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hello-nichya-here · 5 months

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Did Sia insult topic of autism somehow?

Oh honey, it's sooooooooo much worse than that.

Sia wanted to make a movie about an autistic girl that manages to connect to people/feel safe and confident through music. So far, nothing outrageous, just a simple concept that would obviously put Sia's music front and center while doing something nice and educating people on autism.

There was controversy about her not casting an autistic actress as it would have been nice representation, but she could have totally gotten away with that since, come on, hollywood hasn't even figured out Rain Man isn't exactly true to life, they're not ready to have an autistic person playing an autistic character. Baby steps.

The real problem started when Sia started promoting the "charity/support group" that was helping "educate" her on the topic to make the movie. The "charity" in question was Autism Speaks - which is absolutely HATED by the autistic community for things like:

1 - Spreading the myth that autism is a mental illness that one can develop/catch like the freaking flue and potentially be cured of, instead of a neurotype, aka something starts in the woomb and cannot be "cured" because to do that you'd need to replace someone's entire nervous system, which is impossible.

2 - Using that myth to get outrageous amounts of money from people so they "search for a cure" - that doesn't exist and will never exist because curing autism is biologically impossible, AND despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of autistic people don't even want to be "cured" (plus, since said "cure" would essentially mean giving the person a new brain, it leads to the question of "Would I even be the same person, or would that just kill and replace me?")

3 - Using the myth of "We don't know what causes autism" (we do, it's genetic) to, of course, get MORE money from people so they can "do research to find the missing puzzle piece" (if you ever see autistic people complaining about a puzzle piece being used to represent the condition, that's why, it was started by Autism Speak's massive disinformation campains).

4 - Falsely "confirming" things like soy milk cause autism with one of the world's most ridiculous "research", losing only to "vaccines totally make kids autistic, buy MY vaccine instead, guys, I am totally not an unbelievably biased person, it's ALL the other doctors/scientists lying to you. GIVE ME MONEY!"

5 - Pushing the narrative of "autism is inherently a tragedy" to distract from the fact that all the money they waste on stupid shit could be used to help autistic people and their families. Instead, they focus on creating more and more panic, making parents in particular despair even more - to the point that one of their "awareness videos" includes a mother talking about how she wants to murder her autistic daughter and then kill herself... while sitting right next to said daughter.

6 - Promoting ABA "therapy" - which was created by the same guy responsible for the attrocity that is gay conversion "therapy." Both have led to unbelievably high rates of confirmed PTSD and suicidal ideation in patients (victims), and ABA in particular has been compared to literal dog training. Very fitting since it was created by a guy who famously did not believe autistic people truly counted as thinking, feeling human beings, and said as much several times. Despite that, it is still praised by some utter bastards because "it makes the patients act less autistic when they're not crying in the corner or trying to jump out a window"

So yeah, working with these guys is a genuinely horrible thing to do since they're basically a scam/hate group pretending to be a charity - and people were STILL willing to give Sia the benefit of the doubt, since Autism Speak uses all their resources to make sure they're the first thing people see when looking up how to help autistic people.

Lots of Sia's fans, both autistic and allistic, warned her repeatedly, politely, that she needed to supporting them IMMEDIATELY as their goal was the exact opposite of the one she claimed to have - aka raise awareness through an accurate portrail of autism. People were even kind enough to name organizations like ASAN as replacements to help her fix any damage done to the project.

And instead of being a decent human being, Sia decided to cry on twitter about how the mean retar-I mean, autistics were bullying her even when she was so kindly using them for her vanity project.

Because yes, that's how the movie turned out. An unwatcheable piece of garbage, with the autistic "character" being so fucking bad even the people who actively use "autistic" as insulted being offended on our behalf - and of course, she was used just a prop to show how awesome Sia's character was.

Seriously, it was so bad the actress playing the autistic girl was sobbing in between scenes because she knew how it was horrible and she didn't want to insult anyone, but Sia is literally her godmother and helped her career by putting her in nearly all her music videos so she felt obligated to go along with it.

So yeah, fuck Sia and fuck Autism Speaks.

