BOOTLEG BLOG
Autism Resources.
NOTE: I HAVE LEVEL 1 LOW SUPPORT NEEDS AUTISM WHICH WILL MOST LIKELY IMPACT WHAT I QUALIFY AS GOOD RESOURCES, IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS PLEASEE LET ME KNOW
"I'm not autistic but I wanna learn more!"
Great news! Since one of my passions is spreading awareness about, uh, anything, I'll have plenty for you to chew on!
Common Questions
NOTE: I MAY BE AUTISTIC BUT I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL, ALONG SIDE WITH NEW INFORMATION CONSTANTLY FORMING, I CAN EASILY BE WRONG ABOUT CERTAIN THINGS. IF I GET SOMETHING WRONG PLEASE INFORM ME.
"What even is autism?"
Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder that involves a large collection of symptoms with extreme amounts of variety.Symptoms include sensory processsing difficulties, repetitive behaviors, restricted and intense interests, differences and difficulties in social norms and socializing, and much more.
The reason why autism is called a spectrum is because, though most neurodivergent conditions are infact spectrums, autism is known for how incredibly varied it can be from person to person. Despite how rigid and simple the labels such as "level 1-3" and "high, medium, and low support needs" sound on paper, it's a lot more complicated, these terms only existing for a general grasp.
Some autistic people require caretakers, some can't work full-time jobs, some can work full-time jobs, some can't work at all. Some autistic people need service animals, some can come off as what society deams as perfectly normal. Some autistic people only communicate through speech tablets, some can't speak at all, and some speak more than allistics (allistics quite literally means "not autistic"). Always remember that if you've met one autistic person you've only met ONE autistic person.
"Is autism a disability?"
Yes, regardless of where someone falls on the spectrum autism is always a disability.A disability is when someone has a condition(physical or mental) that prevents them from functioning at the same level at the majority of society and requires some level of assistance.
"But does that make (xyz) a disability too?" you may ask, odds are the answer is yes. I assume this need for something to be "disabling enough" to be considered a "real" disability is
That being the same reason why the "autism isn't a disability, it's a different ability" narrative got pushed so hard. As, despite how much people would never admit it, a lot of people consciously or subconsciously view disability as an inherenty bad thing. Parents fearing that thier child will be viewed differently or even hated if they were viewed as disabled, kinda proving that they themselves view disability as a bad thing.
Disability is a morally neutral thing, not good or bad, just a fact of existance.
"How does autism affect someone socially?"
This varies wildly depending on the person and the country/culture. But a lot of the common parts of autistic people is that they're a lot more rigid and direct.This is hard to describe as I am autistic and thus struggle heavily to even begin to understand how allistic/neurotypical social norms work most of the time, so I'll use some examples about myself. (Remember; do not use this as an example of what it's like for every single autistic person, this is just to attempt to answer this question)
I struggle a lot with small talk for a couple reasons, to me it usually feels forced because someone is uncomfortable with silence, and forced conversation makes me uncomfortable. I also don't understand entirely the point of small talk, I don't feel like I learn anything about the person I'm speaking to nor that they're learning anything about me. Plus a part of the reason I struggle with small talk could also have to do with my strict interests.
I struggle with eye-contact as there's so much going on my brain is constantly processing, sound, lights, what the person is saying, processing what the person means, etc, and since I'm autistic this stuff doesn't get naturally filtered, so eye-contact is the last thing on my mind unless I'm conciously forcing myself, and if I am, odds are I can't actually fully process what you're saying.
I am frequently described as "blunt" due to my honesty, I struggle to understand why I shouldn't say certain things and why I should lie to someone's face. For example a co-worker of mine did something incorrectly so I told him that he infact did something incorrectly, he then was passive aggresive with me for the entire day until he finally told me that I pissed him off.
Another example of this is when a co-worker of mine asked me if I liked to disliked her, I told her that I didn't have an opinion of her because I didn't know her, she later told me that she would've rather me tell her that I hated her.
I am also described as "confrontational" because I well, confront people when I feel like they do something wrong. This one I can grasp to some extent as I used to hide a lot of my problems with people out of fear of them being mad at me, however after making a lot of progress in my mental health I made a complete 180, as it is both logically and emotionally a better idea to confront people instead of keeping a pretend status quo, my avoidance stemming from a fear of being alone.
One more, I have been described as "naive" and this one confuses me the most. With what it's usually in response to it feels as if I should just assume everyone is lying to me constantly. Are, are allistic people just raised to have trust issues?? Like I can (usually) understand sarcasm and jokes and yes a lot of autistic people struggle to grasp both of those things but that's not when I'm usually called naive, just when someone straight up lies to me and gets shocked when I don't immediately assume they're lying.
