Forgetting I Forgot

And other fucking random shit I didn't know were adhd and autistic traits until the pandemic ✌🏻

[forestgreenandgray]

Hey do you know what rumination is?

Rumination is probably the most common type of OCD compulsion, but I rarely see anyone talking about it. I've talked to multiple people diagnosed with OCD who didn't even recognize it as a compulsion.

Basically, if you have OCD you have terrible intrusive thoughts. They can be about anything, but common themes are fear of being a bad person, fear of hurting someone, fear of contamination. etc.

Rumination is when you get stuck in a spiral. Rumination is when you spend hours catastrophizing, overthinking, analyzing, telling yourself it's going to be okay.

I'll say it again:

Rumination is a compulsion.

Rumination is a compulsion, and that means you have to stop doing it.

I did ERP (exposure response prevention) for my OCD with a therapist! For 9 months! And it did help, but the idea didn't really click until I found this website a couple years later.

And Oh My God. It made things make so much more sense, and I was able to pull myself out of an episode even though I wasn't in therapy or on meds at the time.

Genuinely if you have OCD, or even if you suspect you have OCD, I'm begging you to read some of these articles.

Like this was genuinely life changing for me.

Here are some of the ones that were most helpful to me:

Defining Rumination

How to Stop Ruminating

ERP Exercises for Compulsive Rumination

What to Do When You're Triggered

[tikkunolamorgtfo]

Just want to add that if you're on the spectrum, you may also experience Autistic Rumination, which is distinct from the obsessive variety, despite the two having some overlapping characteristics!

[enki2]

[ordinarytalk]

Recovering from autistic burnout as a high-masking adult:

To recover, you literally need to manually learn skills that most people learn as a toddler

You need to learn what makes your body uncomfortable, and what to do to fix it

If you are high-masking, that usually means that you have learned to ignore every distress signal your body sends unless it is a distress signal that a neurotypical person would recognize. People have likely been unintentionally gaslighting you about your lived experience your entire life

If you feel bad or panicked for no reason, stop and try to pay attention to your body. Are you tense? You are likely feeling physical pain somewhere. If you've been gaslit about your pain your entire life, you might not be able to identify it.

Go through a sensory checklist.

SIGHT: Try closing and covering your eyes. If this gives you relief, the lights are probably too bright. You may also need differently-colored lights

SOUND: Cover your ears. Does this give you relief? If so, you may need earplugs or noise canceling headphones. You may also benefit from a neutral or pleasant background noise, like soft music or brown noise.

TOUCH: Are your clothes uncomfortable? Your chair? Your body? Do you feel greasy, like you need a shower? Do you need softer, sensory-friendly clothing?

TASTE: Do you need to brush your teeth or tongue? Would chewing on something help?

SMELL: Is there a strong or unpleasant smell in the room? Do you need to clean or empty a trash can? Would an air purifier help? Would a pleasant smell like a candle help?

INTEROCEPTION: Are you hungry? Thirsty? Tired? How is your posture? Are any of your muscles tight or sore? Scan your body slowly from head to feet, tensing and loosening each group of muscles. Going for a walk or doing a series of quick stretches may help a lot.

Learning how to do this stuff is not intuitive, if you've had an entire lifetime of gaslighting telling you that everything hurting you isn't a big deal and you're being dramatic over nothing.

This takes time, it takes work, it's not intuitive, and it's hard. Most people forget how hard it is, because they learned this as toddlers.

If you want to recover, you need to relearn your whole body. And get over your idea of "normal" and just wear the damn sunglasses and put on the headphones. If people stare, fuck em. You're disabled and they can deal with that.

[infiniteoreos]

undiagnosed autistic people will be like "I don't get upset when my routine changes though!!" and it's because they've built a set of if-then loops in their head to pick from one of 6 different strict routines and they do get incredibly upset when they're unable to keep to any of the 6 scripts. I'm john normal

[thundercrackfic]

This is called a fault tree. You will always know how to act if your fault tree captures all possible scenarios. In NASA Mission Control during mission critical events like landings there are huge binders with fault tree protocols, kind of like choose your own adventure books except you’re not the one making the choices, the universe is making them for you and you’re just trying to keep up.

The engineers who develop fault trees, I am told, often imagine new ways for their precious spacecraft to die (new branches on the fault trees) either while in the shower or lying awake at 3am, because human

[toothpaste-footlocker]

[yet-another-autistic-blog]

Was just thinking about this the other day. Yeah I have a favorite seat on the bus (middle of the bus, near the back doors, slightly elevated, facing forward), but I don’t get upset if someone is already sitting there, I just pick one of my other favorite spots. Then I realized that most people probably don’t have a favorite bus seat, let alone a series of backup favorites.

[panpteryx]

[infiniteoreos]

undiagnosed autistic people will be like "I don't get upset when my routine changes though!!" and it's because they've built a set of if-then loops in their head to pick from one of 6 different strict routines and they do get incredibly upset when they're unable to keep to any of the 6 scripts. I'm john normal

[thundercrackfic]

This is called a fault tree. You will always know how to act if your fault tree captures all possible scenarios. In NASA Mission Control during mission critical events like landings there are huge binders with fault tree protocols, kind of like choose your own adventure books except you’re not the one making the choices, the universe is making them for you and you’re just trying to keep up.