#asks #sia #ableism #autism speaks #actually autistic #aba therapy

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wheelie-sick · 29 days

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things that are ABA therapy:

✅ Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy done by an ABA therapist

things that are not ABA therapy:

❌ being bullied for being autistic

❌ being abused for being autistic

❌ experiencing trauma because you are autistic

❌ society as a whole encouraging masking

ABA therapy refers to a specific form of therapy. stop commenting on posts about ABA therapy saying you were "basically in ABA therapy because....." no! you weren't! it's bad but not the same! ABA is not a generic term to describe any sort of abuse or treatment for being autistic. when ABA survivors are talking about our specific experiences we are looking to connect or educate about those specific experiences. if you didn't have those experiences then stay quiet! you don't have to add on to every post talking about yourself, sometimes you can just silently reblog!

#aba therapy #aba survivor #actually autistic #ActuallyAutistic

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autball · 1 year

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If your first instinct is to dismiss this on the grounds of “but that would be really messed up,” you’re about halfway to the point.

Keep going.

My oldest doesn’t do a lot of eye contact, which was always fine by me because I’m not that into it either. It’s not at all painful for me with my kids, we just never really needed it because we find connection in so many other ways.

Then my youngest came along. They want ALL the eye contact, lol. They really need it for connection. It sometimes takes conscious reminders to myself to meet their gaze because I’m not used to doing it, but I’m happy to make the extra effort to meet my child’s needs in this area.

Can you imagine, though, if I had instead been like, “No one else here needs eye contact, and it’s more work for me, so you’re just gonna have to learn to do things our way to fit in?” Most people would have no trouble seeing how damaging that would be to my child, and they would rightfully want to call me out for it.

Because most people can relate to my child’s need for eye contact.

The only reason non-Autistic ways of being have become the norm is because there are more of them than us. It’s not because they’re actually better, it’s just that NTs have been the ones in charge of making up the rules since forever.

So what if Autistic people were the majority? What if *we’d* been in charge of making up the social rules and public spaces and developmental timelines all this time? How would Allistic people be treated in this parallel universe? And how do you think Allistic children would handle being forced to live in a world not made for them?

How many people in that universe would actually *encourage* me to deny my youngest child eye contact?

Y’know, to prepare them for the real world.

(Image description in Alt Text.)

#autistic #actually autistic #autism #aba therapy #applied behavior analysis #autism acceptance #autistic feels

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blueboldandbright · 5 months

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More decoration for my battle jacket, someday I’ll actually post a photo of it

#punk #battle jacket #badges #pins #lgbtqia #pansexual #panromantic #actually autistic #religious trauma #aba therapy

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chronicsymptomsyndrome · 3 months

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fuck ABA

that’s all thank you for listening

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bpdcrybaby213 · 11 months

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I really don't like ABA therapy for autistic people. I don't like Autism Speaks. It might be what some parents think their autistic son or daughter needs, but it's just conversion therapy for autistic people. It says "decrease problem behaviors" What problem?? Autistic behavior is not a problem. You want us to adapt but you don't adapt to us. We're not problems to be solved. We're not missing puzzle pieces to be put together. You just want us to mask better and suppress our autism.

#autistic adult #actually autistic #autistic life #autistic masking #actually autism #autism #aba therapy #autistic culture

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catgirl-kaiju · 1 year

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#actuallyautistic #neurodiverse #neurodivergent #aba therapy is abuse #aba therapy #abba #disco #meme #humor #comedy #music #autistic #autism $peaks

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clownrecess · 1 year

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(TW: Talk of ABA, trauma, abuse, self offing, etc.)

ABA is abusive whether you want to admit it or not. It just is.

It doesn't "depend on the therapist", it is abusive by nature. The abuse and trauma inducing experiences are deeply rooted in it.

"Oh, well ours is basically just some OT and speech", that's not ABA, then. Whilst yes, OT and speech do very much have the ability to be abusive, ABA always is. A combination of some in home OT and speech is not ABA.

