I say it counts. 😈

‘Tis the season of big family gatherings with lots of noise and busyness, high expectations around food, and people you might not really like being around but are expected tolerate at least once a year. It’s a lot for anyone, but add in sensory issues or socialization differences and it can quickly cross over into “too much.”

But, there are ways to make it a bit easier on yourself or your loved one, and it’s with accommodations. Stuff like bringing your own safe food, bringing sensory supports, taking time away from the crowd - the list goes on.

Thing is, the hardest part of doing this for most people isn't figuring out what to bring, but feeling okay about accommodating themselves/their loved ones in the first place. It’s hard to deal with the unsolicited opinions, comments, and looks from other people. It’s hard to not let their judgements get to you when you’ve already had to unlearn that stuff yourself. It’s hard to feel like you deserve to be comfortable and have your needs met, too.

So if anyone out there needs to hear it, WE DESERVE COMFORT TOO. Consider this your permission slip to meet those needs and make those accommodations no matter what anyone else thinks about them. We don’t have to care about people’s opinions when they literally don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about, right?

I will legit be bringing my divided plate. And safe foods for my kids. What kinds of accommodations will you be making this year?

Noticing somebody near you fidgeting can be distracting. Vexing. Even excruciating. But why?

According to the 2021 study, the stressful sensations caused by seeing others fidget are an incredibly common psychological phenomenon, affecting as many as one in three people.

Called misokinesia – meaning 'hatred of movements' – this strange phenomenon has been little studied by scientists, but has been noted in the research of a related condition, misophonia: a disorder where people become irritated upon hearing certain repetitious sounds. Misokinesia is somewhat similar, but the triggers are generally more visual, rather than sound-related, researchers say.

"[Misokinesia] is defined as a strong negative affective or emotional response to the sight of someone else's small and repetitive movements, such as seeing someone mindlessly fidgeting with a hand or foot," a team of researchers, led by first author and psychologist Sumeet Jaswal, then at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada, explained in the paper.

Autism & NeuroDivergent Sensory Euphoria - My Autistic Perspective

A lot of time, we spend talking about sensory distress, sensory overload, and sensory troubles, because these things often are more obvious to people on the outside, or can be more of an inconvenience on our day to day lives, but there's also a good side.

Patreon members and YouTube channel members had access to this video on July 25, 2022. The video’s public release will be September 28, 2022. ID: Lyric, a pale skinned nonbinary person with short green, teal, purple, pink, orange, and yellow hair with shaved sides and jet black roots is sitting behind a white microphone in an RV with dark wood panel walls. The words “Sensory Euphoria” floats in…

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Autism and Touch

The Autistic Teacher

(tw for an extremely brief mention of autistic meltdowns)

I want to talk about different ear defenders.

This post can also be used as a way to find what pair of ear defenders is best for you, because its informational and descriptive on all of them (All based on my experiences, of course.)

Sensory aids are a great way to help prevent overstimulation, aid the calm down from a meltdown, or just help you to feel safer (and more!). I first started using sensory aids when I was nine, which was when I developed an extremely severe sensitivity to sound. I got ear defenders, which was really helpful. I now have six or so different pairs! The first brand I got was Mpow, but specifically Mpow Kids. Mpow is sort of confusing for me because when you look up Mpow ear defenders it comes up as something completely different than what I'm talking about, same when searching Mpow Kids, so you do need to look around a little bit.

This is the exact pair I have. Something really good about this pair of ear defenders is that its flatter, which is good if you are worrying about bulkiness. It blocks extra sound quite well, but in a way you can still hear people talking to you. However, it doesnt do this perfectly (there is a brand I think does it perfectly in my opinion. Which I will talk about later.) and whilst I can hear people I'm talking to for the most part, I often have to ask them to repeat themself because it makes it hard to differentiate different mouth sounds, which is frustrating. The ear defenders also tend to create kind of an "under water" sound to every noise. It also causes a lot of pressure build up after wearing them for a while, resulting in a bad headache. I also would not reccomend wearing glasses with them. It IS possible, I've done it, but it is really uncomfortable. Despite it being marketed as a kids size I think that they could fit most people.

These are peltor ear defenders. I have two different pairs. The overall noise blocking is about the same as the Mpow Kids ear defenders, except it is a slightly easier to understand people, and the water noise is gone! These headphones are usually a lot bulkier than the Mpow ones. The pair in the photo aren't bulky generally, but are in comparison to Mpow. Most peltor ear defenders are extremely bulky though, so if you want one like the photo you'll need to look around a little bit. These headphones do create the pressure issue again, but it takes a lot longer to do so. You can also easily wear glasses with them, it still isnt extremely comfortable, but it's a lot more comfortable in comparison to other pairs.

