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Intro Post:
Hi! You can call me Kaz.
I have level 2 autism with delayed processing. I also have POTs and hEDS.
I have medium support needs and I live with my parents who take care of me.
I’m currently a student at a college for people with disabilities.
I have a special interest in Fantasy, especially Dungeons and Dragons and just dragons in general.
no april fools stuff like jumpscare or prank on this blog don’t worry 👍 going be business as usual
April 1st:
Do you have trouble recognizing emotions in either yourself or other people?
I have a lot of difficulty recognizing emotions both in myself and in other people. I know that crying usually means sad and yelling usually means angry but if it’s more subtle I’ll miss it. For myself I usually have a vague idea like this is a good feeling or a bad feeling but I struggle to be more specific.
Do you ever find it hard to tell how you're feeling or even to describe how you're feeling to other people?
I also find it really hard to communicate how I’m feeling if it isn’t an extreme emotion that’s led to a meltdown or shutdown. I’ve tried “I feel” statements but the problem is that I usually don’t know how I feel other than good, bad, or neutral.
Have you ever had trouble properly expressing your feelings?
Yes- I don’t recognize subtle emotions and extreme ones my reactions happen automatically and I don’t have much control over them.
Do you have trouble recognizing what other people are feeling?
Yes - I mainly rely on people communicating their feelings as I have never been able to learn nonverbal communication if it isn’t extremely obvious. Like crying or yelling.
How does this make life difficult for you, if it does?
It makes it more difficult for me to connect with others and for me to emotionally regulate.
More realities of being medium support needs:
Hate it when plans change. Hate that I get so so upset.
I used to hit myself in the head every time plans changed. That behavior is a bit better now that I’m on a antipsychotic. Still hit self but usually on legs not head.
Also get irrationally mad at person who made plans change regardless of how valid the reason is. Have to work really really hard not to take my bad feelings out on them.
We are under attack.
Musk’s DOGE and RFK Jr. are breaking up the Administration of Community Living (ACL) which supports and administers programs that ensure disabled people get life-saving services and live fulfilling lives in community with their loved ones.
ACL oversees the Developmental Disabilities Councils and Centers for Independent Living. It funds research on the health and independence of people with disabilities and older adults. Musk’s DOGE and RFK Jr.‘s actions severely limit or take these programs and services away from people who need them.
Gutting ACL makes no sense. It was made to improve efficiency. ACL leads coordination across the government to support caregivers and provide services at home. Spreading out its responsibilities and firing staff will make services for older adults and disabled people cost more and be less accessible.
Talk to your Representatives and Senators and tell them how important independent living and caregiver support are to our community. We need to put pressure on our elected officials to protect these vital services!
My review of the Finch App as a medium support needs person.
Right now I’m focusing on hygiene tasks. I still need visual schedules and prompts to actually do them but this helps me have an idea of what I should do each day/week. It also helps me be less likely to refuse to do a task because making tasks into quests gives me some external motivation.
My birds name is Moss and I love her.
Infantilization happens when disabled people are treated like children or "less than" non-disabled people because we are disabled, not when disabled people take comfort in things that society tends to associate with "childish", such as toys, plushies, cartoons, games, picture books, coloring books, young adult literature.
disabled children not allowed be children.
especially. intellectually and/or developmentally disabled (I/DD) children, & children w behavioral or “behavioral” struggles (aka many I/DD children) not allowed be children.
which may be weird thing say at first because I/DD famous for be infantilized, be treat as forever children. so would think children be only thing they “allow” be, n say they not allow be children contradicting—
but not actually.
as general whole, nondisabled children “allowed” tantrums. allow emotional immature. allowed childish quirks.
what be normal child tantrum fuss in (white) nondisabled children, even with child health/care professionals who whole entire job be understand that nondisabled typically developing child have underdeveloped brain n not yet have self regulate skill n that developmentally appropriate that normal, it may be talk as annoying & inconvenient, but for I/DD children every. single. time. where they “tantrum” “fuss” even in developmentally appropriate ways, chance be write as sign of their disability, sign of behavior problem, sign of emotional problem. be evidence of disorder. of abnormal. of something wrong. which be “okay” reason dehumanize, abuse, be talk about like animal, like not in room, like difficult problem to be solved.
nondisabled adults fondly look back at childhood comfort objects that maybe still have now, stuffed toys blankets or maybe less usual things that mean something to them. but when disabled children have them it be more likely *automatic* see as problem, as something need be weaned off, need be taken away, as unhealthy overattachment, be write into behavioral plan, only allow x minute per day, see as “impractical” & “useless”.
as general whole, nondisabled children allow say no, allow act out “no,” allow prefer, allow not want do something so protest by not doing, by not listening, by pretend not hear you. it may be see as funny or annoying but meanwhile for disabled children it largely see as oppositional as noncompliance as inattentive as something need be trained out of by all means possible.
nondisabled children do things because they kids. disabled children do things because there something wrong with them.
nondisabled children rights n autonomy not fully respected by any means but disabled children get even less of it.
disabled children often not allowed many leeway’s as nondisabled children, what be developmentally appropriate for same age nondisabled children often be over label as disorder as problem as something abnormal need be get rid off in disabled children.
n especially when come to behaviorally, white nondisabled children get be the most “child,” n Black n other disabled children of color get “child” stolen from them in multiple ways.
some of yous don't recognise ableism as long as it's veiled in pity
"they believe this group of disabled people". "they would care about someone who's got this disability". "people take this type of disability seriously". no, no they don't. pity isn't caring. a concession granted from up on high isn't respect. someone as poor, pitiful, or in need of help isn't taking them seriously. bro they are not even seeing us as human
The autism month prompts are back this year! Rules: There are 30 questions corresponding to each day in April. Answer each question in your own separate post. You can answer all or just as many of them as you want. Make sure you tag your responses #30daysofautismacceptance and you can put them in the various autism tags too (#actually autistic, #autistic, etc). Please help spread this around before the start of April! And with that, I hope everyone enjoys the questions and has fun with this year's autism month prompts.
