#medium high support needs

[zebulontheplanet]

I don’t think people understand how it is to have been behind on EVERY milestone. Learning how to walk? Late. Learning to read? Late. Learning to use the bathroom independently? Late. Every single milestone was late.

And when you have this, people ask questions. People bully you. Why can’t you shower by yourself at 9,10,15,20? Why can’t you brush your teeth independently and frequently? Why can’t you tie your shoes? Why can’t you do math? Why can’t you do this, or that.

And then there’s the people on social media. “Well I was forced to.” “Well I didn’t have a choice” and that’s understandable and completely valid, but there are people that no matter how much you force them, or neglect them so they “figure it out” they won’t “figure it out”. They’ll die. They’ll starve. They’ll not bathe and be dirty.

Higher support needs people don’t just “figure it out” our brains are wired differently. Our brains don’t get that we HAVE to do these things just to survive. So we don’t. And that sucks.

It’s disheartening to constantly hear people say “well i was forced to” because so was I!! I was forced to do things too! I was neglected too! And guess what? I still didn’t do those things. I STILL wasn’t able to meet those milestones.

The big one that I see is “well I’m forced to talk.” And I get that, but me, a person that’s nonverbal, can’t be forced to talk. No matter if I’m neglected, no matter if my device is taken away or I have no way of communication. I still wouldn’t be able to talk. I CANNOT force myself to talk. Get that through your heads. This is my reality, and although yours sucked there are still some people who cannot do things, and saying that they could if they were “forced” is invalidating of them.

[turtley-ausome]

Got my AAC device in the mail yesterday same week me speech therapist requested it! I am so so happy and exited about it!

[itsharkx]

in a very long verbal shutdown rn but I've added stuffs to my aac

alterhuman stuff for fun and added some stuff in house furniture things

then I've reamped my pain stuff which i have been meaning to do for months.... inspiration of how i set this out is from @/dustyaacsymbols

probably a big post explaining mostly exciting things coming soon but my brain is really struggling to process things rn

[thousandyearphantombunker]

i sometimes hate autism awareness/advocacy bullshit. Like I love talking about people like Temple Grandin and Steve Siberman and so many others but dear God stop diagnosing random fuckers in history with autism and stop erasing low functioning people and for the love of fuck stop acting like every autistic person has savant syndrome and that the reason why every successful person with autism was successful was a result of them being treated like a normal neurotypical person.

Like I'm sorry we can't diagnose Mozart with autism. We can't act like savant syndrome is super common and like autism is a superpower for everyone. We can't act as if tough love and 'not coddling' children helps them develop the skills needed to be successful. Autism is a developmental disability. It impairs a lot of people's cognitive abilities and in many people's cases they don't have autism AND an intellectual disability (though having a separate disorder especially other developmental disabilities and intellectual disabilities is very common) they just have autism and it's impairing them. And like most people with intellectual and developmental disabilities we need to be actively taught these skills cause we cannot develop them the way neurotypical children do. That's not coddling. That's being a good parent/caregiver! A good portion of autistic people (yes that includes those with very low support needs) often need to be taught this stuff instead of just being expected to learn. No tough love will help some of us- infact some of us would die. We need to stop othering developmental disabilities and stop acting like people who are visibly intellectually impaired just haven't internalized enough shame. We need to really look at why we associate certain traits with disabilities and if those traits are even actually that bad-and we need to stop acting like people with these disabilities are symbols of anti intellectualism (we aren't. If anything we tend to get hurt pretty badly by that movement). The sheer stigma surrounding this side of autism is astonishingly bad.

There are actual autistic people that we know definitely had autism that were greatly successful. Please stop armchair diagnosing people when we definitely don't have the information needed to say they likely had autism. Please there are so many people we know for a fact have autism and they are really cool scientists and musicians. Id rather acknowledge those people.

[only-knives]

very tired of low high support need "binary" ... why everyone turn everything into 2 option box. why forget about people in middle. also. very hard tease out other disability and neurodivergence from autism. where line between schizophrenic asociality and autism social trouble. where line between negative/cognitive symptom schizophrenia and adhd and autism more well known experience of executive dysfunction. why "AuDHD" thing but not something like "schizautistic"? we too scary demonized for you? cant infantilize or make "super human"?

also also wish people remember that condition diagnosis category are group traits/symptoms, not One Way to be each, not so separate, human made up (based on real experience). all this impact support need, make medium, maybe medium high support needs. also, again, combine with All Other Disability, neurodivergence make physical disability *even harder* and vice versa. tired of being shoved into boxes and people decide what experience what based on label that supposed to be help you connect with other and get support.

[ghost-jester-sys]

reminder dont have to mask always

tired of feeling like have to mask

do at work but shouldnt keep have to at home or even with friends

have been forcing self to be perfect for nobody.

[crowpunkcognitivedecline]

it's hard realizing that i literally can't make appointments anymore. i just can't. i can't use a calendar, i can't reply to emails, i can't make a phone call unassisted.

it's not just anxiety or even executive dysfunction, though those both play a part. i just don't have the memory, i don't have the habit-forming ability, i don't have the processing, i don't have the hearing, i don't have the understanding of time.

and it's also frustratingly hard to talk about because i know no matter how much i try to explain it, someone who's LSN is going to try to tell me how much they relate or whatever because they also can't make phone calls and i don't know how to articulate the difference.

but i know there's a difference, and i know that because i was an LSN person who couldn't make phone calls, but now i'm an MSN person who needs my mom to act as a caregiver and help with almost all iADLs and it's fucking different and it SUCKS!