These are my absolute favorite brand for ear defenses: Hear Tek. Hear Tek filters the noise near perfectly in my opinion. It blocks noises whilst still allowing me to hear what people are saying to me usually quite easily. The pressure does build up quicker than the Peltor ear defenders, but not as quick as Mpow Kids. It is uncomfortable to wear glasses with them. They are a little bit bulky. Hear Tek also comes it tons of cool colors and designs, as seen in the photo! I personally just have plain red ones with a black over head peice though.

These are Howard Leight ear defenders. They are the cheapest option, but with the cheap price also comes cheap quality. They block very little noise, and are extremely bulky. They have zero pressure build up though, and you can easily wear glasses with them.

Thank you for listening to my talk of ear defenders lol

& if i can afford one final stone-cold take for the night i think a little boredom is good. both for the average human and for dogs. i know the tiktok algorithm wants you to think otherwise but doing nothing & learning to do nothing might be healthy actually.

How do I tell my line manager that I think her attitude to the child I support's feeding and eating needs/difficulties is completely wrong, sets far too high expectations for him at the current stage of his development, is pushing neurotypical standards of behaviour on a four-year-old who cannot meet them at this stage of his development, and who is literally not allowing me to try different strategies and approaches to better accommodate his needs - all without sounding like a bitch, a know-it-all, like I'm trying to do her job, or getting fired?

i dont know why i thought it would be a good idea to eat fruit during sensory overload

genuinely one day im gonna lose it with my school friends i’ve only started to notice it recently but they just straight up refuse to use my preferred pronouns and sure it’s hard to adjust but not that hard. and it’s like they just will not accept that i am autistic, every time i bring it up they just shut down entirely and like that’s not gonna fly forever because it’s literally just. me. and i can’t pretend it’s not there and it involves way more than me just being charmingly obsessive about doctor who

writing long ass fanfiction has really warped my perception of writing progress. i was collecting my uni coursework and was so shocked it was only 1k words. like, i convinced myself if i'm not writing 50,000 word novellas every six months then i'm not being productive

h8 it when ppl say "um thats not a symptom of this disorder" and it's like. Something that has a lot of fucking overlap with other disorders

so my friend persuades me to go get tested for autism :D I highly doubt now after I made my research and talked to the psychiatrist (not mine btw) that I have it but he works w disabled (especially autistic) children and he knows how it looks so... I don't know anymore lmao

ALRIGHTY SO- (I'm so sane and normal about these toons and cogs I swear) as I said before, personally I really like to think that brian's brain is a motherboard and/or wires/neuron like things covered in a silicone mold that made it shaped like a brain-! It would explain why when he starts getting more and more frustrated during his battle he starts overheating and eventually leading to his brain exploding at the end- (which leads me to believe that mayhaps his wiring needed some extra cooling to help him prevent that, perhaps being the reason why he has a dome head in the first place so that way it could be liquid cooled by being placed inside of- whatever brian has inside of there shchsdhs) which in turn would make the silicone brain a pretty solid idea-!! Keeps all his wiring n electricical brain bits all nice and dry, but also gives him a little flair and from the looks of it, seems like a fairly efficient way to help stop any overheating caused by his emotions or stress- (I mean he literally starts going red with rage, that's gotta be some hot pieces of parts in order to do that even with some cooling factors in place-) but what's really got my gears turning is that if he does have a sort of wiring inside of that brain mold of his, it would basically be the like- in between of cog parts and toon-ish parts-! Assuming that his wiring would help out his processors n act as any neurons should, they would not only help out his thought process (him being the self proclaimed smart man that he is /lh/lh) but it'd also allow him to feel things-!! Neurons are the main units of the brain and nervous system, they help the brain feel any sensory input from the outside, send signals to help the body control motor functions, and in general just relay electrical signals throughout the brain all the time- Which sounds very much close to what the cog equivalent of a brain could also do (and does for brian)-!! I know all the cogs have brains and all their inner bits, but I justshfhs I think it would be really cool if brian's brain had just a little bit more brain-like functions-!! I don't know if I'm making any sense here, but- if he can think, that man can feel too-!! Probably more than the average cog, but he would also probably just decide not to draw much attention to it-!! I know this started out as silly snowglobe dome talk, but in all reality I'm so very interested in the complexities that the cogs and toons have-!!! Doesn't mean I don't think it'd be silly to shake that man around and see what happens, that'd be silly- even more so to bonk him with hammers- BUT I JUSTSHFBS I THINK-!! THE COGS DESERVE SOME MORE THOUGHT INTO HOW THEY COULD ACTUALLY FUNCTION N FEEL THINGS AND WHAT THE INNER WORKINGS OF THEM COULD POSSIBLY LOOK LIKE-! BRAINS HELP SHAPE WHO WE ARE AS PEOPLE… SO I THINK IT'D BE COOL TO UNDERSTAND HOW THAT WOULD WORK WITH THE COGS AS WELL- but yeshdhghs I'm . very sorry that this got so much longer than I intended, but thank you very much for letting me ramble out my thoughts-!! I hope you enjoyed hearing some of my thought process SHCHSDHS

