Anyone else just sit there on mobile Tumblr and just play with this thing

Like you hold it and BOOM

It does this and my autistic self can't be happier

I just sit there and move it around like an insane person

how did you somehow rb that post more times than i did

The power of autism

writing a fic about ferdinand and his horses over the years because horses are my animal obsession of the week. they’ve got an iron grip on my brain ive been reading articles about horses in all my free time

This post appeared literally as I was going to complain about it, lol. Is that a sign? Well, I'm gonna complain anyway.

Putting numbers/a timeline into one of my works helped me locate the exact problem I was having with it. It helped me put shit in chronological order and locate a missing event that is crucial to the story's themes and antagonist.

Numbers are also great for character ages. A thirteen year old and a thirty five year old simply look at the world differently. One of the first things I do when I make a new character is slap an age on that little fucker, and that means using a number.

That being said, I think these are all examples of needing numbers. And the post does mention why arbitrary numbers can be an issue. And it's right on that (look at the third poster- they really do a good job explaining it, better than I can). But for my autistic brain, adding a timeline really helps me get rid of BS. Especially in this case.

Also sometimes, the number in your head is not the number you need. Which I think this post was also talking about. For example one thousand years is the distance between the Late Middle Ages and today. So I took a "one thousand year" bullshit timespan and shrunk it to one hundred twenty years (i.e.- no human was alive before the thing happened, but we're not going from the Middle Ages to poggers). And I still had to shorten it again. It's "Martin Luther King was a Trekkie" syndrome- a lot changes in a shorter time frame than one might think, and time is not as distant as one imagines.

So my personal rule of thumb is now "if a thing's been there "forever", making it slightly longer than the average human life span might work better than a millennia". Though that depends on what you're trying to do.

The original post was also really talking about Not Doing Your Fucking Research. If your story is set in the past, you should research that time period until your eyes bleed. Less so if you lived through it, but still. Ask your web search of choice or your local library or any expert you happen to know. If the story is set in the future? Still do research. But don't worry about the "well achtually" nerds because no-one can predict the future. Who cares if we won't have jet packs in 2442? Have fun with it. And if the story is in an alternate world, you can really go nuts.

TL;DR- Numbers have rules, but also no rules.

(Sorry I didn't just reblog this- I wasn't sure how much was relevant and it got way too long.)

i'll strangle you or i'll kiss you on the mouth

do you guys ever feel like an outcast even in a group full of outcasts. like i'm autistic and even in groups full of neurodivergent people i'm still excluded sometimes. i don't understand why

First art of the new year is all about re-structuring your internal monologue.

In my early 20s I was working full time in London with many social commitments and a variety of hustles and side projects.

In my later mid 20s I cater to many sensory and social drain needs I have and indulge in special interests while respecting my lower energy reserves and celebrating my different way of processing the world.

Did I get more autistic? Nah. I got less fake.

-

[Art description: Three panels showing figures on a black background. Long descriptions follow.

1. A drawing of OP as a person with hip-length hair and a dress standing sadly with her hands clapsed together in front of her. She is coloured a muted rainbow gradient. Behind her, two pairs of nondescript figures chat while smiling. White text says, ‘I’m getting more and more autistic the older I get.’ 2. OP’s colours are brighter, and her expression looks happier. Crayon-like scribbles have crossed out the text from the previous panel. 3. OP’s colours are vibrant, and she balances on one leg and throws her arms out as she dances. The text above has changed to say, ‘I’m becoming more and more myself the older I get.’ \End descriptions]

Can we talk about how this man-

This short king goober, stole TWO wives. From the same guy, too. What type of rizz does he have? He must have some sort of goofy silly swag or something idk.

I bet you if Adam got a husband, this mad lad would still try to steal him from Adam. His type has gotta be "Married to the first man God created" and I love that for him.

question: do ppl ACTUALLY say things they don’t mean when they’re angry? or is that just an excuse after letting something true slip? i wouldn’t ever say something i don’t mean in anger, so the concept confuses me.

but something was said to me that is bothering me, though apparently was said in an argument and wasn’t meant. but i don’t rlly believe it wasn’t like, deep down true thoughts/feelings??? anyone have any insight? anyone say things they don’t mean in anger?

