Mental Health Stuff - Tumblr Posts
Might have these out of order but just a good thread to share.
It’s easier to think of someone as “lazy” than to face the fact that school costs too much, that better jobs are inaccessible, that childcare is unaffordable, that people are forced to work so hard for so little that there’s no way they could have enough energy to attempt schooling or finding better work, and that what we give to people who can’t work is insufficient to the point of being shameful. I could say that calling people lazy is, in itself, lazy, but it’s not just an intellectual shortcut. It’s a defense mechanism.
“If autism isn’t caused by environmental factors and is natural why didn’t we ever see it in the past?”
We did, except it wasn’t called autism it was called “Little Jonathan is a r*tarded halfwit who bangs his head on things and can’t speak so we’re taking him into the middle of the cold dark forest and leaving him there to die.”
The two ADHD moods:
- I can’t do it
- I can’t stop doing it
My NT friend: doesn’t this silence bother u
Me, autistic: are u telling me u can’t hear this incredibly loud fridge
Holy shit just, this.
So there is a moment that just, has stuck with me.
I was chilling at my mom's office, back then my aunt worked with her too, waiting to meet a friend so we could get lunch and catch a movie. My aunt asks me when my friend is planning on showing up.
It dawns on me. I have no clue. I truly, honestly, did not know. I said as much. I don't know.
My aunt got FURIOUS at me, yelling at me for being rude and disrespectful. And. The answer wasn't about to change. I can't give information I don't have.
I hate that it happened. I was in tears. And she's still like that. Doesn't grasp my mental health quirks, treats me like a child. Dismisses my emotions. And I just don't understand why not knowing something suddenly makes me "rude".
GOD I found another article about why ADHD kids say “I don’t know” so much. my entire childhood was getting yelled at for doing some ADHD shit and me not being able to offer an explanation when asked why I did something.
Your periodic reminder that in people who have been subject to threats and punishment for having emotional responses or ‘inappropriate’ facial expressions, panic attacks look different.
They may look like the person has become calmer and less involved, dismissive, even. Some people become intensely subservient and silent. Some become catatonic.
Panic doesn’t always involve screaming, crying, and obvious signs of distress. It involves an extreme form of the person’s fear response – which can be altered by circumstance, ability, and what they’ve learnt to fear.
Which is to say, it’s not your place to decide someone isn’t having a panic attack, when they’ve told you that’s what’s happening.
UH WHAT
UH...... WHAT.........
What’s Visual Snow Syndrome (VSS), and why do so many autistic people have it?
I learned about this the other day, when I posted about palinopsia (visual trailing/afterimages) being common in autistic people, and a couple of our followers told me about their VSS. I did some more research, and discovered that I also have it.
Visual Snow Syndrome is a neurological condition that interferes with visual processing. It’s caused by hyperactivity and hyper-excitability of nerves in certain areas of the brain that process visual information.
The core feature of VSS is constantly seeing tiny, fuzzy “feedback” in the environment. It’s kind of like seeing the world through a staticky TV screen. Some people’s visual static is larger than others. Mine is relatively fine-grained, but it gets bigger and more obvious in low lighting.
Some of the other symptoms of VSS include:
Palinopsia (visual trailing/afterimages)
Photophobia (sensitivity to light)
Increased and enhanced ectopic phenomenon, such as floaters, phosphenes, and Scheerer’s phenomenon
Seeing glare, starbursts, and halos around lights
Difficulty seeing at night/in the dark
Seeing random flashes of light and/or color, without cause from the environment
It’s common for people with VSS to experience comorbid migraines, but VSS is not the same thing as migraine aura.
So, why do autistic people often have VSS?
It comes down to the fact that VSS is caused by the hyper-excitability of neurons in areas of the brain that process visual information. A core feature of autism is hyper-excitable neurons, especially in areas of the brain that have to do with sensory processing. So it makes sense that autism would often inadvertently cause VSS.
Here are some illustrations of visual phenomenon that VSS causes, in case you want a better understanding of what the world looks like for me and many other autistic people.
Visual snow/static:
Palinopsia/image trailing:
Scheerer’s Phenomenon (tiny bright moving dots):
Starbursts around lights:
Floaters:
I hope y’all have learned something :)
I’ve found it very intriguing to realize that the way I see the world is more unique than I once knew!
~Eden🐢
One of my least favorite mental illness things is "hungry but dont feel like eating" and its companions "hungry but all the food in the house is Illegal," "hungry but can't make anything," and "hungry, want to eat, but why bother"
I saw this tweet about how things don’t always “occur” to adhd people and I thought I could relate to it as well, although I’m autistic and not adhd.
