The Rainbow Goddess

Random assortment of stuff that strikes me as interesting or important. I write about autism, diabetes and disability stuff. Sometimes I add pictures from TV shows or movies I like, including Doctor Who, Hawaii Five-0, White Collar and Suits, and the Marvel and DC Universes.

[the-bright-path-deactivated2021]

Learning you have ADHD later in life is just

every 5 minutes

[rainbow-goddess]

Do We Really Need Autism Awareness?

April is supposed to be autism awareness month (though only in the U.S., but everyone assumes it's worldwide, just like every sports championship in the U.S. becomes "world championship.")

Isn't everyone already aware of autism? Do we need an entire month to be aware of autism? I don't think so.

What people actually need to be aware of probably won't get a lot of attention during autism awareness month. This includes:

-- The life expectancy for autistic people is 35 years. This is for a combination of reasons: suicide; murder by parents and caregivers; medical neglect; poverty; and autistic BIPOC are murdered by police because autistic behavior/body language is seen as suspicious.

 -- Many, many autistic people are are transgender, non-binary and/or gender non-conforming. 

-- Autistic people who don't fit the stereotype of white boys are much less likely to be diagnosed. I was actually told by a psychologist who specializes in autistic children that girls aren't autistic, period.

-- Autistic people who are not diagnosed in childhood find it almost impossible to get a diagnosis in adulthood. It costs something like $3,000.-- Autistic people face discrimination in the job market all the time. The unemployment rate among autistic adults is 86 percent.

-- ABA therapy is gay conversion therapy under a different name. Gay conversion therapy for minors is outlawed in Canada. ABA for children is not only legal but is practised in schools all over the country.

-- Autism $peaks in the United States has funded anti-vaccine studies and has publicly supported parents who murder their autistic children. 

-- Light it Up Blue is based on the assumption that only boys are autistic. 

-- The idea behind the puzzle piece symbol is that autistic people are a puzzle to be solved. Many autistic people don't like being represented by the puzzle piece.

[rainbow-goddess]

Flapping

I used to think I didn’t flap. I do, though. I just flap with my fingers, not my whole hands. I often flap when listening to music that I like. I will flap in time with the music. I flap when I’m stressed. I flap when I’m happy. A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Purple Store in Seattle and I literally couldn’t stop happy flapping. I walked around the store chanting to myself: “Purple, purple, purple” while flapping all over the place. (In case you haven’t already guessed, purple is my favourite colour by several orders of magnitude.) The great thing was, nobody seemed to think it was weird for me to wander around the store chanting and flapping.

Later that day, my partner and I went on the Seattle Great Wheel. Now, I normally hate heights and hate Ferris wheels, but on this wheel, all the seats were completely enclosed like gondolas, so I decided to risk it. I flapped a lot while on the wheel, but I also got some good pictures of the view. In fact, my partner has theorized that taking pictures is another form of stim/sooth for me -- that I calm myself down by taking pictures. So I flapped AND I took pictures to calm myself.

[cynamonowo]

please reblog

anyway i’m in the worst situation ever - father (abusive piece of shit who doesn’t refrain from violence and emotional manipulation) kicked me out and refused to ever see me again, or help whatsoever, right now i’m heading to a shelter for abused woman, but can only stay there for the night. i have no place to live as of now, and i’m unsure if i’ll be able to keep my job. so - please help. i hate asking for help, but i need it more than ever.

how can you help? donations to my kofi (https://ko-fi.com/A655IW0) or paypal ([email protected]), every penny counts, especially considering the exchange rate. other than that - positive messages. telling i’m not a bad person, that i deserve better, that it’s gonna be okay. just. please. i’m suicidal, have self-harmed, can’t stop crying and doubting everything that has happened so far. please. please help me. please. i can’t do this anymore.i don’t know where to go. please

[malykotek]

Hey please help my love if you can, they’re in a dire situation right now and any help is appreciated. If you can’t help financially, at least please help us by reblogging this post, so maybe the next person will be able to help them. Thank you.

[gokuma]

SIGNAL BOOST

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

BOOST!