The engineers who develop fault trees, I am told, often imagine new ways for their precious spacecraft to die (new branches on the fault trees) either while in the shower or lying awake at 3am, because human

[toothpaste-footlocker]

[yet-another-autistic-blog]

Was just thinking about this the other day. Yeah I have a favorite seat on the bus (middle of the bus, near the back doors, slightly elevated, facing forward), but I don’t get upset if someone is already sitting there, I just pick one of my other favorite spots. Then I realized that most people probably don’t have a favorite bus seat, let alone a series of backup favorites.

[panpteryx]

[eldritchbauble]

I've been meaning to start a weekly poll but can't decide what day to do it on, so now it's Wednesdays.

Autistic folks, how much time do you *spend with your significant other?

Almost all day every day

A few hours per day

A few hours, a few days per week

A few hours, one day per week

Less than weekly

Autistic with no significant other

Not autistic

Voting ended onMay 6

* "Spend" meaning time in the same room in each other's company, even if engaging in parallel activities without directly interacting.

* If you are polyam, answer for your primary partner; if you do not have a primary partner, answer for the partner(s) you spend the most time with.

Allistic poll in rbs

[eldritchbauble]

Allistic (non-autistic) folks, how much time do you spend with your significant other?

Almost all day every day

A few hours per day

A few hours, a few days per week

A few hours, one day per week

Less than weekly

Allistic with no significant other

Autistic

Voting ended onMay 6

I have a theory that autistic folks (esp. couples) spend more time together than allistic folks do.

Please rb to spread this far and wide; I need to reach the non-autistic folks outside of my follower base lol.

[incognitopolls]

This is not asking which animal is better, and not necessarily asking which you like better. This is more about which animal you feel most at ease having in your vicinity.

Autistic people, are you generally more comfortable being around dogs or cats?

I'm more comfortable around dogs

I'm more comfortable around cats

I'm comfortable with both

I'm not comfortable with either

Other/it's complicated

Not autistic, show results

Voting ended onMay 5

Anon's therapist told them that it's common for autistic people to prefer cats but that the reason for that is unknown. Anon (autistic) thinks they prefer cats because they have a similar energy level and dogs barking sets off their hearing sensitivities.

–

We ask your questions anonymously so you don’t have to! Submissions are open on the 1st and 15th of the month.

[orcboxer]

autism tests are so funny. I'm extremely literal most of the time, but people don't tell me that generally, so I'm inclined to answer disagree. because I'm taking the statement too literally

[peopleingishard]

^not my post but same sentiment

[kosmogrl]

[bamfspock]

Bosses and Coworkers: you've got a great work ethic, going above and beyond

Me: I am literally just doing my job. Everyone else is slacking off.

Everyone Else: (magically knows somehow the secret amounts of work the boss is actually asking of them, which the boss cannot tell anyone for Reasons)

[bamfspock]

There always seems to be a gap in instructions (from bosses, parents, teachers, friends, whoever) between 'required' and 'expected', and this gap is:

invisible

never explained

always a different size

you have to guess the size

if you guess wrong you either get Praised or In Trouble

[bamfspock]

At least on 'the price is right' you know (because someone *actually told you*) that you are playing a guessing game and that there is an over/under mechanic and that the conquence of guessing wrong isn't a punishment or damaged relationship or getting fired

[bamfspock]

On an unrelated note my psychiatrist has given me a referal for a formal ASD evaluation

[bamfspock]

This post is about the neurodivergent frustration of having to deal with neurotypical authority figures who don't say what they mean but I love the pro-union labor-rights energy I'm seeing in the notes

[tboy-cock]

shoutout to trans men who were distinctly different from girls their age but also distinctly different than boys their age for a reason they couldnt place or understand. shoutout to trans men who just straight up didnt get along with anybody their age before coming out. maybe even after. have you been diagnosed with autism yet

[despazito]

petition to relabel "strong sense of justice" in autism and adhd to "strong personal convictions"

[hjdjdjdjdjc-deactivated20260221]

a lot of my autism masking is just making myself more palatable for other people and my therapist said "does spock make himself 'more palatable' for others?" and had me promise to keep unmasking like:

[movementnudge]

Movement nudge!

[eldritchbauble]

It shouldn't be that hard to let autistics who don't feel they are disabled by autism not identify as disabled, and let autistics who are disabled by autism to identify as disabled.

Some people's autism doesn't limit or impair them in their day to day lives.

A lot of people's autism does.

Autistics who have an aversion to using disability as a label regardless of being disabled or not should examine why, because it's not bad to be disabled. People should also not force labels onto others because we don't get to decide what someone's internal experience is. The only time any of this is a problem is when you try to claim that autism is never or always a disability, because both statements are false.

[mariacallous]

[sparkylurkdragon]

[serenadeformice-deactivated2025]

Everyone loves me for my repetitive speech, my odd noises, my constant forgetfulness, and my repetitive speech