Autistic Hedgehog

autisticallythor:

THIS HEDGEHOG, I LIKE IT… ANOTHER!
(I SUPPORT BARBED AUTISTIC ERINACEOMORPH SELF-ADVOCACY.)
***
(In reference to this post and the blog it’s from)

Thor and hedgehog is my headcanon now and it looks like this video.
(The best part? When the hedgehog has a little freakout, the owner rocks it to calm it down. Perfect.)

THIS HEDGEHOG, I LIKE IT… ANOTHER!

(I SUPPORT BARBED AUTISTIC ERINACEOMORPH SELF-ADVOCACY.)

***

(In reference to this post and the blog it’s from)

Thor and hedgehog is my headcanon now and it looks like this video.

(The best part? When the hedgehog has a little freakout, the owner rocks it to calm it down. Perfect.)

Reblogged 3 years ago from autisticallythor

18 notes

autistic hedgehog, autistic ally thor, autism, actually autistic, thor, hedgehog, hedgehogs, headcanon, hedgehogs need to stim too, submission,

autisticallythor:

autistichedgehog:

autisticallythor:

autistichedgehog:

[“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.

I DO NOT MEAN TO MOCK MY FELLOW ALLIES

BUT THIS SMALL BARBED RODENT SPEAKS THE TRUTH

WE ALLIES MUST REMEMBER THAT ALTHOUGH OUR OWN EMOTIONS ARE VALID: TRULY ALLYSHIP IS AIDING AND CONSIDERING OTHERS FIRST, NOT OURSELVES. LET US NEVER FORGET THIS!

Pssst. Thor? Uh, no offense big guy, loved you to bits in the movies, but I’m an Erinaceomorph, not a rodent. I’m about as closely related to your average rodent as an elephant is to a dog. Very important to know if I’m ever over for dinner. Rodents are very opportunistic eaters; I’m an insectivore.

(Sorry, couldn’t help myself. XD And “experts” say autistic folks have no sense of humor.)

I APOLOGISE, BARBED ERINACEOMORPH. I WILL ENDEAVOUR TO AVOID MISLABELLING YOU IN THE FUTURE. PERHAPS I CAN MAKE IT UP TO YOU WITH THE DINNER YOU MENTIONED?

(Pfft. No sense of humour, indeed! Also, Erinaceomorph? I guess you learn something new everyday.)

(Okay but seriously, am I the only one imagining this now? Like Thor having dinner with a hedgehog? And the hedgehog is all like “Try the crickets, they’re fabulous!” Is it just me?)

Reblogged 3 years ago from autisticallythor

195 notes

autism, autistic hedgehog, autistic ally thor, actually autistic, actuallyautistic,

autisticallythor:

autistichedgehog:

[“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.

I DO NOT MEAN TO MOCK MY FELLOW ALLIES

BUT THIS SMALL BARBED RODENT SPEAKS THE TRUTH

WE ALLIES MUST REMEMBER THAT ALTHOUGH OUR OWN EMOTIONS ARE VALID: TRULY ALLYSHIP IS AIDING AND CONSIDERING OTHERS FIRST, NOT OURSELVES. LET US NEVER FORGET THIS!

Pssst. Thor? Uh, no offense big guy, loved you to bits in the movies, but I’m an Erinaceomorph, not a rodent. I’m about as closely related to your average rodent as an elephant is to a dog. Very important to know if I’m ever over for dinner. Rodents are very opportunistic eaters; I’m an insectivore.

(Sorry, couldn’t help myself. XD And “experts” say autistic folks have no sense of humor.)

Reblogged 3 years ago from autisticallythor

195 notes

autism, autistic hedgehog, autistic ally thor, actually autistic, actuallyautistic, NOT actually a hedgehog, they're really not rodents though,

[The problem with being an Autistic Hedgehog

Is that we can turn our quills on ourselves]

And it has really, really been that kind of week.

Posted 3 years ago

23 notes

autism, autistic hedgehog, actuallyautistic, actually autistic, internalized ableism, internalized hatred, self-hatred, self hatred, autism spectrum disorder, bad week, quills, autism problems,

Why there’s been no Autistic Hedgehog this week

It’s pretty simple: Mama Hedgehog is having a really fucking bad week and can’t cope with anything.

There’s a number of things at play, including a flare up of knee pain that has me off my feet and bouncing off the walls (not literally, obviously, because then I’d be getting some actual freaking exercise rather than sitting on my butt all day). Hopefully next week will be better and I can deal again.

(Also, I’m the only actual mod here and I don’t get submissions very often, so there’s no one else to handle things and very little to queue, so if I go down, the whole operation pretty much hits the dirt. That doesn’t help.)

Posted 3 years ago

3 notes

autism, actuallyautistic, actually autistic, functioning, not functioning, high-functioning my ass, personal, mama hedgehog, autistic hedgehog,

So, I noticed that you said that some things haven't been going well for you since you were diagnosed. Would you mind talking about that some more? I'm autistic and undiagnosed (although I have spoken to psychologists about it. I just don't have anything official and on paper.) At one point, I very much wanted that official diagnosis, but now I'm pretty sure that I've changed my mind. I want to hear from others about their decision to get diagnosed or not.