So what is ABA? ABA stands for applied behavioural analysis. It is a "therapy" that parents of autistic people are usually pushed to do. And often times, the parents agree! Whether that's because the insurance covers it, or because the school told them to, or whatever, they tend to accept it.

I was one of the people who's parents accepted it.

I was in ABA for a little over a year, I would have been in it much longer but eventually I was taken out because I threatened to off myself if I remained in it. And this didnt work immediately, I had been threatening this for months. I'm not sure why it finally worked.

ABA likes to trick you at the start. My therapists in particular referred to this tricking as the "honeymoon phase". In this phase, they would act like my friends. They made me trust them.

We would talk about our interests, and play games together.

It felt safe, and I liked it!

Until it changed, that is. About two months into ABA, they stopped being like my friends.

It went from me happily playing chess with him, to him yelling at me, a child hiding under a table, because I didn't say what he wanted me to say.

And this of course evolved too. And I was further traumatized.

I was tricked, and then abused by the hands of so called therapists.

It has been around 2, almost 3 years since this. I am still extremely frightened by anything remotely related to those experiences.

I had a panic attack in a water park because somebody looked **slightly** like one of them.

Please don't put your kid in ABA. I don't care how helpful you think it'll be.

#tw aba therapy #tw aba #tw sewerslide #tw abuse #tw trauma #aba is abuse #yes all aba #anti aba #aba therapy #actually autistic #neurodivergent #nonspeaking autistic #autism #applied behavior analysis

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five-thousand-loaves-of-bread · 1 year

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questions i want everyone who say “all ABA is abusive” to know how to answer—especially non ABA survivors:

to be fair! i 100% agree ABA can be very abusive. sure some of the field have changed many throughout the years, but much of the field has not. what each clinic bill under “ABA” may be vastly different, some may not even be ABA!

but i think there is more nuance to “all ABA is abusive and every parent who put child in ABA is abusive” conversation.

i believe you have to understand something to critique it.

these questions are largely targeted towards non ABA survivors because i see a lot of non ABA survivors regurgitating things from other non ABA survivors. these questions may be triggering for ABA survivors who have trauma from ABA.

i encourage non ABA survivors to use own words to answer these questions if possible.

so here goes:

1. what is ABA? what are its fundamental principles, and how it concretely achieve that?

for example, what are discrete trial training? what are naturalistic learning? give example of how that can look like between an ABA therapist & the receiver.

2. who is ABA targeted at?

because while autistics are targeted, there is often specific population of autistics. who are they? and ABA is also given to more than autistics. who are they?

3. what is abusive about ABA / how can ABA be abusive? can you name multiple reasons?

4. can you give concrete examples of that?

for example, the common saying ABA promotes masking. what does that look like between an ABA therapist & receiver?

5. can any ABA be done without that? if yes, what will that ABA look like? if no, why not?

6. goals of ABA, goals set for the ABA receiver. can they ever be beneficial? we’re talking solely about goals, we are setting side the methods to achieve those goals later.

if yes, what are some examples? if no, why not?

for example, masking again. the ability to mask, learning how to mask. for a white person? for a Black person? for other BIPOC?

7. can ABA (or anything!) be both beneficial and harmful? life changing and abusive? why or why not?

8. in current state of world,

because we can talk about “in an ideal world” all we want, but reality is ABA is happening right now, families are struggling right now.

8 a. what are some alternatives to ABA? are these resources as readily available as ABA?

think insurance coverage, governmental recognition, school coverage, clinician availability, cost, single parent status, location (esp rural areas and other less discussed countries), other marginalized identities

think… “levels of dysfunction” for lack of a better word. like a child with frequent violent destructive meltdowns. a child with violent “behaviors.”

if a parent put their child in these alternative services and not ABA, does the government recognize these alternative services as “intervention?” will child protective services or equivalent?

8 b. do these resources focus on the same/similar areas as ABA? idk how to phrase this question but hear me out. some ABA focuses on developing life skills & adaptive functioning skills (what are them?). do these services work on them, for example?

9. in a better world, what can be alternatives to ABA?

