#aster post

HLELP ME I DIDN'T SEE THIS???? YIU GO GIRL(?)

all i wanna doooo is find a wayy back iiiinto looove

(First of all, I know I didn’t do yesterday, I don’t own any red clothes and couldn’t think of what I could do instead - also I don’t like taking selfies)

Acceptance, to me, means that people care about us, don’t try to change us, respect our challenges, and work with us to find solutions that work for us.  Acceptance is an end to “therapies” that try to change us, and a start to therapies that actually help us. It means ending the tragedy narrative of autism. It means listening when we communicate, in whatever way that is. It means not speaking over us.

It means celebrating difference, not shaming it. It means treating us as people, not a problem to be solved. It’s trusting us to know what we struggle with, not making assumptions about what we can and cannot do. It’s working to accommodate our neurological differences so we can all thrive as our authentic selves, rather than having to hide ourselves away behind a mask to have any chance of being considered “normal” enough to be allowed those opportunities.

It’s accepting that behaviour is communication, meltdowns are not tantrums, shutdowns are not rudeness, and that stimming is good, healthy, and helpful. It’s accepting that we may not want to be touched, that we may struggle with eye contact. It’s ending the idea that much of our natural body language, differences with eye contact, over or under explaining, and stimming are not indicators that someone is lying. It’s allistics making an effort to understand us, not trying to make us be like them. It’s society as a whole working to accommodate us, rather than always making us accommodate them.

It’s knowing that we are not broken, that there isn’t something wrong with us, no matter what allistics try to tell us. It’s learning to accept ourselves, authentic and autistic, with all our difficulties and “oddities”. It’s understanding that weird isn’t bad, it’s what makes us, us. It’s knowing that we are not the problem and that no matter how badly allistics treat us, we don’t need a cure, and we don’t deserve to be treated badly. It’s understanding that our sensory differences and all the challenges they pose are okay.