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Autism the thread

skyscraper said:
Although I don't have Autism, I have autistic attendences which means some of my traits are similar to those of people
with Autism (I can't have actual Autism due to a bit of my brain missing). People need to realise that we don't get distressed or upset deliberately. Having a disability doesn't make us stupid. If people knew what it was like they'd understand. But they don't, so they'll continue to call us out for no reason. I experienced this yesterday in a certain thread on here...
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Whether you have autism or not, we all see things from different perspective. Just because someone don't agree with you, doesn't mean that you are right or wrong.

No one should prejudge someone with a disability or perceive them as being less inferior to an able-bodied person. Jess my wife is highly intelligent, but you be surprised how often she is patronised, belittled. People tend to speak to Jess as if she is either a child, mentally retarded or deaf. This does upset her a lot. No one should be prejudging other people intelligence regardless of disability.

I think I know what thread you are talking about on here, and rightly the mods did step in. Even though I agreed with what was being said, I did feel members could have been a bit more sensitive towards you considering your disability and worded things in a constructive way.

It has to be said that this forum used to be a fun forum where you could have a laugh, but in recent times, discussions have become more heated, polarized, controversial, toxic. Sometimes we all as members (including myself) on here just need to step back and just respect other peoples views, even if we all don't agree.
 
RoyJess said:
Whether you have autism or not, we all see things from different perspective. Just because someone don't agree with you, doesn't mean that you are right or wrong.

No one should prejudge someone with a disability or perceive them as being less inferior to an able-bodied person. Jess my wife is highly intelligent, but you be surprised how often she is patronised, belittled. People tend to speak to Jess as if she is either a child, mentally retarded or deaf. This does upset her a lot. No one should be prejudging other people intelligence regardless of disability.

I think I know what thread you are talking about on here, and rightly the mods did step in. Even though I agreed with what was being said, I did feel members could have been a bit more sensitive towards you considering your disability and worded things in a constructive way.

It has to be said that this forum used to be a fun forum where you could have a laugh, but in recent times, discussions have become more heated, polarized, controversial, toxic. Sometimes we all as members (including myself) on here just need to step back and just respect other peoples views, even if we all don't agree.
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I hear it a lot in AAC user groups, people tend to treat you as less if you aren't communicating in the normal manner, I've personally not had anything too bad (apart from some Uber drivers point blank ignoring me)
it's super frustrating however just hearing stories of people being patronising or just downright nasty just because someone's disabled.
 
I’m bringing sexy back....

Guys. Just wanted to ask your thoughts on weighted blankets? I’m having problems sleeping and looked in to them. People have said to me “oh I hear they’re great for people with autism too”. I haven’t heard that so thought asking the collective would be a good place to start
 
I've heard they can be pretty helpful for autistic people, but I've never really thought they'd have all that much benefit for me, even though I do struggle to get to sleep a lot of the time. I find tighter-fitting clothing to be more comforting anyway (though not on the top half of my body - go figure :p), so maybe a weighted blanket could have some benefit for me. I should probably look into it at some point.
 
They can be expensive though, I came across this one recently but it's £149. :eek:
https://theoodie.co.uk/products/weighted-blanket?_pos=1&_sid=4f0e858e8&_ss=r

OodieBlanketRetouchedFAGrey_110x110@2x.jpg
OodieBlanketRetouchedFABlue_110x110@2x.jpg
 
As this is the thread for autism-related discussion on here, I have a few things that I was wondering whether any of the fellow autistics on this forum can empathise with.

Recently, I’ve started to wonder whether certain things I struggle with are down to me having autism, or whether they may be down to something else; I’m beginning to suspect that I might also have dyspraxia (a bit like dyslexia, but where you struggle with coordination and practical things as opposed to words) as well.

The things I’m referring to are fine-motor skills; things involving coordination, like tying shoelaces and riding a bike. The frustrating thing about tying shoelaces in particular is that I know the actual technique, but I can never seem to get enough tension for them to stay tied. Thankfully, my mum was able to find zip-up boots that you only have to tie once and you can just zip and unzip them to take them on and off; this is one of the blessings of having relatively small feet, because as much as I’m embarrassed to admit it, they are actually categorised as children’s shoes, so they don’t come in any particularly large adult shoe sizes. Do any of you find difficulties with shoelaces?

Other things I find that lead me to believe I may have dyspraxia are things like how I run in a slightly uncoordinated manner, and other difficulties to do with fine motor skills, such as hand-eye coordination, which are all commonly listed as dyspraxia symptoms but are never associated with autism. Do any of you suffer from similar struggles surrounding fine-motor skills, or is it only me?
 
Matt N said:
As this is the thread for autism-related discussion on here, I have a few things that I was wondering whether any of the fellow autistics on this forum can empathise with.

Recently, I’ve started to wonder whether certain things I struggle with are down to me having autism, or whether they may be down to something else; I’m beginning to suspect that I might also have dyspraxia (a bit like dyslexia, but where you struggle with coordination and practical things as opposed to words) as well.

The things I’m referring to are fine-motor skills; things involving coordination, like tying shoelaces and riding a bike. The frustrating thing about tying shoelaces in particular is that I know the actual technique, but I can never seem to get enough tension for them to stay tied. Thankfully, my mum was able to find zip-up boots that you only have to tie once and you can just zip and unzip them to take them on and off; this is one of the blessings of having relatively small feet, because as much as I’m embarrassed to admit it, they are actually categorised as children’s shoes, so they don’t come in any particularly large adult shoe sizes. Do any of you find difficulties with shoelaces?