"What do sensory issues entail? And what is stimming?"
Answering these both together since they're directly related.Autistic brains are both hyper-sensitive with basically every sensory input the brain gets and don't have the ability to filter background noise like neurotypical brains do (specifying neurotypical since people with ADHD don't have a background noise filter either)
This means sensory inputs such as sound, touch, texture, light, stress, and emotion are more intense for autistic people to the point of being distressing or painful.
Stimming refer to self regulatory behaviors and infact everyone does! But since they're for sensory regulation naturally autistic people stim significantly more.
This can refer to socially normalized stimming such as leg bouncing to more stereotypical stimming like hand flapping or rocking. Some may even have items on them specifically made for stimming.
Restricting these behaviors can put an autistic person at psychological and in some cases physical risk, as long as they aren't physically harming themselves or others stimming is healthy for autistic people.
"What's a special interest? And what's the difference between a special interest and a hyperfixation?"
"Special interest" is a term that refers to an autistic persons' singular or group of extremely strong passionate interests.An autistic persons' special interest can be extremely important to their life even beyond the typical hobby or passion, these passions usually being extremely long-term if not life-time lasting.
This is where the "autistic people are obsessed with trains" stereotype stems from, as trains were an example used in a bunch of media to help children understand what special interests are.
Shout out to my old childhood friend who was autistic and was ACTUALLY FOR FUCKING REAL obsessed with trains, that little guy was awesome, I hope he's doing well.
I also suspect this is PARTIALLY the source of the protegy stereotype, as if say, a child gains a special interest in something highly complicated for their age, an adult who doesn't know better might assume they must be a genius rather than just highly passionate.
So what's a hyperfixation then? A hyperfixation is an autism/ADHD term that refers to a brief intense uncontrollable fixation on something, usually lasting somewhere from a week to a couple months, but it has a significantly of a shorter life-span than special interests and aren't exclusively associated with autism.
"Is Asperger's Syndrome Autism?"
Yes.Asperger's Syndrome is no longer a diagnostic term and everyone who got diagnosed with it functionally has level 1/low support needs autism. Asperger's Syndrome being used to autistic children who didn't seem to have any learning disabilities.
As Asperger's Syndrome is not a seperate condition from autism, the diagnostic term has been removed. The fact that Hans Asperger was a literal nazi didn't help either.
"Why did autistic person I speak to seem normal?"
This very much depends on your definition of "normal."This could just be a byproduct of your own extremely limited mental image of what autism is. And as much as I don't want to immediately assume bad intent in a random reader this thought process can easily also come from as only viewing people someone deems as "annoying" or even "threatening" as being autistic.
But if it's not from the above, odds are the autistic person you were speaking to was masking.
"Masking" refers to when someone (in this specific context, an autistic person) suppresses aspects of themselves to blend into a society's definition of normal or stable.
Everyone on the earth masks to some degree, but masking is an unfortunate tool a lot of level 1 autistic people need to use to pass in society. Note that not everyone can mask or wants to. Masking has been found to be extremely harmful for autistic people however in the current state of the world it's not always an option for the sake of an autistic persons' safety.
"Why are you saying 'autistic person' and not 'person with autism'?"
Because it's grammatically incorrect and I think if you constantly need to be reminded that an autistic person is, infact, a person, you're the problem."Elon Musk bad guy so autism make you evil?"
You're a fucking moron.Stim toys
"Stim toys" is a term refering to objects made with the intention to either fidget with or for specific parts of sensory regulation
Stim toys are made to aid in sensory regulation. Note that they shouldn't act as a complete replacement for safe body stims (hand flapping, rocking, etc) but as a supplement.
Good websites for purchasing stim toys
Though you can purchase stim toys about anywhere I recommend finding an autistic owned business or at least a business that knows a lot about autism. Plus, fuck Amazon and unfortunately fuck Etsy as well.
Flappyhappystims
Flappyhappystims is owned by April and Irene who opened the store once the well known Stimtastics store shut-down. They sell a very large variety of sensory tools. One that I personally own is one of the Mobii necklaces, it's my personal go-to wearable stim as it's both just amazing functionally and can pass as a normal necklace.Allthingssensory
AllThingsSensoryShop is owned by Alisa who wanted more sensory tools made by the people who actually get it. They also have a large list of other neurodivergent owned businesses!If you know any good small businesses please let me know!
Note: as of right now, I'm engaging with an Etsy boycott as they're allowing Alligator Alcatraz merch to be sold on their marketplace, so unfortunately any small business that exclusively sells from Etsy will not be included.
Sensory regulation tools
This part is specifically for tools to help prevent sensory overload.
Did you know?
AUTIM!@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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