10. how may ABA look different for different populations? how may ABA expectations differ for different populations?

how may societal expectations differ for different populations? how may consequences of not fitting in the societal expectations differ for different populations?

a level 1 autistic? a level 3 autistic? a high support needs person who can’t independently do basic ADLs, who don’t understand safety? a nonspeaking person? someone with “problematic behaviors”? someone with motor troubles? a non autistic person with other developmental disabilities? someone with an intellectual disability or global developmental delay? kids? adults? BIPOC?

11. add on bc i suddenly remembered and am too lazy to re number the entire thing, are ABA and early intervention the same/similar or different things? explain. explain beyond target age groups, focus on what each service do.

who are eligible for early intervention? can you receive that without a diagnosis?

edit to add, 12. can ABA be reformed? why or why not?

finally, 13. have you ever talked to an ABA survivor about ABA? directly in a 1 on 1 conversation? group setting? or saw content by said ABA survivor about ABA? have you intentionally seeker out content by ABA survivors on ABA?

here are just questions on top of my head. i am sure i missed many.

again, these questions are not to convince you all ABA are actually not abusive (bc uh, i don’t believe that either), but to add nuance to “ABA = abuse” conversation so we can be better activists.

here is a post i wrote about bringing nuance to ABA

#aba therapy tw #aba therapy #actually autistic #actuallyautistic #actually neurodivergent #autism #autistic #loaf screm

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factoidfactory · 9 days

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Autism Acceptance Month Fact #20

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is one of the first and most common interventions recommended for autistic children.

However, most autistic adults say that ABA is traumatic and unethical, treating autistics as a problem that needs to be solved by teaching autistics that they cannot be themselves if they want to be accepted.

#did you know #random facts #random fact #little known fact #random factoid #random factoids #yes really #aba #aba therapy #autism awareness #autism #autism acceptance #actually autistic #autistic acceptance #autistic awareness month #actuallyautistic #asd

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pleaseletmeexist · 23 days

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#has this been done before #autism #autism memes #mental health #pro self diagnosis #anti aba therapy #aba therapy #tw aba therapy

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wheelie-sick · 2 months

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this is going to be a long post, it's kinda just me writing all my raw unfiltered thoughts on ABA therapy as someone who actually went through it

-> TW for ABA therapy, child abuse, suicide <-

I was functionally diagnosed with autism at the age of 3 but it wasn't until I was 13 that I was actually formally evaluated for it and given an official diagnosis. I was behind in social skills and developmental skills

[ID: "was also described as a sensory seeker. She does not currently have any friends and has struggled to make and maintain peer relationships throughout her childhood. Difficulties with social skills were initially noted when she was in preschool (years before the onset of clinically significant symptoms of anxiety and"]

[ID: "Social functions: [blank]'s mother also completed a questionnaire rating her social responsiveness. Her responses on the SRS-2 indicated that [blank] is demonstrating severe deficits in the areas of Social Communication (reciprocal social interaction and nonverbal and verbal communication), Social Motivation (motivation to engage in social-interpersonal behavior) and Social Awareness (perceiving social cues) and moderate deficits in the areas of Social Cognition (understanding social cues). Severe Repetitive and Restrictive Behaviors (stereotypical behaviors or highly restricted interests) were also reported. The total T-score on the SRS-2 indicates severe deficiencies in reciprocal behavior that are likely to result in interference in everyday social interaction"]

[ID: "%ile) are mildly impaired, while her social skills are moderately impaired (2nd %ile). By domain, demonstrates mildly to moderately impaired abilities in six adaptive skills areas, including self care (9th %ile), communication (5th %ile), home living (5th %ile), self-direction (2nd %ile), social (2nd %ile), and leisure (1st %ile)"]

and ultimately all this ended up with the number one recommendation after my autism evaluation being for ABA therapy.

[ID: "Recommendations: Based on the above results, the following recommendations are made for [blank] and her family.

