Autistic with a service dog in training

Autistic, Introvert, Autism Advocate, Parelli student, and vaulter. I support neurodiversity and I blog at https://autisticandawesomeblog.wordpress.com/  I also write on the Mighty. My favorite stims are hand flapping, rocking, hand shaking, finger twiddling in front of eyes, and fidgeting with stim toys. I also love weighted things, because they feel so good. I also like reading, drawing, vaulting, working with horses, writing, and working with dogs. I have a border collie lab mix named "Nikki" that I am training to be a service dog. She is a great dog, and I love her so much!

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Ableism, "But you don't look sick!"

Ableism, “But you don’t look sick!”

Oh how many times I have heard this, “but you don’t look anxious.” or “What’s wrong with you?” obviously since I have a service dog something is “wrong” with me. I try not to complain about my symptoms with family around, the tension, the tingling, the tightness in my chest, the fluctuating heart rate, and other symptoms that can make me feel really bad. As I lay down from my heart acting up I…

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Blessings in Disguise, disability and a romantic relationship

The first day I met him was in a special needs/disability church group. He seemed nice, and so I friended him on Facebook. 

We started out with small conversations on messenger. 

Slowly yet surely we evolved to video chatting. Our first date was at the movie “a dogs way home”, I enjoyed the movie throughly and it was a great date ❤️.

Slowly I began to have feelings for him,…

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Why labeling autistic people is so damaging

Why labeling autistic people is so damaging

I’ve seen the different kinds of autism labeling. “Autistic people are egocentric and it makes it difficult for friends and family to be around them”, “High functioning”, “Low functioning”, “selfish”, “Intellectual disability”, “Repetitive behavior”, “Restricted interests”, etc. So you may be wondering, what is so damaging about these labels? Here are the reasons why.

It puts down autistic…

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The Painful truth about being an autistic adult.

The Painful truth about being an autistic adult.

The painful truth about being an autistic adult is that I struggle,

Others don’t understand how much I struggle, if I’m having a meltdown, it is considered to be a “Tantrum”, “Stop crying!”, “You can help it!” I plead with them “Please, just let me have space!” but I’m not allowed to leave the situation because it’s considered “Rude” and “You need to stay till the end”. Once I’m allowed…

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Emotional Memories and the People connected to it

Emotional Memories and the People connected to it

It all started simple enough. I said “I am autistic” to someone who I thought I could trust. Everything started out fine, we all got along, then after a while things started to go downhill. When I rocked in my chair because stimming feels good and helped me cope with my anxiety before I got my autism assistance dog, She said to me “Do we need to go to a mental hospital”, I didn’t understand a…

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Service dog training: It's harder than I thought it would be.

Service dog training: It’s harder than I thought it would be.

Sorry I haven’t written in a while. Here goes nothing…. Service dog training, it seems easy right? You train the dog, take them out into public, and they slowly grow into a good service dog. WRONG. It’s really hard, harder than I ever imagined. There will always be problems with public access such as people not knowing the laws under the ADA, things such as “It will be too long of a car ride” or…

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Updates, and I'm on Instagram now!

Updates, and I’m on Instagram now!

Hi everyone, sorry it has been a looooonnnng time since I have posted on here. But, I am going to update you all on Nikki. Nikki has been doing great with her training, she has been learning many tasks and is super smart. I mean she can learn a task in two days, I think it’s the border collie in her, lol. I am now off of medication (yay!) I’m going to see how well I can without being on it for a…

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Went shopping the other day and got some stuff. I found this awesome Pegasus book at half price books, and a fidget spinner at target. I also got a bone for Nikki at Walmart too, because she needs something to chew on. I’m also making a bandana for Nikki to wear. ❤️

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My struggle with unspecified anxiety disorder.

My struggle with unspecified anxiety disorder.

A few weeks ago I was diagnosed with unspecified anxiety disorder. The reason that I was diagnosed with this disorder is because my anxiety is very complicated. I have anxiety in social situations, Obsessive- compulsive like behaviors (worry, constant checking, routines, etc.), and I have panic attacks. I did not fit into the criteria for any anxiety disorder, so I was diagnosed with…

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First day of block on command and sit on command with hand signal'

Woop woop! Nikki did block on command today once and a very nice sit on command with a hand signal! So proud of my sweet girl!!

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Please don’t “Tease” me or joke about me being Autistic.

Please don’t “Tease” me or joke about me being Autistic.

Sometimes I get very frustrated because people tease me about being Autistic. I’ve had good friends that I think unintentionally teased me and hurt my feelings, because they don’t know what it is like to be autistic. I’ve heard my fair share of comments that make me feel upset. The best thing to do is to try to remember, we can’t control our reactions to certain things. A sudden loud sound can…

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The stigma surrounding Autism and mental illness.

The stigma surrounding Autism and mental illness.

“Just ignore it, don’t complain, grow up, everybody has that.” things that I have heard to many times. As an Autistic individual with anxiety, I find the stigma around Autism and mental illness to be very frustrating. I sometimes wish I could magically put the other person in my shoes, so that they could at least experience some of my difficulties such as auditory sensitivity, panic attacks,…

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All about Nikki

breed: borador (border collie/lab mix)

training to be a SD- currently a SDit

what she loves: her tennis ball, tug toy, food, walks, and kids. 

Color: Dark black

age: around 14 months?

Nickname: Nikita

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This hoop is absolutely mesmorizing and music is quiet calming

⚠!!FLASHING LIGHTS!!⚠

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What You Say About Mental Illness vs What You Actually Mean.

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My new service dog in training.

My new service dog in training.

My new service dog in training.   On July the 8th 2017, I got my first dog. I adopted a border collie/lab mix named “Nikki”. That day was so exciting!   We are in the car. I am rocking back and forth because I am so excited, I am going to meet Nikki! This is soooo exciting! After waiting for what seemed like eternity to get to our destination, we finally pulled into the parking lot. I see a small…

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