If you tell someone to "look at me when I'm talking to you", I instantly assume you're a bully toward autistic people, because you are.

Unless they're actively focused on something else, you can't accurately assume someone isn't listening just because of where they're looking.

It's not a sign of "disrespect" to not make eye contact. And if you were taught that it is, unlearn it.

I made this for a class assignment on what neurodivergent means to me

Update: I made a Shadow version :)

Edit: Hey guys if you're gonna repost my art on other platforms please ask me before hand, I'd like to know where it's going.

Plus it's fun for me to look at peoples responses on platforms I'm not on ♥️

drawing of a nightmare situation i may or may not currently be in

baby i can avoid eye contact in ways you’d never fuckin believe

the thing that always gets me ESPECIALLY about autistic representation in media is that we are universally portrayed as happy-go-lucky, whimsical children, completely oblivious to the fact that the world constantly judges and scorns and HATES us.

We notice. I noticed. The reason I am as messed up as I am today is because i spent 20 LONG years in an environment where every day i was subjected to that. To noticing.

what an absolutely neurotypical view of us. Coddling themselves, getting to act like the way they treat us is fine because we don't understand that our peers dont respect us. Why would we? We're so subhuman to them, it's like asking if your cat notices you playfully insulting it.

Every autistic person I've ever met is on some level bitter and angry and TRAUMATIZED at their upbringing. Of having to go through school as the laughing stock, as the weirdo with no friends who no one wants to talk to, as the animal in the corner you can make do cheap tricks so they can experience some Simulacra of what genuine human connection is.

Now tell me, does it sound like I didn't notice?

Getting the basic point of the whole "doctors can't figure out autism as fast as school bullies can" thing but like no in most cases your bullies did not catch that you were specifically autistic they just knew you were weird which the doctor may have picked up on too or even if they didn't they probably would've had a better chance of it if they saw you as often as the kids at school. Hell for some of us a random stranger who briefly saw us would get that same impression. Doesn't mean they have any insight into it. Like I sort of get it and I'm being pedantic but like autism means a specific thing a vague "that person is different" is not the same as a diagnosis and there are plenty of other reasons a person will be treated like that

Stimming

A.J’s Brain

Autism and Sameness

The Autistic Teacher

autistic anger issues are So Much. i have my temper more under control now in that i rly dont yell/lash out anymore but i do regularly boil inside with incandescent uncontainable rage over something inconsequential and then it evaporates in the span of ten minutes. incomparable

Autism:

i think people who aren't autistic can get confused by what a special interest is and why it's different than just a thing that someone likes an above average amount and it's always been hard to explain it beyond "no, you just don't get it". but i think dungeon meshi has really laid it out perfectly with laios and monsters. He doesn't just like monsters, he doesn't just love monsters, he filters just about everything in his life though his interest in monsters. he characterizes and identifies his friends in no small part through how they interact with monsters, he warms up to kabru immediately when he thinks that he wants to try monster meals. his strength and purpose revolves around monsters. he pretty clearly wants to BE a monster. that's special interest.

this is also why those old posts that went something like "don't let your interests define you" always struck me as incredibly ignorant because my autistic interests are functionally as much a part of me as my flesh and blood. i think it's why shared interests are so critically important in autistic relationships and why autistic people so heavily bond to people who are into the same weird shit that they are, even if that shared enjoyment of a particular thing may not be as critical of a building block for a relationship to the other person.

This is why when i pretend for April Fool's that I have a different special interest it amuses my allistic friends but seriously creeps out my autistic friends. It's like I'm suddenly a different person. They've started referring to it as the Cursed Alternate Universe where i like pheonixes instead of dragons