1. ABA therapy: [blank] May benefit from an intensive treatment program to foster cognitive and communication skills, improve independence and adaptive functioning, and help manage interfering behaviors (i.e home-based, 1:1 instruction, task analysis, etc.) Most private and community programs are based on principals of operant conditioning and taught in home with 1:1 instruction"]

*I'm getting misgendered here. my pronouns are he/him

"operant conditioning"-- like a dog 🐕🐕. woof woof.

my mom didn't know any better so she put me in ABA therapy with the Center for Autism and Related Disorders. she regrets this. I regret this more.

my autism evaluation was cruel, it dissected all my flaws as if I was a bug under a microscope in a highschool laboratory. my evaluation was passed around to ABA therapists, a line of high schoolers peering through the microscope examining the most vulnerable parts of me.

and I choose the highschool analogy quite deliberately. most of the ABA therapists at my center were recent highschool graduates with no degree and little training. they knew nothing about autism and had no qualifications. you need more certificates to become a professional dog trainer than to become a professional human trainer.

"operant conditioning"

and I wish I could say it was just a poor choice of words but ABA therapy was dog training for children. my dad used to call me an "it" and somehow I felt less dehumanized by that than the entire experience I had in ABA therapy.

I was the oldest person at my center (I did not receive in home therapy) with the next oldest being approximately 3 years younger than me. at the time I felt babied. I was surrounded by 5 year olds and I was treated as if I was not just a 5 year old but an autistic 5 year old and anyone who has been a visibly autistic 5 year old knows what that feels like. I had escaped being an autistic child and now I was being treated like one again. The head of the program tried to console me by telling me adults received their services too.

[ID: "Following the principles of applied behavior analysis, CARD has developed a treatment approach for children and adolescents with"]

this was the first lie they told me. CARD does not work with adults.

I was not allowed the privileges of being a 13 year old. because I was an autistic 13 year old and therefore I was the equivalent of a 5 year old. I was in psychotherapy at the same time and I had grown very accustomed to some level of freedom in therapy. I was allowed to use the bathroom independently. in ABA therapy I was not allowed to use the bathroom independently. I tried once, me and my therapist were on an "outing" to the grocery store and I told my therapist I was going to the bathroom and walked off and I got a very stern talking to about how I needed to "stop eloping" and if I didn't stop it would "become a behavior"

eloping became a common theme used to control me and squeeze money out of my parents.

out of everything I hated in my life, including severe physical abuse at home (which they did not report), I hated ABA therapy the most. I would repeatedly make serious threats of suicide to try to get out of ABA. no one cared. everyone thought I was being dramatic but there were times I wrote out suicide notes and ABA was among the reasons I listed. ABA made me feel hopeless, depressed, revolting, disgusting, inferior, and less than human. between ABA, my home life, and my social life I had never felt so hated and it was boiling through my skin. I acted out, I was bullying people, I was behaving recklessly, I was starting fights, and all this only made the oppressive force of ABA crack down on me harder. I was a cat hissing in the corner begging to be left alone and ABA brought a net to try to tame me further. every time I scratched back it was listed as a reason I needed to be there.

I was "disruptive" and "rebellious" and "uncooperative" and "resistant to treatment" and no one could figure out why I was "regressing" despite me shouting the answer. I was screaming and no one was willing to hear me

I hated myself and my autism. my autism diagnosis made me want to die. I didn't feel freed by it or understood I felt ashamed and disgusted. I felt incompetent and like I had failed. I was ashamed to be at ABA, it was my biggest secret. I'd lie to my friends about why I couldn't hang out and I'd lie to people in public about who the woman I was with was and I'd lie about all of it to try to cover up my most shameful secret.

ABA therapy did nothing but foster this. In ABA therapy I was mocked for being autistic and what was happening only clicked when a young kid, maybe only 4 or 5, was flapping his hands and a therapist took out her phone and recorded him. we were circus animals. it was all an entertaining show to them while they poked and prodded at us with metaphorical hot irons to make us dance. the first time a therapist laughed at me for rocking back and forth I wanted to throw up. I almost did. it was systematic bullying of children I was forced to watch and experience.

my point is: the last place on earth I wanted to be was the ABA center.

so of course I tried to leave. my mom would bring me McDonald's and I'd beg, sobbing real tears, to leave early because only she could sign me out. every time I'd go to meet her I'd be marked as "eloping" and my hotel stay in hell would get extended.