April 1st: Do you have trouble recognizing emotions in either yourself or other people? Do you ever find it hard to tell how you're feeling or even to describe how you're feeling to other people? Have you ever had trouble properly expressing your feelings? Do you have trouble recognizing what other people are feeling? How does this make life difficult for you, if it does?
April 2nd: Dependence. How independent are you? Are you able to live alone? Have a caretaker? Live with a relative? Is there anything you need help with in your daily life? If you live alone, does being autistic make anything about it more difficult? Do you wish you lived with someone?
April 3rd: Talk about family. How are your relationships with your family members? Are they generally supportive of you as an autistic person? Are they accommodating to your needs? Does being autistic affect your familial relationships in any meaningful way?
April 4th: What are your current special interests if you have any? What are some positive ways having special interests have affected your life? What are some negative ways that they have affected your life? How long do they tend to last for you? You could even talk about past special interests if you want.
April 5th: What are some ways that the neurotypical people in your life can help you specifically with the challenges you face as an autistic person? Ways they can accommodate you? How can neurotypical people help the autistic community as a whole?
April 6th: Talk about miscommunication. As autistic people communicating is something that is harder for us than neurotypical people, in what ways is communicating generally hard for you? Talk about how being autistic has led to an instance of miscommunication in the past. Talk about social blunders that you've made due to autism. Perhaps a situation where you misinterpreted something or where you said the wrong/insensitive thing.
April 7th: Have you had people treat you differently after you told them you were autistic? In what ways? How did you feel about it and what did you do?
April 8th: Are you a creative person? What are the types of things you create? Do you think being autistic has any influence over the types of things you create or your creativity in general?
April 9th: Do you struggle with mental health? Does being autistic affect your struggle with mental health? Do you have depression or anxiety and is it influenced by being autistic?
April 10th: Do you struggle with keeping up with physical health? Does being autistic affect it?
April 11th: What are some things that might come easy to neurotypical people, but which you either can't do or need help to do?
April 12th: What are some social rules that you don't understand? Talk about it.
April 13th: Are you able to pick up when someone is flirting with you or alternatively when someone is flirting with someone else? Do you know how to flirt?
April 14th: What are some of the most difficult aspects of being autistic to you? What makes it difficult? Talk about it.
April 15th: Is romance/romantic relationships harder for you as an autistic person? In what ways? If you've had romantic relationships, are your partners generally accepting of your autism? Do they do anything to help accommodate you? If you haven't had any romantic relationships, would you like one? Does being autistic make it harder for you to have one?
April 16th: Is loneliness or a sense of isolation something you either currently or in the past struggled with? Is it related to being autistic? What types of things helped you deal with it?
April 17th: Talk about stimming. In what ways do you stim? Are they vocal stims or physical stims? Do you have any stim toys? Do you tend to hand flap? Have people in the past been upset or annoyed with you for the ways in which you stim? And if so, how did it make you feel and how did you deal with it?
April 18th: Is lying something that's generally hard for you to do? Why? If so, do you tend to avoid lying? Can you usually tell when other people are lying?
April 19th: Do you ever feel infantalized by the people in your life? In what ways?
April 20th: Do people ever expect you to be capable of more things than you realistically are? In what ways?
April 21st: Do you feel like you are easier/more prone to being taken advantage of because of being autistic? Do you have trouble telling when people are being deceitful or have bad intentions towards you? Is there anything you do to combat this? Do you have people that help you with this?
April 22nd: Is there anything in life you want to do that you either can't or is very difficult for you to do because of being autistic?
April 23rd: Is there anything in life that you feel being autistic makes easier? Give some examples
April 24th: Have you experienced bullying? In a school or work environment for example. Talk about it if you are comfortable with it.
April 25th: If you could give advice to a child/newly diagnosed person on living life as an autistic person, what advice would you give?
April 26th: Do you find it easier to communicate online than in person? For what reasons?
April 27th: Is making friends something that you find hard to do? When you make new friends at what point do you usually tell them you're autistic? In what ways does being autistic affect your relationships, if at all?
April 28th: How difficult is it for you to read other people's tone of voice/facial expressions? Talk about situations where difficulty reading tone of voice/facial expressions made things harder for you
April 29th: How tactile of a person are you? Are you sensory seeking or sensory avoidant? Do you enjoy getting hugs and other types of expressive contact or do you avoid them? If the latter have you had issues ever with people not respecting that you don't like it?
April 30th: Autistic pride. How do you feel about being autistic? What does it mean to you? Is it something you take pride in? Have your feelings about being autistic changed since you first found out that you were autistic? And is there a final message you would like to share for the end of autism acceptance month? What would you like people to take away from this month?