[rainbow-goddess]

Stop Making Disabled People Justify Their Needs

If a disabled person says they NEED a plastic straw, don't start asking: "But why can't you use...." (A paper straw, a reusable straw, a biodegradable straw, a metal straw, a glass straw, etc.) Each and every disabled person is different and each and every disabled person who needs a plastic straw has their own reasons for needing a plastic straw.  Don't force them to share private details of their disability in order to justify in your head that they need a plastic straw. What works for Annie Disabled Person may not work for Andrew Disabled Person. If Tommy Disabled Person can use a reusable straw, that doesn't mean Tina Disabled Person is able to use a reusable straw.

The same goes for mobility aids, service dogs, eyeglasses,hearing aids and all other things that disabled people use. Stop making disabled people explain every single highly personal detail of their medical condition in order to justify using something they need simply because you see it as wasteful or environmentally unfriendly or an unnecessary expense or a luxury or whatever you’re using to justify your own ableism.

[fickle0glass-deactivated2018120]

Help for my Struggling Family

The end game here is to take a series of unfortunate events and sock them in the metaphorical you know what-ies.

We had money in savings, a roof over our head, and food on the table. You can’t ask for much else.

BUT then the proverbial archrival of the average person, life, grabbed on with two hands and bestowed financial woes of biblical proportions. Incident after incident, unexpected expense after unexpected expense, new tires, sick kiddo, vet visits (thank you stupid fox tails), leaking sinks, leaking pipes, prescriptions… Our savings dwindled and a small chunk of debt grew and grew and grew and… You get the idea. 

The debt and pending bills hover over us to the tune of, “You’re never going to get caught up again.” You may be familiar with the forlorn melodies of that classic.

The charitable nature if the Tumblr community is legendary, so, we’re giving a try. Please reblog, please help if you can. We’re just regular people that are taking our turn on the struggle bus and would be unbelievably grateful for anything/anyone that can throw us a lifeline. The Paypal link is at the very bottom as well as the YouCaring link. ⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬⏬

Anything, even the smallest donations can help! Thank you so much again from the bottom of our hearts.

paypal.me/fickleglass

https://www.youcaring.com/fickleglass-1073547?utm_campaign=buttonshare&utm_medium=url&utm_source=copy&utm_content=cf_cp_01

[fickle0glass-deactivated2018120]

I’ve come to realize that maybe the lack of details is weird compared to other posts… I just didn’t feel comfortable laying it all out there in a public post if that makes any sense at all. If you have questions, if you’re curious about what’s going on, please message me. I’m open to talk about it, I just didn’t want/didn’t think I would need to put it in the original post.

[fickle0glass-deactivated2018120]

Thank you so much for those that have reblogged so far! Honestly, I can’t express how much I appreciate it. As each day passes we get more and more desperate so I’m going to keep reaching out, keep posting, and keep staying positive. 🖤

[fickle0glass-deactivated2018120]

*March 29, 2018 Update*

I posted a massive addition to my YouCaring description as well as some pictures that I hope help give this cause some validity. Thank you so much again to everyone who has reblogged or donated. There are no words for my gratitude. 🖤🖤🖤

[rainbow-goddess]

We Don’t Need An Autism Awareness Month

April is supposed to be Autism Awareness Month. April 2 is World Autism Awareness Day. I suspect that almost everyone knows that autism exists. If you know that autism exists, then you’re aware, and we can shut this whole thing down and go home.

We don’t need an entire month to make people aware of autism. What we need is to make people aware of autistic people. Autistic people get kind of lost among the messages of tragedy and heartbreak spread by parents during Autism Awareness Month, especially those of us who are no longer children. April is full of “children with autism this” “children with autism that” “mom of child with autism shares her heartbreak” “dad of child with autism shows video of child with autism having a meltdown.”

We very seldom hear of autistic adults during Autism Awareness Month. I guess our existence isn’t sad enough.

Many actually autistic adults are trying to change April to Autism Acceptance Month. However, I would like to keep the “awareness” title but put a different spin on it.

We need awareness that autistic kids grow up to be autistic adults. We need awareness of what autistic people want and need. We need awareness that we don’t want to be cured or fixed. We need awareness that autistic women and girls exist and that autistic women and girls may have different needs from autistic men and boys. We need awareness that autistic people don’t fit into conveniently labelled “high” and “low” functioning groups and that functioning labels are offensive and unnecessary. We need awareness of the fact that it’s extremely hard to get a diagnosis as an adult, and that even if you do get a diagnosis, there are probably no services available to you.