my natural response to a stressful environment (leaving) was pathologized. I was eloping this way and that way and never once did I actually, truly elope. that word was a weapon used against me. they used my "elopement" to justify extending my stay to my parents. they ate it right up.

they argued I needed to stay there because I was making friends. this was true, I'm great at getting along with children it's part of why I want to go into pediatrics, but I had also made real friends with people my age at my highschool. ABA was getting in the way. I wanted to spend time with my friends outside of school but ABA took up all my time from the minute I left school to 6pm and all day on weekends. I was doing a full time job's worth of hours. I complained about how I was missing out on spending time with my real friends (as in, over the age of 7) and I was met with almost no wiggle room in my schedule. I was allowed to pre-plan time to spend with friends but every time my friend group wanted to do something spontaneously? I had to say no, and I had to lie about why. my friends would share stories about driving around town with 2 people in the group stuffed in the trunk, of hanging out in the woods together, of taking part in ordinary highschool activities as ordinary high schoolers and it made me cry because I was not an ordinary highschooler and I was not allowed to participate in ordinary highschool activities. I was one of those weird, unpleasant, socially awkward autistic people instead. eventually, they just stopped inviting me. I was forced into the out group by ABA.

I'll never get that back. I'll never get a chance to be a normal highschooler ever again.

when I did have time available to hang out with people I never had the energy to. at the time I was living with an undiagnosed physical disability and I was begging to see a doctor but no one would believe that it wasn't just anxiety. the people who believed me least of all were the people at the center.

I was constantly told I was trying to get out of therapy by "feigning" very real pain and fatigue. I tried to explain spoon theory, and that I had limited spoons, and in response they made a task for me to name things to "regenerate spoons" that's not how it works. I wasn't the only physically disabled person there. there was a wheelchair user who was constantly forced to stand for periods of time despite being in agony doing it. he wasn't allowed rewards until he did it.

rewards were used to train us like dog treats are used with dogs. sometimes the treats were fun! I'd get to cook, play Mario kart, and go on outings. other times the treats were "using the correct name and pronouns for me." I'd constantly be threatened with deadnaming and misgendering if I was being "noncompliant."

misgendering because of my autism was a theme in my life. my neuropsych evaluation report misgendered me. my parents misgendered me. the staff at ABA misgendered me. at one point the head of the program suggested that my "gender confusion" was because of my autism. my abusive father latched onto this and still claims that the reason I'm "confused" about my gender is because the evil transgenders tricked me into thinking I'm one of them because I'm autistic and therefore easily impressionable.

the two therapists I had were nice because I refused to work with the others. they weren't on a power trip and both eventually left because they realized the harm the organization was doing. other therapists were not so kind. other therapists were on a power trip, because in their mind lording over autistic 5 year olds (and autistic 14 year olds) makes them powerful and strong. occasionally I'd get stuck with one of the other therapists when my usual therapists were out. they would talk to me in a baby voice. they would make fun of me for rocking back and forth, for not making eye contact, for talking about Skyrim "too much" and generally just for being autistic.

I never really knew what I was supposed to be doing, just that I was doing it wrong. the therapists there rarely actually told me what my tasks were they'd just mark yes or no on them, judging me for something I wasn't aware of. I was never actually supposed to graduate, I was never supposed to get out, if they wanted me to succeed they would have taught and explained what was happening but I was intentionally left in the dark.

I continued threatening suicide to get out. no one took me seriously. I was seriously considering it. there's no happy conclusion where someone finally realized it was all wrong, or I figured out how to be allistic and graduated, or I felt more comfortable there. I only got out when covid struck and shut the center down. it's gone now, replaced by a family advice center. I hope their advice for autistic children is to never put them in ABA.

there is no grander message here just suffering. I'm sorry if you were expecting some sort of great point at the end of this. there's not one. it happened, I wish it didn't, and I hope no one else experiences what I did ever again.

okay to reblog

#actually autistic #actuallyautistic #neurodivergent #aba therapy #aba survivor #tw aba therapy #tw child abuse #tw suicide #ok to rb

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