Victoria Duncan

BIRBS

Yup this is a vibe. I have felt this way at times. Why can't my easy and hard things line up with everyone else's.

In fairness, public speaking is one-way communication while a social group is multi-way, so it's more impressive but WAY simpler in terms of managing the dynamics.

If Greta dies I'm going to war. Like the Ents when they realized Saruman cut down the trees.

We did this first! It was called "mincome", it worked great, we never talked about it again

Manitoba’s Mincome experiment | CMHR share.google/LEkCISYVi96Q...

One of my saddest moments was realizing it would sometimes not be possible to actually understand what went wrong in a miscommunication; what was missing, what the failure was.

It would be impossible, because sometimes the other person would rather just write me off than have to do any of that.

Yes this! And autism isn't treatable but the other things tend to be!

I'm hopeful. Our understanding of neurodivergent conditions has always felt incomplete. The diagnoses are ill-fitting and they change depending on who's looking at them. Unbundling these conditions feels like a step forward.

But autistic kids have always deserved better. They've always deserved someone to look closer and bring in someone other than an ABA therapist. Someone to say that autism and seizures are different; autism and developmental delays are different; autism and attention challenges are different.

They had this one answer, they weren't going to let go of it, and if that meant telling all of us high falutin fancy autistics we "didn't look autistic" and "were nothing like their child", then by god, we were all misdiagnosed.

But autism was such a good focal point for fear and rage, many parents brushed us off when we tried to suggest there was more than one factor in their child's presentation. They were so used to everyone being wrong and the support being incomplete, they just heard another dismissal.

If a parent thinks their child has one condition - autism - but they actually have several, like epilepsy, ADHD & chronic illnesses, that child is not getting proper treatment until the other conditions are diagnosed.

I clearly see the risks of segmenting autistic people so please do NOT come and tell me about the Nazis again. But part of this is what we've been trying to tell parents of high-support needs autistic children forever: There are multiple conditions involved in complex cases. Autism is just one.

Autism Is Not a Single Condition and Has No Single Cause, Scientists Conclude Research reveals that those diagnosed with autism early show distinct genetic and developmental profiles from those diagnosed later.

Maybe I'm just starved for sane & grounded autism discourse but "Autism is not one condition" seems like a genuinely useful conclusion. Maybe things are looking up.

Autism Is Not a Single Condition and Has No Single Cause, Scientists Conclude | WIRED share.google/cS8ZxX0fuPOO...

I 100% bit people! I remember because it was considered such a weird reaction!

Parents will grieve their kid's autism diagnosis - even if there are no new challenges or issues - which is how you know kids have no rights & are not seen as full people. Because we should be grieving the time they spent being unsupported.

In neurodivergent circles when someone is diagnosed we cheer and congratulate them because we know what they went through to get this point. but you do you, Terrified Normal Man

Rude that I still have to exercise, brush my teeth and meditate while having no expectation of living to see old age

Who amongst us has not bitten people. Do you think because I can sit still & wear a suit jacket that I was not an absolute menace when I was your kid's age

just found out if you tell the staff at PDX you have autism they will let you borrow a nice laminated plane spotting guide unique to our airport with comprehensive charts and diagrams. that's fuckin service

A falling building labelled as burnout. Being held up by steel polls labeled ‘cat, memes and ear defenders’ With a car next to the building being held up by steel polls labelled as ‘me’.

Why is this so dam accurate? 😂

#neurodivergent

You can probably take a 100-question online test to see if you're autistic but really you only need the first question to be "did you look for a 100-question test instead of a 10-question test because of the greater accuracy that promised?"

Gymnastics would have been good! Or dance. Or yoga. I needed help with being embodied, I just needed it to happen slower and in a less overwhelming environment 😭

I want to stay engaged and read the news but I can't take these news clips anymore. I don't want to hear his voice. I don't want to watch people being abused. The videos are important and need to exist but no one is served by me watching and I can't handle my feed right now.

A woodcut style ink drawing of a Tardigrade: "Just because I can survive harsh conditions doesn't mean I should have to." (If anyone knows the artist, I'd love to make (a version) of this available for sale and can only find tumblr replies via tineye.)

Yeah I felt the sunk cost thing was a definite factor. What is she supposed to say? It wasn't worth it and she wishes she put more time into her social relationships? If she wasn't happy or felt something was missing, would she say that while being celebrated?

The annoying millennial astronaut described living for years without ever seeing the sun (waking up when it's still dark, going to bed late) and I just want to point out that my mental health could never

Retroactive advice to my parents: Whatever you do, do NOT expect your autistic child to play softball. So much yelling! Extreme hand eye coordination! Also sprinting! holy shit.

Basically millennials are old enough that our perspectives have a lot more to do with socioeconomics and class than generation. That is a wealthy millennial. I am a "doing ok" millennial. There are broke millennials. We've all spent the last 15-20 years having completely different experiences.

We learned there was no such thing as work life balance because our careers launched during a recession, forever depressing our wages, and we got laid off at the drop of a hat. It wasn't supposed to be aspirational.