There's no one way to be autistic

Post Reply New Topic

https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p0fqdsrd ... c_team=crm

This is beautiful!

Wow, one of the best video accounts I've seen. Agree with her about trains! Can't stand them.

I liked the video. It was very heartwarming.

The link above wouldn't play the video, so I watched it on YouTube.

I was impressed by the artwork, very nice to watch. It described masking and burnout in a way that I have experienced it.

Thank you. So beautiful! It made my cry, as I identified so much. But I love trains

Wonderful way to describe autism!

Wonderful, I could have watched more. I didn't cry (I'm still resentful about recent misdiagnosis of my daughter) but I teared up - because Truth. I'm sharing this with my ASD groups.

I won't quarrel about the artistic brilliance of the video, however some of us actually are nerds with poor empathy who are obsessed with trains, and don't mask because when young we didn't fully understand why others saw anything wrong with us.

Pros and Cons. The poor empathy or unexpressive folks may struggle that way but are identified and can get help (if it's available and useful which is an entirely different topic), the high empathy or expressive folks may compensate but currently aren't identified and don't get help (assuming it were available and useful). My daughter is relatively unexpressive but is far more expressive than the stereotypical boy. I thought for sure her interest in bugs would do the trick, but it didn't either and she has been misdiagnosed TWICE. The diagnostic community is not sufficiently past the loves trains or numbers and flat-affect or irritable stereotype. So we are on our own - sadly, Autistic folks are used to that. How much of Autism is wanting to be on our own vs realizing it's necessary or safer?

Interesting. The stereotypes described initially here are what I assumed autism is supposed to look like. My son thinks he'll be classified as autistic, while I've been doubtful, as he doesn't do trains / maths / etc, and is quite an extravert.
However, being expressive AND not understanding what's acceptable, or when people are getting annoyed, has caused him endless problems.
I've come across several young people diagnosed autistic (via his brother), who seem to fit in and make friends much more easily than he does.
We shall find out next week what the professionals have decided.

When someone explains how autism presents in girls/women it makes me think it is in fact how it presents in late diagnosed people regardless of sex. That "typical" trainspotting, unemphatic example of a male autistic that can't see the forest for all the trees and with a big meticulously organised collection of toys is what made me write off any thoughts of being autistic myself until well into my 40's. I have no interest what so ever to have a collection of any kind.I get bored by unimportant details and focus on the broader picture. What interests me is people, not material things like different train models. But I hate pointless small talk and social positionering.

It's funny, I tried masking, so I picked a character that felt like me, but people still liked. I didn't know what "Aspergers" was and saw a quirky, confident mixed-race individual that loved the same things I did.
I tried to mask. As Abed from Community.
How did nobody know? How the heck did nobody know I was autistic?!

Wouldn't play for me either. But this did:
https://anontube.lvkaszus.pl/watch?v=otAcbF-fESI
and you can download a personal copy from there if you want to.

Hope to comment later when I'm in an environment in which I can listen to the soundtrack.

If you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person.