interaction with a healthcare professional that happened because you are autistic or they learned you have autism.

26. How do people understand autism in the country you live in, are from, or parents are from? How does it differ to what you experience online on this website? Do they call autism something else? etc.

27. How has your relationship with food been affected by autism? Any co-morbidities or other background information can be included as is relevant.

28. Where have you learnt the most about autism from? What things about autism did you learn that really made an impact on you? Are there any information sources on autism or autistic people that you recommend?

29. What support do you desperately need? Are you getting it?

Don’t ever hug a lobster when you see one on the street,

For decorum is essential when a lobster you must greet.

You may comment on the weather, compliment his choice of hat,

But crustaceans like their space if one should stop them for a chat.

Don’t ever hug a lobster when you’re strolling down the coast,

Simply nod and give a greeting, or a handshake at the most,

For a lobster’s first priority is formal social graces,

And one seemes over-familiar if a lobster one embraces.

Don’t ever hug a lobster when you meet one in the sea,

For a lobster’s spines and chitin make it difficult, you see,

And he might become self-conscious if you bring that fact to light,

i was diagnosed when i was 14, an i prolly would've been diagnosed sooner if i wasn't such a chatter box. like yeah, i do need my downtime, my peace and quiet, but i fucking love talking to people.

but i've been told to my face that, essentially, i'm too charismatic to be autistic. whilst that's a pretty cool humble brag, i hate the idea that we can't be sociable. cos it's either people will flat out deny i'm autistic, or most of the time they're really surprised... or the secret third option where they're also autistic and are like "yeah i know lol".

...tbh tho, i also fucking hate the terms 'extravert' and 'introvert'. they're only slightly more scientific that zodiacs, and they are super context dependent. i've known self described introverts being really extraverted depending on the situation. it depends on who you're with and what you're doing.

folks are complex and nuanced and a lot of the time our personality traits can contradict each other. i mean, we're not sims, we're not character archetypes. and, ESPECIALLY when it comes to neurodivergent representation, we need to remember that.

we're not cartoon characters!

i say this as someone with autism related sensory issues who's never liked wearing sun cream. and i say this as someone who's dad also has autism related sensory issues and would absolutely refuse to put on any sun cream until he learned the hard way and got melanoma (type of skin cancer).

a few hours or even a full day of discomfort is better than months of going into hospital to get your skin burned by dry ice or chemicals. and that's best case scenario. worse case scenario is it spreads and you fucking die.

the sun doesn't care about your autism. it'd be nice if it did, but it's a giant ball of plasma. it's a borderline eldritch god which will bow to no one.

don't be like my dad.