Other things I find that lead me to believe I may have dyspraxia are things like how I run in a slightly uncoordinated manner, and other difficulties to do with fine motor skills, such as hand-eye coordination, which are all commonly listed as dyspraxia symptoms but are never associated with autism. Do any of you suffer from similar struggles surrounding fine-motor skills, or is it only me?
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It's really hard to answer that as dyspraxia is an incredibly common comorbid diagnosis, it's one of those like ADHD and EDS that comes up a lot.

But yes, I'm fairly crap with stuff like tying laces (heck I'm wearing velcro shoes right now)
 
imanautie said:
It's really hard to answer that as dyspraxia is an incredibly common comorbid diagnosis, it's one of those like ADHD and EDS that comes up a lot.

But yes, I'm fairly crap with stuff like tying laces (heck I'm wearing velcro shoes right now)
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Velcro has always been brilliant for me; all of my school shoes were velcro before I went to sixth form, and in the summer, I love to wear things like sandals which have Velcro.
 
imanautie's right re: autism and dyspraxia being common comorbidities. Fine motor control's always been an issue for me. I struggled for years to tie shoelaces properly, and had velcro ones for a while, but I can now tie them. Though having said that, I'm a bit lazy and tend to slip them on & off when they're tied up, as it's easier for me than spending ages faffing around with doing the laces up. :p I don't like wearing sandals in the summer, especially on the beach, as getting sand in between my toes really aggravates me when trying to get rid of everything. I'm not a huge fan of trainer socks, as they make my ankles feel rather cold, but I wear them at the gym and don't even notice a problem.

Took me a while to ride a bike without stabilisers as well. I can do it, but I haven't ridden a bike in years!
 
Matt N said:
As this is the thread for autism-related discussion on here, I have a few things that I was wondering whether any of the fellow autistics on this forum can empathise with.

Recently, I’ve started to wonder whether certain things I struggle with are down to me having autism, or whether they may be down to something else; I’m beginning to suspect that I might also have dyspraxia (a bit like dyslexia, but where you struggle with coordination and practical things as opposed to words) as well.

The things I’m referring to are fine-motor skills; things involving coordination, like tying shoelaces and riding a bike. The frustrating thing about tying shoelaces in particular is that I know the actual technique, but I can never seem to get enough tension for them to stay tied. Thankfully, my mum was able to find zip-up boots that you only have to tie once and you can just zip and unzip them to take them on and off; this is one of the blessings of having relatively small feet, because as much as I’m embarrassed to admit it, they are actually categorised as children’s shoes, so they don’t come in any particularly large adult shoe sizes. Do any of you find difficulties with shoelaces?

Other things I find that lead me to believe I may have dyspraxia are things like how I run in a slightly uncoordinated manner, and other difficulties to do with fine motor skills, such as hand-eye coordination, which are all commonly listed as dyspraxia symptoms but are never associated with autism. Do any of you suffer from similar struggles surrounding fine-motor skills, or is it only me?
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I have dyspraxia and Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum (ACC), which both affect my coordination. It took me a while to learn to tie shoelaces, and even now I still use velcro straps as they're easier. I still can't ride a bike either. I also have hearing problems and wear a hearing aid in my left ear, which was caused by the ACC.
(The ACC also means I can't have Autism, but some of my traits are similar to those of an Autistic person, which is known as Autistic attendences)
 
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What I find really interesting is how many Autistics aren't cis het. (Cis = Gender matches sex assigned at birth, het=sexually attracted to the opposite sex)

I know a ton of people from all across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum who are autistic, heck we have a few here! (Including myself who's ace)
 
I admit that I never actually learnt to ride a bike; I tried when I was little, but I always found it really difficult.

I also always found PE quite difficult in school; I always found ball sports in particular quite challenging, as I’ve always struggled with things like throwing and catching (I can do it, but I have relatively poor aim when throwing and often miss when trying to catch things), as well as hitting when using a bat or racquet.

Also; sorry to ask, but when you say “ace” @imanautie, are you referring to asexual?
 
Matt N said:
I admit that I never actually learnt to ride a bike; I tried when I was little, but I always found it really difficult.

I also always found PE quite difficult in school; I always found ball sports in particular quite challenging, as I’ve always struggled with things like throwing and catching (I can do it, but I have relatively poor aim when throwing and often miss when trying to catch things), as well as hitting when using a bat or racquet.

Also; sorry to ask, but when you say “ace” @imanautie, are you referring to asexual?
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Ah yes, that's just the slang term for it (kind of like how Autie = autistic)
 
Matt N said:
I admit that I never actually learnt to ride a bike; I tried when I was little, but I always found it really difficult.

I also always found PE quite difficult in school; I always found ball sports in particular quite challenging, as I’ve always struggled with things like throwing and catching (I can do it, but I have relatively poor aim when throwing and often miss when trying to catch things), as well as hitting when using a bat or racquet.

Also; sorry to ask, but when you say “ace” @imanautie, are you referring to asexual?
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Oh, don't talk to me about PE. I was dreadful at throwing or kicking anything, and one teacher used to get me doing menial stuff that I found really humiliating. He was also a [insert mild expletive here]. Case in point was when I broke my finger IN ONE OF HIS LESSONS and was unable to take part for a few weeks, he still made me get changed. Absolute moron. I wasn't too shabby at non-throwing events in athletics, and SOMEHOW made the long jump final in Year 7 Sports Day. Yes, I was the last qualifier out of six entrants in the final, but I'll still take that!
 
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