I see a lot of people say that people self diagnose neurodivergence because it's "quirky" or cool or something, which shows a lack of understanding of self diagnosis that I would like to correct.

1. I personally do not think I have autism because I "saw a tiktok and related to it". I think I have autism because I fulfill the diagnostic criteria that I have looked into extensively. I have sensory difficulties. I get overwhelmed by sound, and light, and the wrong fucking texture un my clothes or food. I was made fun of my entire childhood for "taking things too seriously", and I took what people said at face value, because I took things far too literally. I spent my entire childhood figuring out how to act normal, how to say the right thing at the right time so I wouldn't be made fun of or excluded. I am extremely comforted by various types of stimming, but was punished as a child for anything considered fidgety or abnormal. I love biology, and can infodump to you about genetics (special interest) for hours. This is an interest that can be considered abnormal, and it has consumed most of my available brain space for many years. Also, every single autistic person I've ever met has clocked me in about five seconds and immediately told me I have autism. The truth is, people don't self-diagnose themselves with a highly stigmatized disorder unless it is seriously impacting their lives.

2. Autism, especially in girls and bipoc, is often missed. If they can learn to mask it, it doesn't get diagnosed. I got straight A's all throughout high school, and I had teachers tell me that they thought I had autism, but that it was probably fine because it didn't impact my academics or my life. Spoiler alert: it did! People think that when a seemingly functional person claims to have autism, they are hopping on a trend, but most of the time, they are suffering. I was depressed and sometimes suicidal before I figured out I had autism. I got called a psychopath for things that should have been recognized as symptoms of autism, and a lot of the time I believed it because I didn't have any other words for myself. Our society is shitty and if you aren't a little cis white boy, it's much harder to get diagnosed.

3. Diagnosis is expensive, and hard to access! A lot of people don't realize that it's a privilege! It costs a lot of money to get diagnosed, money that not everyone can afford. It's also hard to get a diagnosis because of social stigma, especially if you figure out you have some form of neurodivergence under the age of 18. I'm a month shy of being a legal adult, and I know that while I'm working towards it, it will be a while before I can get properly tested and diagnosed. My mother, who would scream if she ever saw me wearing noise cancelling headphones in public, is not going to help me get a diagnosis. My mother, who has thrown what can practically be considered temper tantrums over me stimming (literally just tapping my fingers against each other) is not going to help me get a diagnosis. The children of parents who aren't ready to give up their image of a perfect child and think autism can be wished away don't have the same access to diagnosis as the children of parents who are willing to work with them and contribute financially, and neither does any adult who has gotten through life alright but struggles financially because They Have A Disability!!!

In conclusion, don't shame people who diagnosed themselves. I absolutely think the end goal should always be to work toward a professional diagnosis, but that isn't always feasible for people, and we can't sit around slowly drowning in the meantime. If you are worried about self diagnosed people taking away resources: guess what, there are no resources!

Self-diagnosis shouldn't be quick. It comes after a long time spent diving through symptoms and diagnostic criteria. But it gives people without access to diagnosis the ability to nonetheless understand themselves better. For me, it means being able to say "I'm overstimulated, I'm going to find a quiet place" instead of sitting and suffering. It means being able to say "I'm going to sit on the floor instead of my desk, because that grounds me and stops me from spiralling". It means stimming when I'm overwhelmed, and stopping when I need to, all without shaming myself or thinking of myself as lesser for not being able to do things I was told I should be able to.

hello yes we are recruiting new spn fans. for the destiel division, correct. ideally we're looking for people who can't get over anything and are always haunted by images and events

Listen.

EVERYBODY knows (or should) that you DO. NOT. STOP. in Vidor, Texas. 

It’s best to just run out of gas elsewhere. Whatever you do, black folks, DO NOT STOP IN VIDOR, TEXAS. 

There’s a good chance you’ll get lynched or just come up missing - and I’m not joking.

also do NOT stop in Harrison, Arkansas!!!! (relatively close to OK and MI) a nazi town with a BIG KKK organization.

Reblog To Save Life

Am I the only person who hates telling other people about my sexuality irl? I'm proud of being aroace and all, it just gets tiring to explain it every single fucking time.

I mean, I can just say I'm not straight or I'm queer, but then people immediately default to thinking I'm gay if I say that.

It usually goes like this:

Stranger: "Are you straight?"

Me: "Oh, no."

Stranger: "Oh, so you're gay."

Me: "...Nope. Try again."

Stranger: "Bisexual?"

Me: "Nope!"

Stranger: "Can you give me a hint?"

Me: *long sigh* "I can, but I don't think you'll like the answer"

Now cue the explaining it for ten minutes and gods forbid they're aphobic (which, unfortunately, a large percentage of the people I've told are) because that's just a whole other fucking rabbit hole

I have been waiting all year to post this.

This is what having undiagnosed autism/ADHD is like

My deepest darkest fantasy is that I collapse on the street and I am rushed to the hospital. They perform a bunch of tests and find out I am severely deficient in some kind of vitamin. Then I start taking the vitamin and I become the happiest cleverest person alive because all my problems were caused by this one deficiency

by Jessica Jocelyn

I killed that little girl twice: once when I decided to be authentically queer, and once when I decided to unmask my autism. I mourn her, but I think she'd be proud of me. Her death gave me freedom she never had.

The thing is, it's more of a revival. Because that little girl killed me, when she was too young to understand what she was cutting out.

I had the choice to kill her or kill myself and I think she understands why I chose me. I love the little girl that's gone; she tried her hardest to be who the world wanted her to be, it just wasn't enough.

Speaking about my past self, in a trans sense, I worry about killing her. I worry she has been smothered by the person I have become. I hope she doesn't think I hate her. She was a good kid. And I carry her with me.

early homo sapiens b like help i cant stop making bowls . help i cant stop domesticating plants and animals. help i cant stop developing language and architecture and religion

The first thing I saw was "it's never too late to start masking again" and I was like, but I've been working so hard on unmasking (my autism)

Source

CDC Wastewater Viral Activity Monitoring

BreatheTeq

What if I don't like being exhausted just to function? What if I don't want to stay up until 3am to do the stuff I could've done last week?

There's a bunch of adhd advice out there that's like "people with adhd tend to work better under deadlines due to the anxiety so here are ways to artificially induce a stress response in order to get you to get work done" and it's like well what if I don't want to be stressed out all the time in order to function

Wait- I thought this was normal???

I dress to tell my 7 year old self he will be ok some day

Not to sound like a 90s shallow prep, but how you dress can affect your self esteem, and putting energy into wearing things you actively like and projecting an ideal of yourself through fashion instead of seeing clothes as things you have to put on out of obligation helps.

It also can give you a sense of control over your appearance that you otherwise wouldn’t have lmao

I think whoever programmed my facial recognition software forged their degree

Idolaters

Take not mercy on the idolaters, Lord, for they are saints yet crave for Darkness, for they are devils yet worship Light.

Another double-composition experiment because they are fun to plan, said no sane person ever.

Everything is like “QUEER history” and “List of QUEER young adult books” or “Top 10 QUEER movies” and queer this and queer that and for the love of god please just say LGBT.

Stylish ring

(via)