Broader western society is succumbing to increasing geopolitical tensions, constant social upheaval and mounting debt crisis, among others. The overton window is becoming more receptive to extremist positions on all sides, such as racism, antisemitism and pseudo-eugenicist opinions, even (believe it or not) hatred of autistic people.

We will inevitably be caught up in the middle of this mess. With the collapse of high trust society and with the semblance of functioning institutions completely gone, we'll be at the mercy of anyone who wishes to cause us harm, as there will be nothing to keep them in check. In case of total societal collapse (which I sincerely hope it never comes to), the double empathy problem would be our biggest enemy. We could be excluded from our communities and be denied resources just under the pretext that people don't like us, that we give off a "bad vibe", especially if religiosity/superstition makes a comeback, which is very likely in this case (let's not forget Europeans thought autistic people were possessed during the middle ages).

My post might seem too far-fetched now, even delusional. But it might also be a premonition akin to Ferdinand Foch's, who knows. My appeal to fellow autists is to stick together and strengthen our communities to face any adversity. I am a firm believer that autistic unity will pave the way for a better future.

For the past several years I have felt I could be autistic but now my therapist says she knows I am autistic. Okay.. now what?

Pessoas neurotípicas muitas vezes não entendem como é ser neurodivergente ou como é enfrentar os desafios que enfrentamos.

São mundos completamente diferentes; vai além de seres inteligentes com culturas ou línguas diferentes—estamos falando de seres inteligentes com comportamentos e *modi operandi* totalmente diferentes, assim como na teoria da Dupla Empatia de Damian Milton.

Seria comparável a encontrar alienígenas, ou a um outro animal na natureza—digamos, um gato—de repente ganhando consciência.

Um gato inteligente não gosta de barulhos altos; provavelmente preferiria ter uma área de descompressão em lugares públicos, iluminação mais suave, sem sapatos, elevadores e menos fragrâncias ou perfumes nos lugares que visita.

Isso soa muito como o comportamento de pessoas autistas, não é?

E isso me leva ao meu ponto.

Se os gatos ganhassem inteligência, eles seriam pessoas autistas; na verdade, se *qualquer* animal ganhasse inteligência, isso seria equivalente a uma pessoa autista.

A verdade é que pessoas autistas operam dentro de um sistema completamente diferente dos neurotípicos—quase como se fossem uma espécie diferente, assim como os gatos são uma espécie diferente dos humanos. Para que cada espécie prospere, elas viveriam em sociedades completamente diferentes, com estilos de vida distintos.

É aí que está o problema: como todos somos seres humanos, os neurotípicos presumem que as diferenças entre eles mesmos e as pessoas neurodivergentes são mínimas, já que nós parecemos com eles e vivemos na mesma sociedade.

Se um gato humanoide estivesse enfrentando um problema que uma pessoa autista poderia enfrentar, provavelmente receberia cuidados e assistência porque é uma espécie diferente, com características físicas distintas.

Em outras palavras, se nós (pessoas neurodivergentes) fôssemos fisicamente diferentes ou vivêssemos em uma sociedade completamente diferente, talvez nossas necessidades não fossem deixadas de lado.

É por isso que pessoas com deficiências físicas geralmente são melhor compreendidas e apoiadas em relação aos seus desafios, enquanto pessoas autistas são frequentemente ignoradas e zombadas.

Most of them cry over trivial stuff and and need constant emotional support and validation, there are people that literally kill themselves because of cyber bullying lol.

I kinda hate how society basically congratulates you for being weak today, you can be the most privileged person in the world but if you say something like "uuuaaaaa I have depression" everyone suddenly cares about you and gives you support, it defeats the whole point being disabled.

I like to consider me mentally strong, I mean... I have autism lol, the more fact of being alive today makes me mentally strong.

But it's completely useless to be resilient if you can just give up and get the love and cuddles of everybody.

Hey guys,

I went to a party a couple days ago, a very welcoming environment, but a lot of noise and parallel convos, I was often puzzled and questioning how is possible to communicate with such chaotic envirnoment, but I tried rly hard, it drained a lot, at the and i asked a close friend about my performance, if I managed "to act neurotipically" and she just repplied "I could tell easily when u were lost in the conversation and was almost burning out".

