Autistic Auntie to All and Crazy Cat Mom @autistic-af - Tumblr Blog

Important Information About This Blog

AKA: the pinned post

1 - Asks

Due to high volume of messages at any given time, my inbox may be open or closed randomly and without notice. It all depends on level of messages and my mental health.

Check my description to see the status if you're unsure.

Asks are tagged #auntie replies (as of March '24)

2 - This is all personal opinion

I am not an expert. I just wish to help people, create a safe and loving environment, and give advice to the best of my ability.

I am constantly learning, and I am highly fallible. I look to lovingly teach and I ask the same so that we can grow together.

3 - Zero tolerance for ableism

Self-explanatory. This is a safe space for genuine and honest questions. But bullying or hate is just blocked.

4 - Tags

Filter #autistic-af spins to filter my special interest content, which sometimes I binge on.

Cat posts also are tagged with #cat posts, #cats, # cats of Tumblr, #my cats

Asks are tagged #auntie replies

5 - About Me

Professionally diagnosed autistic, inattentive type ADHD, and dyscalculia

Age: 40+ but feel somewhere between 5 and 80 depending on the day.

Location: Australia

Cat mom of Luna, Tic-Tac and Nedjem (feel free to ask to see pictures if you need a cheer up)

Married 22 years and counting

Main Special interests: Cemeteries/graveyards, graveyard symbology, space including cosmology, most sciences, medical history, most morbid or horror related topics

Other Special Interests: cats, The Phantom of the Opera, lost shipping expeditions and ship wrecks, linguistics especially the English language.

I am atheist and a skeptic. I answer most asks with a very analytical mind. Please be aware of this.

Favourite colour: dark blue or dark purple

Favourite animal: alpacas

#pinned post #important blog info

jinglebunns

anyways happy pride this art is old but the bunnies are still and always will be gay

#pastel art #pride

thefrogsarequeerandsoami

Question brought to you by: Dumb ignorant people on the internet.

Is ADHD disabling/a disability?

Yes

No

Remaining time: 5 days 22 hours

#unbelievably yes

I have a few questions.

#nsfw #kinda?#I'll play it safe

autistic-af

How do I explain to my mom (who is a psychologist with a PHD) that Gemini AI isn't a good diagnostic tool for telling if she's autistic or not?

Note: I am not against self diagnosis. I just don't think AI can do that.

AI 100% cannot do it because it's not intelligence. It's a regurgitation machine that has been trained by humans to be a sycophant. It's a chatbot. Nothing more.

It's been shown to lie, make up facts, blackmail, encourage suicide, and will appease to the user no matter the context. AI cannot read between lines, ask follow up questions with appropriate guidelines etc.

While AI chatbots can deliver quick answers, their context-blind accuracy may mislead patients in ways that could be dangerous

canislupus-13

So umm... Anon off anon here: she has since started using it for risk analysis for work. Her job is uhh pretty important? Like she's the boss of psychologists in her court and they do stuff like ensuring a divorce isn't going to be detrimental to the children and other such things.

So uhh if anyone has any articles from highly reputable sources about AI hallucinations and other things I would love some help here.

I will probably send her the one about health advice as well if that's ever important though.

autistic-af

😬😬

I am very concerned by that!!!! I'll see what me or followers can find.

The above article is Duke University, but I'll check for the other topics.

autistic-af

A Database of law cases that have had AI hallucinations cause issues:

The most comprehensive database of AI hallucination cases in law: legal decisions from courts worldwide, searchable by country, party, AI to

A legal guide to AI use:

Using AI carries both responsibilities and risks for legal professionals. Understand how generative AI works, what it does and does not do w

The American Bar Association:

Understand six major AI legal issues impacting today's law firms, including data privacy, output bias, and job displacement.

autistic-af

How do I explain to my mom (who is a psychologist with a PHD) that Gemini AI isn't a good diagnostic tool for telling if she's autistic or not?

Note: I am not against self diagnosis. I just don't think AI can do that.

AI 100% cannot do it because it's not intelligence. It's a regurgitation machine that has been trained by humans to be a sycophant. It's a chatbot. Nothing more.

It's been shown to lie, make up facts, blackmail, encourage suicide, and will appease to the user no matter the context. AI cannot read between lines, ask follow up questions with appropriate guidelines etc.

