#learn stuff

ALSO, if you’re anything like me and cannot focus, make yourself sit to study and start a stopwatch, stop it after your mind starts wandering or your brain comes to a halt with its activities. even if you end up only focusing for 2 minutes like i first did, you can schedule your study sessions accordingly and slowly build up the time!

pls i don’t know what this was

prt one!

prt two!

based off of the movie ‘night at the museum’

you are any gender you’d like to be

7:50

the museum of heroic achievements

“attention attendees! the museum closes in ten minutes!” you heard the voice boom through the intercom.

“ten minutes?” your friend, lila, groaned. “we’ve only been here for five!”

“well maybe if you hadn’t have wasted so much of your time in the gift shop, time wouldn’t have flown by so quickly.” another one of your friends, nolan, commented in response. you rolled your eyes at your friends’ immaturity. this had been going on all day and at this point, you just wanted to go home. not that you didn’t enjoy seeing and reading about heroes of the past, but it was a long day and you were just tired.

“its not my fault that they made the shop merchandise so cute!” nolan grunted before waving her off.

“guys, we’ve gotta get ready to go. the museum closes in ten minutes.” you recalled the announcement. nolan fished his phone from his coat pocket, checking the time.

“well now, five minutes.” you heard lila groan from behind you.

“wait, wait! let’s go check out one more exhibit. it’ll be quick, i promise!” lila begged.

“lila!” you and nolan both whined, noticeably annoyed at your friend at this point.

“please? i’ll be quick!” you and Nolan couldn’t help but let her see the last exhibit. there wasn’t much time but would it really hurt to just see one final exhibit, even for a few seconds.

“fine…” you both gave in, allowing her to grab you both by the wrists and hastily pulling you both behind her to the last exhibit she wanted to see. the hall of heroes: u.a’s finest.

Autistic meltdowns are a feeling that causes a behavior.

Temper tantrums are a behavior.

Temper tantrums are a behavior that is caused by a feeling.

They can look very much alike. 

I bet a lot of people see this and think I look like a 2 year old screeching because mommy won’t buy me the cool toy I saw in a store.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd3C4wrUfHk (Video recorded and uploaded by me.)

I am almost 37 years old. I’m not having a temper tantrum, I’m autistic and having a meltdown due to sensory overload. 

I fell apart because a neighbor’s vacuum made a noise that hurt my ears even with my windows shut. You can tell the sensory overload is already intense by my distress stimming (pacing, hip-slapping that left bruises!) because I had a door right next to me and didn’t think to leave through it. The door was shut, my brain treated it like a wall. 

I felt trapped. The feelings of fear and rage built up until the explosion where I start screaming, jumping and flailing. I lost all control of my emotions and my reaction to them. 

It’s a quick meltdown; I call it explosive because it’s immediate and sometimes violent. You see the aftermath of the adrenaline surge when I show my hands shaking at the end.

Now, repeat after me...

Autistic meltdowns are not a behavior.

Autistic meltdowns are a feeling that causes a behavior.

Temper tantrums are a behavior.

Temper tantrums are a behavior that is caused by a feeling.

They can look very much alike. They are not the same thing. Sometimes the only way to distinguish the two is knowing if someone is autistic, their demeanor when angry vs in a meltdown, and the situation they’re in.

I throw temper tantrums too, though it’s rare. You can tell when I’m acting in anger vs a meltdown because I can still respond verbally to what you say. In a meltdown, I may stick to a word or phrase and say only that to you no matter how I want to respond.