OHHTHIIS IS REALLY GOOD. i never even thought about him possibly having a heightened ability to feel things like touch . i imagine with his brain also moving around, there's probably other pieces in there that would also be shifting which would increase the need for it to be in a somewhat cooled down area.

BUT YEAH . it's all very interesting to think about!

Hmm...

You lot wouldn't mind a semi-coherent essay on Autistic Athena Cykes someday, would you?

Autistic Sensory Differences

What are they?

Autistic people experience the sensory world very differently from non-Autistic people. One Autistic person might be hyper-sensitive to certain sensory experiences, and do whatever to avoid them, whereas another might be hypo-sensitive and crave heavy sensory input (or both/a mix). Sensory differences include the main 5 senses:

Sight

Sound

Touch

Smell

Taste

addition to 3 lesser-known senses:

Interception

Movement

Balance

SIGHT: A person might struggle with intense eye contact, bright lights, a chaotic mix of colours or a lack of visuals for support. Another might seek out loud colours, lots of lighting or certain visuals (e.g. shiny things).

What might help:

Sunglasses to block out light

Reducing eye contact

Using visual prompts such as labels/lists

Using calm/dim/ mood lighting

SOUND: A person might struggle with loud/sudden noises, overlapping voices, certain pitches or a lack of noise. Another might seek out loud music, repetitive sounds/words/songs or white noise.

What might help:

Using subtitles for videos when the audio is too overwhelming

Wearing headphones to reduce noise/utilise music for comfort

Using ear plugs to lower background volume

TOUCH: A person might struggle with rough surfaces and textures, the feeling of dirt or unclean skin, clothes labels or human contact (e.g. hugs, handshakes etc.).

Another might seek out objects to squeeze, fabrics to feel or people to embrace.

What might help:

Setting a boundary to not be touched without consent

Removing fabrics and materials from your environment that you dislike

Find clothes with stamped labels rather than ones with external tags

SMELL: A person might struggle with strong or pungent smells, odours that are too overwhelming for them, or just too many different smells at once. Another might seek out powerful smells or like to overload themselves on favourite scents.

What might help:

Keep to hand something that smells nice to you to counter any bad smells

Use unscented products

Use candles, diffusers or air fresheners to surround yourself with comforting smells

TASTE: A person might struggle with different textures in food (e.g. soft with crunchy), certain flavours or unfamiliar foods. Another might seek out hot/spicy/sour foods or chewy/stimmy foods.

What might help:

Providing familiar/safe foods at meals

Don't force trying new foods if not interested

Be aware of clashing textures

INTERCEPTION (processing info about physical needs on and inside the body):

A person might struggle with recognising physical needs (e.g. going to the toilet, feeling unwell, needing to eat/drink) whilst another might feel them intensely.

What might help:

Creating routines/alarms/reminders for fulfilling bodily needs

Be well prepared/equipped to fulfil needs e.g. taking water with you to places

Fulfilling bodily needs earlier to avoid pains of thirst, hunger, full bladder etc.

MOUEMENT (Proprioception): A person might struggle with an overly aware sense of body positioning, becoming tired easily from movement or disliking tight clothes. Another might seek out physical activity (running, climbing etc.), have less awareness of personal space and have a need to fidget/cannot remain still.

What might help:

Use of deep-pressure products like weighted blankets

Keeping active through slower movements, e.g. walking instead of running

BALANCE (Vestibular): A person might struggle with sensitivities to balance and spatial orientation if moving too fast or have difficulties with motion sickness.

Another might struggle with not moving at all or seek out movements such as dancing and swinging around.

What might help:

Using trampolines, rollercoasters, rocking chairs to meet vestibular needs

Physical support such as with stairs to help control balance with steps

Autisticality

Autism

Sensory Processing

The idea of laying down on the couch to just take a quick nap is… a really nice idea