While AI chatbots can deliver quick answers, their context-blind accuracy may mislead patients in ways that could be dangerous

canislupus-13

So umm... Anon off anon here: she has since started using it for risk analysis for work. Her job is uhh pretty important? Like she's the boss of psychologists in her court and they do stuff like ensuring a divorce isn't going to be detrimental to the children and other such things.

So uhh if anyone has any articles from highly reputable sources about AI hallucinations and other things I would love some help here.

I will probably send her the one about health advice as well if that's ever important though.

autistic-af

😬😬

I am very concerned by that!!!! I'll see what me or followers can find.

The above article is Duke University, but I'll check for the other topics.

How do I explain to my mom (who is a psychologist with a PHD) that Gemini AI isn't a good diagnostic tool for telling if she's autistic or not?

Note: I am not against self diagnosis. I just don't think AI can do that.

AI 100% cannot do it because it's not intelligence. It's a regurgitation machine that has been trained by humans to be a sycophant. It's a chatbot. Nothing more.

It's been shown to lie, make up facts, blackmail, encourage suicide, and will appease to the user no matter the context. AI cannot read between lines, ask follow up questions with appropriate guidelines etc.

While AI chatbots can deliver quick answers, their context-blind accuracy may mislead patients in ways that could be dangerous

I apologise if this is personal, but do you think you’d ever want to have kids one day?

Nopers! I'm also a bit beyond that time of my life. It's still possible to get pregnant, but I'd be in my 60s before they left home. Hubby and I decided years ago to not have kids.

Girl! Please send the link for your picrew thingie. 🙏

Here you go:

This is my second Picrew! Feel free to use it as an icon on any social media. Please do not use it as an NFT or for any profit. All re

Hi! I know you've posted metal recs before. I was wondering if you had any for specifically metal not in English and/or from non-European/US bands. I have some like Bloodywood, Neon Oni, and Calva Louise which I love, but I'm looking for more!

Oh, I got your back:

The Hu - Mongolian

Shepherd's Reign - Samoan

Babymetal - Japanese

Dir En Grey - Japanese

Grima - Russian

Cthonic - Chinese

Cemican - Spanish/Nahuatl

Alien Weaponry - Māori

These are all different types of metal from black to groove.

Congratulations! Your Nedjem 2.0™ is here!

#cats!#cats of tumblr #cats #cute cats #cat post #my cats

autie-j

Some ideas I'm considering for my next read when I finish all of Sherlock Holmes

Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde

Agatha Christie's Poirot novels

Alice In Wonderland

Jurassic Park

Idk War of the Worlds maybe

autistic-af

All great reads, tbh.

Jurassic Park is a personal favourite but the characters are very different from the movie in terms of personality, especially Hammond.

War of the Worlds is an early sci fi masterpiece and I also recommend The Time Machine.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is short but an excellent piece of literature.

Poirot is just fun.

Alice in Wonderland is a meh from me, but only because I've lived through the oversaturation of it and Carroll was such a creep (understatement of the century). But I do love The Hunting of the Snark

May I also recommend:

The Day of the Triffids

Frankenstein

Edgar Allan Poe

A Confederacy of Dunces

Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist, Bleak House, Little Dorrit etc)

The Turning of the Screw

The Yellow Wallpaper

That's just random ones! So many good old literature pieces!

Is it possible to be "on the spectrum" and not be autistic? I'm pretty sure whenever people say that phrase, they're talking about ASD, aka autism.

I recently came across two people who seemed to be saying that the Autism Spectrum included things other than autism (well one actually did say that adhd was a part of autism spectrum and I was like no???).

So I'm checking here, too, to see if anyone else has delt with this or things have changed

The only people on the Autism Spectrum are autistics. It's not the "Neurodiversity Spectrum". It's the Autism Spectrum. (Sorry for the grumpy tone. I'm annoyed at people who say this. Not at you, Nonny! ❤️)

ADHD is NOT a form of autism. It is not Autism Lite™.

And lastly, the autism spectrum is not a line. It's a circle of traits that autistics experience. A lot of those experiences are human experiences just turned up to 11.

This thought of "everyone is a little bit autistic" also seeks to discredit actual autistics. "Well, everyone is a little bit autistic. Therefore, you're not disabled/you just need to push through it/you're not actually experiencing anything."