EDIT: this was a hastily worded post that i didn’t expect to get notes. this is a genuine question asked in good faith that i got a lot of amazing answers to!

also re: the many ppl saying “OP is lying about not saying things they don’t mean in anger because everyone does it”— i genuinely have never done that. if i say something mean while angry, i meant it. that’s literally why i asked this question and why the concept confuses me, because i wouldn’t do something like that so i wanted perspective from people who do it. idk why y’all can’t believe that lmao not everyone is as prone to anger and outbursts

Him and the bad bitch

mutuals and even maybe non mutuals i implore you to message me. i may be busy right now but i will find time to respond. i will see your message and i will go “oh my goodness gracious someone messaged me on tumblr dot com” (direct quote) and i will jump up and down with joy and proceed to spend an inordinate amount of time thinking what to say back to you. please message me it will bring me so much joy

crows use tools and like to slide down snowy hills. today we saw a goose with a hurt foot who was kept safe by his flock - before taking off, they waited for him to catch up. there are colors only butterflies see. reindeer are matriarchical. cows have best friends and 4 stomachs and like jazz music. i watched a video recently of an octopus making himself a door out of a coconut shell.

i am a little soft, okay. but sometimes i can't talk either. the world is like fractal light to me, and passes through my skin in tendrils. i feel certain small things like a catapult; i skirt around the big things and somehow arrive in crisis without ever realizing i'm in pain.

in 5th grade we read The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-time, which is about a young autistic boy. it is how they introduced us to empathy about neurotypes, which was well-timed: around 10 years old was when i started having my life fully ruined by symptoms. people started noticing.

i wonder if birds can tell if another bird is odd. like the phrase odd duck. i have to believe that all odd ducks are still very much loved by the other normal ducks. i have to believe that, or i will cry.

i remember my 5th grade teacher holding the curious incident up, dazzled by the language written by someone who is neurotypical. my teacher said: "sometimes i want to cut open their mind to know exactly how autistics are thinking. it's just so different! they must see the world so strangely!" later, at 22, in my education classes, we were taught to say a person with autism or a person on the spectrum or neurodivergent. i actually personally kind of like person-first language - it implies the other person is trying to protect me from myself. i know they had to teach themselves that pattern of speech, is all, and it shows they're at least trying. and i was a person first, even if i wasn't good at it.

plants learn information. they must encode data somehow, but where would they store it? when you cut open a sapling, you cannot find the how they think - if they "think" at all. they learn, but do not think. i want to paint that process - i think it would be mostly purple and blue.

the book was not about me, it was about a young boy. his life was patterned into a different set of categories. he did not cry about the tag on his shirt. i remember reading it and saying to myself: i am wrong, and broken, but it isn't in this way. something else is wrong with me instead. later, in that same person-first education class, my teacher would bring up the curious incident and mention that it is now widely panned as being inaccurate and stereotypical. she frowned and said we might not know how a person with autism thinks, but it is unlikely to be expressed in that way. this book was written with the best intentions by a special-ed teacher, but there's some debate as to if somebody who was on the spectrum would be even able to write something like this.

we might not understand it, but crows and ravens have developed their own language. this is also true of whales, dolphins, and many other species. i do not know how a crow thinks, but we do know they can problem solve. (is "thinking" equal to "problem solving"? or is "thinking" data processing? data management?) i do not know how my dog thinks, either, but we "talk" all the same - i know what he is asking for, even if he only asks once.

i am not a dolphin or reindeer or a dog in the nighttime, but i am an odd duck. in the ugly duckling, she grows up and comes home and is beautiful and finds her soulmate. all that ugliness she experienced lives in downy feathers inside of her, staining everything a muted grey. she is beautiful eventually, though, so she is loved. they do not want to cut her open to see how she thinks.

a while ago i got into an argument with a classmate about that weird sia music video about autism. my classmate said she thought it was good to raise awareness. i told her they should have just hired someone else to do it. she said it's not fair to an autistic person to expect them to be able to handle that kind of a thing.

today i saw a goose, and he was limping. i want to be loved like a flock loves a wounded creature: the phrase taken under a wing. which is to say i have always known i am not normal. desperate, mewling - i want to be loved beyond words.

loved beyond thinking.

The thing is, you don’t have to have a diagnoses to make simple “unmasking” changes that make your life easier. You don’t even have to self-diagnose! You are not appropriating anyone’s culture or struggles or hijacking anyone’s movement by allowing yourself to sway in line at the grocery store or buying a weighted blanket or using study or household hacks intended for people with ADHD. If you start favoring the needs that make your brain and body unique over the arbitrary norms of society, you’ll be better off, and you’ll be expanding the norms. It’s a win/win.

I don't wanna further hijack that poor poll, but the thing about Harrow's schizophrenia is that it's canon. The author has confirmed it, and shared that it's based on her own experience.

It's a pretty obscure bit of canon, so of course there's no shame in not already knowing, but that's why I'm so obnoxiously persistent about letting people know.

Whatever else is up with Harrow, autism or cptsd or any number of likely headcanons, she is also schizophrenic. I feel like that's too important to be handwaved away as a difference of opinion.