Is reading comprehension something other autistic people struggle with? I have a really difficult time understanding the things that I read. I can read the words but I get no meaning from them, I have to read it over and over to understand. Do any other autistic people have that same problem?
Anonymous
I’m not sure, but it sounds plausible. I don’t tend to have such problems, so I can’t really comment reliably about it.
Anyone else find they have similar issues?
So I'm self-diagnosed, and I don't live in a place where it would even be possible to get diagnosed right now. Are self-diagnosed people often accepted into the autism community? Finding just an online community was so exciting for me, but being self-diagnosed has made me too afraid to really enter it.
Anonymous
I can’t speak for other places, but the community here on tumblr is very accepting of self-diagnosis.
Anyone else know of any other good places?
![[“Ohmigod my sibling has autism! Why, cruel world, why!? They are so beautiful and they have a beautiful soul and they’re like, so beautiful! How could life do this to me? Whatever will I do now!?”
Here’s a suggestion: Shut up, get over yourself, and stop making this about you]
I know I can’t be the only person who’s getting tired of these. Even when someone means well, it gives me such a headache. Look, allistic people: There are other things you can do than just flapping around like chickens with your heads cut off. Panicking and making assumptions about what this means for your autistic sibling/child/etc. is bad enough.
Panicking and making assumptions about what this means for you is just kind of insensitive.
I can remember a few times when parents of autistic children contacted me on some website or another, wondering things about autism. Among other things, I would usually tell them that autistic children can learn, that all is not lost and their kids can probably live good lives. I never heard back from any of them, not even a thank you for my time taken responding.
It’s like people don’t want to hear that all is not lost. Like they want to believe it’s all doom and gloom, so they can recline back on their drama couches, staple their hands to their foreheads, and whine about how cruel life is. Allistics, get your butts off the drama couch and educate yourselves. You can even start with the askanautistic tag right here on tumblr if you want some real insight into us.](http://40.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcpbl0pj7J1rfhms3o1_400.jpg)
[“Ohmigod my sibling has autism! Why, cruel world, why!? They are so beautiful and they have a beautiful soul and they’re like, so beautiful! How could life do this to me? Whatever will I do now!?”
Here’s a suggestion: Shut up, get over yourself, and stop making this about you]
I know I can’t be the only person who’s getting tired of these. Even when someone means well, it gives me such a headache. Look, allistic people: There are other things you can do than just flapping around like chickens with your heads cut off. Panicking and making assumptions about what this means for your autistic sibling/child/etc. is bad enough.
Panicking and making assumptions about what this means for you is just kind of insensitive.
I can remember a few times when parents of autistic children contacted me on some website or another, wondering things about autism. Among other things, I would usually tell them that autistic children can learn, that all is not lost and their kids can probably live good lives. I never heard back from any of them, not even a thank you for my time taken responding.
It’s like people don’t want to hear that all is not lost. Like they want to believe it’s all doom and gloom, so they can recline back on their drama couches, staple their hands to their foreheads, and whine about how cruel life is. Allistics, get your butts off the drama couch and educate yourselves. You can even start with the askanautistic tag right here on tumblr if you want some real insight into us.
![[Forget how to speak
Squeak instead]](http://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mckphyQOz21rfhms3o1_400.jpg)
[Forget how to speak
Squeak instead]
I have enough symptoms that I have been placed on the edge of the autism spectrum, yet I also have had many troubles with being far too empathic for my own good. Is it possible to be on the autism spectrum and also be empathic?
Anonymous
Not only is it possible, but a relatively recent (and, to my dismay, considered “radical”) hypothesis is that autistic people feel too much empathy. This fits with my own experiences, and I’ve seen a number of autistics on tumblr say the same.
The thing is, this hypothesis states that the problem isn’t lacking emotions, but feeling them too acutely and struggling to process them. As well, we just don’t necessarily process them in a way that allistic people recognize.
The two attributes combine to cause a double problem: First, that we tend to shut down when emotions get too strong, or detach ourselves from the situation, thus making it look like we don’t have emotions or empathy; and second, we internalize the allistic idea of empathy to such an extent that it’s easy even for us to assume we don’t have it.
It’s true, autistic people have empathy to varying degrees, but we do tend to have it. We may not have it in all the situations allistics think we should, we may not know how to show it, or even how to feel it in a way that we understand what we’re feeling. But there is absolutely nothing to stop someone on the autism spectrum from being empathetic and it’s my sincerest wish to see the notion that autistic people have no empathy die a very swift and brutal death, very soon.
![[“OMG ALL U HATERZ NEED TO LEARN TO APPRECIATE A GOOD THING” Yes, how dare I be critical of being treated like a circus act.]
In response to all the people complaining that Autistics are critiquing Night of Too Many Stars. We should just be glad they want to “help” at all, apparently.](http://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcaegbl7wk1rfhms3o1_400.jpg)
[“OMG ALL U HATERZ NEED TO LEARN TO APPRECIATE A GOOD THING” Yes, how dare I be critical of being treated like a circus act.]
In response to all the people complaining that Autistics are critiquing Night of Too Many Stars. We should just be glad they want to “help” at all, apparently.
[Has no empathy?
Doesn’t give a fuck about your hurt feelings]
mod note: I’ll be honest, I’m not 100% sure I get this one but I think what it’s getting at is that to allistic people, “autistic person isn’t being nice to me when I’m being a douche” = “autistic person has no empathy”. I could be completely talking out my ass, though.
![[“Autists choose to be sociopathic.”
Better than choosing to be an ignorant dipshit]
Really. Trigger warning on that one thanks to ignorant trollface.
You know what I really never get about allistics? They dismiss autistic people as sociopathic or jerks or unemotional, without ever once realizing how much that hurts us. But we’re the ones who lack empathy?](http://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_maz29mEJfZ1rfhms3o1_400.jpg)
[“Autists choose to be sociopathic.”
Better than choosing to be an ignorant dipshit]
Really. Trigger warning on that one thanks to ignorant trollface.
You know what I really never get about allistics? They dismiss autistic people as sociopathic or jerks or unemotional, without ever once realizing how much that hurts us. But we’re the ones who lack empathy?
![[I am awesometistic.
I do not suffer for this.]
Word.
(From the meme generator.)](http://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_majtiiexa91rfhms3o1_400.jpg)
[I am awesometistic.
I do not suffer for this.]
Word.
(From the meme generator.)
![[I flap.
You can deal.]
This is one that has been sitting in the meme generator for a while, but no one has submitted it. I don’t know why, it’s awesome.
I will of course remove it if the creator requests it, but it seems silly for them to just sit in the generator. And if anyone has made one and feels, for whatever reason, uncomfortable with submitting it themselves, feel free to give me a heads up if you’d still like to see it here.](http://40.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mai46npJGZ1rfhms3o1_400.jpg)
[I flap.
You can deal.]
This is one that has been sitting in the meme generator for a while, but no one has submitted it. I don’t know why, it’s awesome.
I will of course remove it if the creator requests it, but it seems silly for them to just sit in the generator. And if anyone has made one and feels, for whatever reason, uncomfortable with submitting it themselves, feel free to give me a heads up if you’d still like to see it here.
About Autistic Hedgehog