And this is a major reason why the "autism isn't a disability" crowd are so fucking dangerous. Because it is a disability and just because you have 12 things in place so that you can successfully go to the shops does not make it less of a disability. It makes you a disabled person with 12 failsafes in place to do 1 thing that should be easy for a non-disabled person.

Reframe your understanding of the autism spectrum. Challenge the linear scale and discover a more accurate and inclusive perspective.

#actuallyautistic

I don’t have a question but I just have to say thank you so much for all the advice you’ve given everyone over the years and how hard to try to genuinely help those affected with this condition. You are a genuinely good hearted person and have given me better advice than I think any therapist I’ve ever seen. Hope you’re having a great day! 😊

Oh my goodness, I needed this today!! Thank you and you're beyond welcome!!

during my autism assessment, the evaluators kept telling me people who got diagnosed with autism usually already had family members who had been diagnosed with autism, presumably as a way to keep my hopes down. in reality i was always just like “okay and? someone has to be the first”. i mean do they realize that in order to be a second diagnosis in a family there needs to be a first one? what kind of rule of thumb is that?

There is a type of autism that can just spontaneously occur known as de novo autism. This is through new genetic mutations of the sperm or egg, rather than inherited genes from the DNA.

This is also often the type of autism they're talking about when they talk about "environmental factors" such as smoking, weight etc when you're reading anything about causes of autism, because they do not know the reasons those cells mutate, or even why the inherited genes turn on or off.

So, technically you're right. Around 80% of people with autism have it due to inherited genes.

However, I think they're wrong in saying the parent would be diagnosed. My dad is autistic as fuuuuuuuuuck and is undiagnosed.

But it is more likely that it's inherited (diagnosed or not).

#auntie replies

Hello!! I have 2 cats, they're brother and sister and they love each other very much. They're super bonded and spend almost all their time together.

Unfortunately, the brother started having seizures out of nowhere a few months ago. The vet thinks he's epileptic and it just developed later in life (they're 7 years old). He used to be a chubby boy who loved food. Now he's skinny and having trouble eating.

He's staying at the vet long term. She says he gets aggressive when having seizures (he has never scratched or bitten someone before, he used to be very docile), his recovery will take a long time and overall he's not the same cat anymore. He's not fully out of death's door yet. But they're trying everything they can.

I wonder what can I do for his sister? She's never been without him. What if he dies? How can I make her happy again and make her feel safe and not lonely? I'm scared she'll get ill as well just from being without him, like a lonely guinea pig :(

Hi, Nonny. I know this is so so difficult. Here are some tips to help, but just remember no matter what you do it's going to be a long journey.

Routine more than ever. Cats feel safe with routine including feeding, playtime etc

Extra playtime. Even if she doesn't react and just watches the toy, that's still triggering the hunter part of the brain.

Spend extra time with the at home cat, including cuddling, grooming etc

Try pheromone therapy such as Feliway.

Do not wash any of the blankets etc that contain the other cats scent. Don't move any cat territory either, such as cat trees, beds etc

Keep things as calm as possible. Cats are easily stressed, so reduce loud noises, sudden movements etc

Monitor her for signs of depression such as not eating, lethargy etc. Monitor water intake and litter box usage.

If the other cat dies, I highly recommend trying to bring him home to let her smell him. I know it sounds morbid, but letting her spend some time with him will help her understand what has happened.

If he does die, the above is the best tips for that as well.

If he comes home (and I really hope he does) do try to keep them separated for a few days. She won't recognise his scent (he'll smell like other humans and like the vet) and that can cause aggression. Scent swap for a few days, and rub her blankets over him to transfer her scent onto him.

#cat death #animal death #sick animal #auntie replies

Different anon than the skill regression in autistic burnout but I have a similar question in regards to burnout. Do you know anything or have data on a person's ability to mask being negatively impacted by prolonged burnout? I can't seem to mask as well as I used to at work and it is causing a lot of trouble

Difficulty masking is actually one of the top signs of autistic burnout (in those that can mask). Don't forget, masking takes up a LOT of mental energy. When you're in burnout, that's one of the first things to go as your brain works to regulate.

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Autistic burnout is chronic exhaustion, skill loss, and sensory overload. Dr Neff explores how Autistic burnout differs from workplace stres

An association between camouflaging and autistic burnout has been described qualitatively by autistic people but there have been limitations

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

#auntie replies

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