I was like, well, I did my best, it wasn't enough but i did my best, that is what really matters. But now i am suffering from something that i thought i would never experience again, an identity crisis.

When I was a little child i was always good academically, but behaviour-wise i was just the worse, since I couldn’t understand clearly what was an appropriate behaviour or not (i always have problem with calling someone Mr:something, or maybe using a "formal pronoun", sometimes using formal pronouns to talk with friends at the same age and not formal pronouns when talking to elders, is just confusing for me, why such fragile ego?, i'm ofter misinterpreted as rude or having problem with authority, but that is far from the truth, anyways), after some time i realized that if i have a good behaviour, my academic performance will skyrocket, since I was already good without studying a lot, just by attending the lessons .

I changed a lot my behavior socially, becoming way more welcoming, i found out that this was my real personality, finally everyone was understanding that i was a good person, smart, kind and good to be around, i was just different, naive sometimes, but good, i was finally conveying who i rly was correctly, finally.

My personality is built with a base of studying my special interest, i just love studying my special interest, is the only occasion that i am genuinely happy and forget about my problems. If i keep studying that special interests, i will be a good profession at the field and as a consequence, will be helping others.

Anyways, now after that party i am going downhill, i am having an identity crisis, i tried to put myself up by seeing my accomplishments, certificates, where i was a couple years ago and where i am now (from a problematic child, from a very poor family to a possible amazing professional), I am trying but i don't know if matters, is it rly what i want?

My first answer is: Yes, u like what u do, u study and talk about this topic X with passion, that so pure and true to be even questioned.

But sometimes i think "is it rly what i want? am i rly that good? Or am i here just because I was lucky? or i'm dumb and i am here just because I am resilient?", yes, impostor syndrome.

Well guys, I just wrote this huge post to share my thoughts, if u guys can help me, I am all ears, if ur advice comes out more easily at ur mother tongue, do it, I will translate.

Take care bros.

I was playing alien isolation last night and the game comes with an unusually low field of view to accentuate feeling trapped.

You can tweak it ofcourse to create a more typical cone but it got me thinking.
Does autism for you feel like you have a narrower field of view?

I’ve heard in relationships for high functioning men usually it’s a woman also who’s ND or a someone who plays a nurturing “older” role.

I have been getting more dates with older women now that I re entered online dating.

Has anyone seen or experienced this too?

All my first dates have been with older women

Im 18M my friend is 15F

(ik it's a bit of a adge gap but we are very platonic i really even tap her shoulder and her parent trust me)

over the years we've developed a nice sibling like relationship both our siblings are not the nicest so basically we have turned into sole siblings (i don't know if that's even a real terminology but it's the only one I can think of) I treat her how I would treat a younger sister if I had one, pretty sure she she's me as like a big brother as well

I am very protective over her multiple times when people have hurt her (mentally) and i "scold" them make them apologise ect.

we also have a lot of of the same medical problems (creepy how similar like 75% of my medical problems she has as well even rare and un related ones might actually be related somewhere) and because im 3 years older i let her know what each appointment scan ect is like.

We share a lot of interest photography trains plans stuff like that i tough her most if her photography skills.

We even get mistaken as siblings in public sometimes

Just wish we could hang out more but our schedules rarely line up.

Dose anyone else have a relationship like this

I've watched some interesting videos on Youtube from countries like Ukraine, India or Vietanam. Through the magic of AI needing copious amounts of text to train on, have Youtube introduced speech to text and auto translation. This has broken the language barrier; spreading youtubers everyday lives to a broader audience. Some of those random farmers or trades people's every day lives were really interesting.

What previously was expensive and only available to television productions with translators, is now available to everyone!

I find subtitles genuinely essential for processing dialogue. Without them I miss half of what characters are saying even when the audio is perfectly clear.

Poll: https://www.getqibble.com/poll-detail/do-you-watch-everything-with-subtitles-on-even-though-your-hearing-is-perfectly-fine

And my life isn't even bad on paper, at all.

I should've been put into a mental health facility. Too late now.

I’m just curious: I see many autistic people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools. I know that individuals with Asperger’s syndrome typically have verbal speech, yet I often come across comments—including from people who are themselves verbal—stating that they also use AAC.

I don’t personally use AAC, but I’m interested.