Anonymous

Actually, what I meant was that things in general, like diagnostic procedure, have gone to shit since I was diagnosed. My own story seems to be so very different from anything else I’ve heard, and it seems to me like understanding of autism has gone down since then, not up.

For example, I was surprised to learn that people have got it into their heads that Asperger’s Syndrome isn’t autism, because it was never explained to be as anything but. It seems, however, that that hasn’t been the case for a lot of people. I did receive therapy, but I’d never heard the phrase “quiet hands” before coming to Tumblr, and in fact I was in a group therapy that treated us like human beings. I would’ve thought there’d be more of that these days, but there appears to be less.

My hesitations with diagnosis for adult autistics comes from my experience in trying to find a new psychiatrist once I became an adult myself.

I was sent to a woman who had no idea what autism was. I had to explain it to her, and she proceeded to decide that I didn’t have it–she tried to remove my diagnosis without even knowing what the diagnosis meant. Someone who knew what autism is and had an expert understanding of it probably would’ve noticed that I literally could not look at her face by the end of the session. Not even faked eye contact, I could not look at her. That’s part of how my autism expresses itself–the less I like a person, the harder it is for me to look at them.

Admittedly, this woman was particularly bad. She also tried to dismiss my PTSD diagnosis because I’d never been caught in a tornado or seen someone raped and murdered (because, I guess, brutal bullying, parents committing suicide, and being raped oneself do not count as trauma). But she’s why I urge caution and research before seeking diagnosis as an adult. Awareness and knowledge of autism has not improved; it’s still viewed as something only children have and in many places adult psychiatrists have little to no knowledge of what it really entails.

I have very little way of knowing where the people who ask about diagnosis live and what their situation is like. If they’re in a situation where, due to expense or other circumstances, they can’t afford to keep trying if they meet an asshat like that woman, trying to get a diagnosis could just be stressful, expensive and useless. Thus, I say consider it carefully and do as much research as possible to find someone who knows how to diagnose autism in adults if you want a diagnosis. But if you’re not sure you want one or not convinced you need one, you may want to refrain or speak more to other people about it first.

Posted 3 years ago

4 notes

autism, actually autistic, actuallyautistic, autism spectrum disorder, diagnosis, psychiatrists, psychiatry, ableism,

What part of the Wikipedia article on autism stigmatises?

Anonymous

Ugh, you’re gonna make me look at it? Yay.

The first thing that jumps out at me is this:

Not many children with autism live independently after reaching adulthood, though some become successful.

I know for a fact that there are a number of independent and successful autistics adults right here on Tumblr. What really bothers me about this, though, is that it adds to a pervasive rhetoric on autism that make parents, siblings, and others react to an autism diagnosis with “OMG my child/brother/cousin/whatever will never be independent they’ll be like this their whole lives what a tragedy what a burden OMG!"

Here’s an entire paragraph that makes me want to barf:

There are many anecdotal reports, but few systematic studies, of aggression and violence in individuals with ASD. The limited data suggest that, in children with mental retardation, autism is associated with aggression, destruction of property, and tantrums. A 2007 study interviewed parents of 67 children with ASD and reported that about two-thirds of the children had periods of severe tantrums and about one-third had a history of aggression, with tantrums significantly more common than in non-autistic children with language impairments.

The connection of autism to violence, aggression and tantrums. Those of us who are autistic recognize meltdowns for what they are, but you’ll see the word isn’t used here. It’s true that it’s important to teach autistic children as much as possible that violence and aggression are not okay, but there is no understanding or acknowledgement of what causes these incidences in autistic children to begin with. It just links autism to aggression and tantrums as if autistics fly off the handle for no reason whatsoever, and we know that’s not true.

Think about the Sandy Hook shooting. How many people, in the aftermath, might have gone running off to Wikipedia to find out more about autism and saw that? Looks pretty stigmatizing to me.

But the thing is, I’m not the one who made that meme. The person who did make it is more than welcome to do a write up on it and send it to Autistic Hedgehog if they’d like, but that’s all I care to stomach of the article myself.

Posted 3 years ago

10 notes

autism, actually autistic, actuallyautistic, autism spectrum disorder, ableism, Wikipedia, Wiki,

Any advice on how to talk to allistic/NT friends who have suddenly decided that they have autism, just because "some of the symptoms fit", but actually have no clue what it's like to live as an autistic person? A few people in my life are really starting to frustrate and offend me, and I am not sure how to explain things to them in a way that they'll understand and respond appropriately to. Maybe some other followers have experience/tips?

pedanticmonster

Oh boy.

This sounds like the sort of thing that won’t prove easy, especially if they’re not being entirely serious about it. I don’t know, do any of them seem to have real worries about it, or is it all just “Sometimes I act like X, I must totally be autistic, lol”? The former is something that may take some sensitivity to navigate; the latter will pit you up against a bunch of privileged people who don’t get that this is life to you, that you can’t laugh about it and then not have to deal with it later.

This is not one of the particular problems I’ve had with allistic/NT friends, so I’m going to ask my followers here for some help. Please send answers directly to my inbox so I can be absolutely sure to get them.

Posted 3 years ago

2 notes

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