#psycologist

Beautiful portait of Dominic Fuentes taken in 2006 by Alina Vargas-Afanasieva when she was living in Madrid, Spain.

About her time there, she writes:

Cuando pienso en esos tiempos que viví allá, me estremece una alegría. Hay lugares que se sienten un hogar, España lo es para mi. Tierra de mis ancestros, de muchos de los que tanto amo. Mis abuelos. Siento esa sensación ahora mismo, caminando por las calles, sus hermosas calles, visitando los tablaos, obras de teatro, de arte, de todo.

When I think about those times I lived there, I feel a thrill of joy. There are places that feel like home, and Spain is that for me. The land of my ancestors, of many of those I love so much. My grandparents. I feel that feeling right now, walking the streets, its beautiful streets, visiting the tablaos, plays, art shows, everything.

✨From her instagram✨

I know no one will see this but I hope the person I am talking about will.

So you tell me you’re autistic (like me), because you have symptoms from the internet but you haven’t gone to a doctor or been diagnosed properly but this is a self diagnosis so it’s right.

Honestly, I find this quite effensive. When I was diagnosed (by a psychologist), It wasn’t reading off symptoms from the internet, I had to go to a clinic and talk about my depression and suicide in front of my mum and a stranger as well as do all these tests, like picture tests, explaining stuff like how I brush my teeth, my parents had to talk about my childhood, and they had to call my old school and teachers to see what I was like in class, and relieve all the things that I didn’t want too. I had to go through a year of this and just relieving all these memories and depression that I wanted to forget. I’m not gonna say that this was pointless and stupid and I didn’t deserve to be there and going through all this was hell, because many people would’ve wanted the chance to get into the clinic and get help, and I was lucky enough to be accepted, but it wasn’t fun having to go through all this when I just wanted it to be over.

Having someone read off the internet and put them in that category just from reading symptoms off the internet is effensive, as the rest off us in that catagory know that it can be hell to go through all that relieving and trying to understand things about yourself. I know you’re not trying to be mean or anything, and you just want to understand yourself also, but it’s effensive when the rest of us has had to go through this and you just take a quiz and think you know it all when that’s not what it’s about.

Autism isn’t about being shy, being very good at something and being overreactive. It’s also the struggle of not being able to communicate with others, the way we persieve the world and a hell lot of other things.

People go through hell to get their diagnoses and having other people read stuff off the internet and putting themselves in that catergory is annoying and ignorant.