Autism

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A community for respectful discussion and memes related to autism acceptance. All neurotypes are welcome.

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Anyone notice how all (well intentioned) advice for autistic people is just "mask harder"? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 day ago by sveltecider@lemmy.ca to c/autism@lemmy.world

57 comments fedilink hide all child comments

What the title says. Well intentioned, often other "neurodivergent" people look at your life, your autism, and say: "you should mask harder."

For example, I accidentally said something that offended a friend. Won't go into detail, but it was me unintentionally coming off as arrogant, not something bad like a slur or hate speech.

I asked for advice (elsewhere) and the advice was universally, "you see, NT avoid this topic at all costs. Going forwards, know it is best to avoid this topic."

But isn't this just saying "mask harder and be more palatable for everyone else"?

Every piece of "autism advice" I see even in "neurodivergent friendly" communities is basically "how to be less autistic."

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[–] yucandu@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago

Sometimes the advice isn't centered around interactions with other people.

Like - wearing sunglasses can help with feelings of overstimulation during the daytime.

running a fan at night for constant white noise can help you sleep
Liquid electrical tape is a great way to cover up those little LED lights on everything
10-20 seconds of cold shower can help your body with thermoregulation

My problem is that so much of discussion about autism is centered around social interaction, that people begin to think autism is just a problem of fitting in, and if only other people could be more receptive everything would be better... well it wouldn't make the sun any less bright!