[liv-abetic]

My personal take on this meme

[sweetandsavageautistic]

Yo, who wants to help get something going on Twitter/online?

Since April is quickly approaching, we need to prepare.

Let’s get #EvenWithAwareness and #AutismAcceptance and #AcceptanceNotAwareness trending and explain why Autism Awareness isn’t working.

Example:

#EvenWithAwareness the media still desexualizes us. #AutismAcceptance #AcceptanceNotAwareness

[petapeta]

[rainbow-goddess]

In today’s class, our subject is “How to Catch the Red Dot,” followed by, “Running around at 3 a.m. for no reason.”

[rainbow-goddess]

Me, the Autism Queen: Everything the light touches is our kingdom.

Autistic Princes/Princesses/Royals: What are those shadowy parts over there?

Me: Eugenics rhetorics, hate groups, Autism Parents, and Anti-vaxxers. You must never go there.

[rainbow-goddess]

What It’s Really Like to Live With Type 1 Diabetes

People who don’t have type 1 diabetes or have a loved one with type 1 probably don’t realize all the work that goes into day-to-day life with diabetes. Diabetes rules every moment of every day, regardless of what you are doing or thinking about at that moment.

First thing I do when I wake up in the morning: Test my blood sugar. Last thing I do before I go to bed at night: Test my blood sugar. Before I eat a meal: Test my blood sugar. Before I leave the house to go walk to the store: Test my blood sugar. Before an intimate moment with the one I love: Test my blood sugar.

Wake up in the morning and blood sugar’s high? Guess I’m not eating breakfast right away. I have to take insulin as a correction. I also have to calculate how the dawn phenomenon is going to affect my blood sugar. The dawn phenomenon is what happens when your liver releases stored-up sugar when you get out of bed in the morning. For people who don’t have diabetes, it’s supposed to give you an energy boost to start your day. For those of us who do have diabetes, it’s a pain in the butt.

Wake up in the morning and blood sugar is low? I grab a glass and down some of the bottle of Coke I keep next to my bed for emergencies, and then I eat breakfast. If my blood sugar hasn’t gone up enough when I start breakfast, then my insulin pump won’t deliver any insulin to me, and I have to remember to check again in about half an hour and then take the insulin, or my blood sugar will be in the double digits before long. The HIGH double digits.

Testing blood sugar before I go to bed. If it’s low, then I have to treat the low and stay awake for at least half an hour afterwards. Since I can’t afford a CGM, I can’t tell whether my blood sugar is on its way up, in which case I don’t have to worry, or is still going down, in which case I have to stay awake longer.

If my blood sugar is high before I go to bed, I have to take a correction dose of insulin, but then I’m going to worry that I’m taking too much and my blood sugar is going to crash in the middle of the night.

Regardless of whether my blood sugar is high, low or normal when I go to bed, I’m still going to test it if I happen to wake up during the night.

Testing before meals. Well, that’s normal. However, again, if my blood sugar is high, that means I have to give up eating for the next hour or so till my blood sugar comes down. If I have only a limited time for a meal (say it’s my lunch break at work) and my choice is either eat then or not at all, then I’ll probably take the risk and eat. But even after I take my insulin bolus my blood sugar will be high for the next several hours and I may need to take an extra correction dose at some point.

Leaving the house to go to the store. The supermarket is only a ten-minute walk away, but if my blood sugar is below about 6 mmol/l, I can’t take the risk of hypoglycemia. I’ll have to eat a snack or drink some pop or juice and then wait the obligatory half hour until it’s up high enough that the walk won’t make it crash. If my blood sugar is over 14 mmol/l or so, I can’t take the walk then either, because after a certain point, blood sugar gets higher with exercise. This is because the body doesn’t have enough insulin to use that sugar for energy, so it will release that sugar that’s stored up in the liver.

Intimacy. Sex is exercise. Same rules apply as to any other form of exercise. Blood sugar will go down (or up if it’s already too high for exercise.) So yes, I do keep snacks and my BG meter/insulin pump controller next to the bed during those intimate moments!