For example - if I have a headache, it simply won’t occur to me to take pain meds. I know I have a headache. I want the pain to stop. I am aware of the existence of pain meds. But the idea never occurs to me to take them until someone else suggests it.
The example they gave in the tweet was that if someone says hello to them, it may not occur to them to say hello back and yep… I do that as well.
I just never realized that other people may not do these things.
A non-exhaustive list of the ways autistic people may show empathy even though we are assumed to not have it.
Are these exclusive to autistic people? No, not at all, we're just more often pathologized for them.
If I'm in a relationship with someone who does this, does that mean I just have to suck it up even if it doesn't work for me? No, it doesn't, but you do probably have some adjusting to do. You'll need to treat it as a mutual miscommunication instead of something it's all on the autistic (or ADHD, or whatever) person to fix. You'll have to change some of your expectations and get comfortable asking for (and explaining) the show of empathy you need - and you may even find out that the way you show empathy isn't working so great for them either. 😉
[Image description: AUTISTIC EMPATHY CAN LOOK LIKE… - Infographic by Autball.
White translucent boxes with black lettering inside on a magenta to purple diagonal gradient. The first four boxes read: (1) I’ve been through something similar, so maybe sharing my story will help; (2) Ooh, I know how to fix that! Maybe helping them solve their problem will make them feel better; (3) Oh man, now I have big feelings too! I just feel this so much!; (4) My favorite thing always calms me down, so maybe it’ll help them too. I’ll ask them to do it with me. These four are grouped together with a blue line and labeled: Misinterpreted as “Making it All About You.”
The next four boxes read: (5) I’m not sure how to help, so I’ll leave it to that person who looks like they do; (6) When I’m upset or overwhelmed, I prefer to be left alone, so I’ll bet they would like the same; (7) If I get involved, I’m gonna become overwhelmed myself, and that will take attention from them, so it’s best to just stay out of it; (8) I’m not sure how to help, and I usually make it worse when I try but get it wrong, so it’ll be better for everyone if I just do nothing. These four are grouped together with a blue line and labeled: Misinterpreted as Cold and Uncaring.
At the bottom is one last sentence, in white bold lettering, that reads, “Just because we don’t show it the same doesn’t mean we don’t feel it.”]
Do autistic kids "grow out" of their autism? Why does it sometimes seem like there are so few autistic adults?
For Autism Acceptance Month, I covered this topic in this comic to help explain this disconnect! YouTube | TikTok | Instagram | Twitter
Listen, if you interrupt me with a new task while I’m midway through another, you aren’t allowed to be mad when I switch to the new task immediately. You clearly thought the new task was important enough to interrupt me with it!
I am just a little pikmin! You’re the one with the whistle!!
POV: mister Devon Price, PhD, telling me that I am right about everything
Source: Unmasking Autism, discovering the new faces of neurodiversity
Applying for jobs is a hell designed specifically to torment autistic people. Here is a well-paying task which you know in your heart and soul if they just gave you a desk and left you alone and allowed you to do it you would sit there and be more focused and enthusiastic and excellent at it than anyone else in the building. However, before they allow you to perform the task, you must pass through 3-4 opaque social crucibles where you must wear uncomfortable clothes and make eye contact while everyone expects you to lie, but not too much (no one is ever clear exactly how much lying is expected, “over” honesty is however penalized). You are being judged almost entirely on how well you understand these very specific and unclear rules that no one has explained. None of this has anything to do with your ability to perform the desired task.
about adhd
it concerns me that people really don’t know that adhd isn’t a personality type or behavioral problem.
adhd isn’t someone who’s personality is driven by fun and disorder.
adhd is someone who’s brain goes all over the place looking for dopamine, because it doesn’t make or register enough of it, and when it finds a source of dopamine, it hyperfixates on it. it’s about deregulation of attention as well as emotions.
it’s not a person who can’t behave. a person with adhd can look like a lot of things. misconceptions about what adhd looks like kept me from even looking for a diagnosis, and it also kept myself and others (professionals, even) from taking my suspicions seriously.
everyone’s encouraged to reblog, but if you don’t have adhd, keep your additions to the tags.
about adhd
it concerns me that people really don’t know that adhd isn’t a personality type or behavioral problem.
adhd isn’t someone who’s personality is driven by fun and disorder.
adhd is someone who’s brain goes all over the place looking for dopamine, because it doesn’t make or register enough of it, and when it finds a source of dopamine, it hyperfixates on it. it’s about deregulation of attention as well as emotions.
it’s not a person who can’t behave. a person with adhd can look like a lot of things. misconceptions about what adhd looks like kept me from even looking for a diagnosis, and it also kept myself and others (professionals, even) from taking my suspicions seriously.
everyone’s encouraged to reblog, but if you don’t have adhd, keep your additions to the tags.