[rainbow-goddess]

Why is There so Much Violent Language Used in Relation to Autism?

Why is there so much violent language used when talking about autism? “Defeat autism” “Combat autism” “Fight autism” Why is there so little “Help Autism Now” “Support Autistics Now”? I don’t see any charities or groups proclaiming “Combat” or “Fight” other neurological differences. There’s no “Defeat Down Syndrome Now” or “Combat Angelman Syndrome” group. What is about autism that incites so much violent imagery and language?

[rainbow-goddess]

Being Autistic is Like Being an Alien

Being autistic is kind of like being an alien in a science fiction TV show or movie, especially ones in which there’s only one or two alien characters and everyone else is human. Take Spock in Star Trek: The Original Series or Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Everybody claims to like them and respect their abilities, but the humans are constantly trying to make Spock express human emotions and laughing at Data when he doesn’t understand something that humans do. There’s a reason many autistic people identify with Spock and Data.

In the very first episode of Star Trek:TNG, Riker calls Data “Pinocchio.” That’s because Data literally believes that being human is better than being an android, even though he is superior to humans in every way except when it comes to feelings and emotions, the same way that autistic people are taught that being neurotypical is superior to being autistic, and autism “experts” go on and on about how being autistic means that we lack empathy, that we don’t FEEL the same as our non-autistic peers.

In the Star Trek:TOS episode “The Naked Time,” Spock is shown being extremely upset that he has never told his mother that he loves her, because Vulcans don’t do that sort of thing, while humans do. When parents talk about their autistic children, they will often despair that “My child will never be able to tell me that he loves me!”

Allistic people prefer it when autistic people learn how to act more like “normal” people. Most autism treatments are geared towards making autistic people pass for "normal” -- that is, neurotypical. When Spock dies in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Kirk praises him for being “human”, because to him, obviously, being human is the ultimate thing to aspire to -- to Kirk, being human is like being “normal” is to non-autistic people.

In Star Trek:Generations, Data gets an emotion chip installed in his positronic brain. He does this because he wants to be able to feel emotion the same way that humans do. In a case of life imitating science fiction, the autistic author John Elder Robison underwent an experimental brain treatment to increase his ability to feel what other people feel, in an effort to become more neurotypical and increase his ability to make friends.

Star Trek, and science fiction in general, is supposed to be about exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new life and new civilizations. But heaven forbid that those new worlds and lives aren’t the same as neurotypical Earth life.

[bob-belcher]

[rainbow-goddess]

A note to those who are not autistic.

People who are not autistic do not get to explain autism to autistic people. You do not get to say “you’ll understand when you have a child with autism.” You do not get to tell me what to call myself, what my identity is or what defines me.

[rainbow-goddess]

Why “Just Go Get a Job” Isn’t the Answer to Poverty.

This is what it’s like when a poor person needs help. For “Society” feel free to substitute “government” “the social services system” “charities” etc. This isn’t aimed at any one particular government or organization. It’s a problem for poor people in many different cities, countries, provinces and states.

Poor person: I need help. Society: Go get a job, you loser. Poor person: Can I get some help with bus fare so I can go look for a job? Society: You don't need bus fare. Stay home and do a job search on the Internet. Poor person: In that case, can I have help paying for an Internet connection? Society: You don't need an Internet connection at home. You'll just go on Facebook instead of looking for a job. Go use the Internet at the library. Poor person: Can I have bus fare to go to the library, then? Society: No. You're probably fat from spending all your time on the couch eating your welfare-subsidized bon bons. Walk to the library. Poor person: Well, actually, I have this disability that makes it hard to walk. Society: You're not REALLY disabled. You're just looking for sympathy. Person: I really am disabled. Society: Get a note from your doctor, then. Person: Can I have bus fare to go to the doctor's office? Society: No. Poor person: How do I find a job when I don't have an internet connection and can't go to the library without bus fare? Society: Use the phone. Poor person: Can I have some help paying my phone bill, then? Society: No. The money you get from welfare is supposed to cover your rent, phone and electricity. Poor person: Welfare barely even covers my rent. Society: Find a cheaper place to live. Poor person: But I need a phone or the Internet to look for a new place to live. Society: You should have thought about that before you became poor.