Been ignored my entire life. Now I’m 29 and it seems to be getting worse. Everyone in my family older than me and even younger than me ignores me and talks over me. Now even my brother is doing it when he really didn’t before. I hate that my family thinks so little of me. Though my friends and coworkers ignore me too. I need to learn how to make this stop. Is it just apart of the social deficits we have with autism? It’s a very lonely existence. What’s the point if the ignoring and talking over/down to you and the anger toward you just for having autistic traits gets worse with age? Honestly? What’s the point? The only person who doesn’t ignore me is my therapist and he is literally PAID to listen to me. I can’t get people to listen unless I pay them? Really? What a miserable life to live.

I've never been to a casino before, and there's a fairly nice one about half an hour from where I live. I have pretty much no interest in gambling, but I'm thinking about going just so I can have the experience at least once. I'd be going by myself.

Are there any rules or expectations I should know going in to avoid embarrassing myself while I'm there? What should I wear? How much money should I bring? Am I allowed to just sit down at a table and tell them to deal me in, or do I have to wait for a certain point in the game to join? What about leaving? Can I just stand up when I decide I've lost enough money, or is that only allowed at certain times? If I get confused, are people going to get annoyed if I ask what I'm supposed to do?

Ever since I was a kid I could not follow the teachers instructions for any kind of crafting thing or science thing or handy around the house thing (my dad would get so impatient he’d just do all my tasks (they did need to get done) and now he gets mad at me for not being able to do them and I'm like: “maybe if you ever let me.” I don't have a learning disability, but I do not think like normal people. I can't just look at something or hear something once or do something once and get it.

I am level one autistic (aspergers), but I wonder if that's really why?

Who else?

Support always welcome.

I work a full-time job and also freelance. I'm good at what I do, especially when it comes to technical work, problem-solving, and creating systems.

i hate how my workload is so big. i wake up at 5am and work till 6pm most weekdays.

I wake up, lift weights at home, work at home then go to sleep at 7:30.

I maybe have about 30 minutes of free time on weekdays.

Good news is my weekends are zero work, zero chores, all play.

i've also had unpleasant bosses. Micrmanagement, passive agressive behavior, being humiliated in group meetings.

i just want a simple, peaceful life. One job and no side hustle. More Time for my hobbies.

Does anyone else struggle with this??

Cried for the first time in a year. So numb it hurts. Extremely touch starved but hate physical contact. I don't have the strength to talk to anyone in person. Been isolating myself for a few weeks. Weak, frail and derealization is hitting hard. Thoughts of self harm are back after two years of absence. Desperately need someone to talk to. Reaching out to my friends seems like something i should do but i don't want to bother them. I rot in bed after returning home. Haven't been to the gym consistently in weeks. The only time i feel mostly fine is weekends (which is why im writing but when monday rolls around i begin to loose grip again. Want to take a break but ive been doing nothing so it feels like i don't deserve it. Failing multiple subjects so im under a lot of pressure.

Friend is asking if everything is alright between us. I don't know why but im avoiding them a lot. They haven't done anything, yet i don't feel comfortable around them anymore.

Feeling very lost. I know ill find a way out of this headspace, but it's hard to be myself right now.

I(18) have an okay social life, as in I get invited out to parties and have a few friendgroups, but I get described as quirky and/or standoffish from time to time which is because I have trouble adding or engaging in small talk causing silent moments that are uncomfortable for others around me.

I really hate making people feel uncomfortable or that I dont care about what theyre saying its just that I have a hard time adding anything to a surface level conversation which also makes new people I meet uneasy around me when we first meet.

Tips for this?

So when I was younger, people would call me more mature than my age. But growing up, this saying suddenly shifted to the total opposite. I have now built up communication trauma from saying stuff unintentionally that others perceive as offensive or rude. It has even reached the point where I was called dumb and the r word. I'm not diagnosed yet btw. Does anyone have experiences similar to this?

Okay, this is super important—does anyone else have this problem? I’ll be on the phone with someone, and when they say "bye," I say "bye" back—but right at that moment, they start going on and saying something else. Meanwhile, I’ve already hung up. I don’t want to come across as rude, but in my mind, I’m thinking: "You said 'bye,' so that means 'bye'!"

So we all struggle in conversation.
Its like theres a delay in the ability to process words making back n forth conversation very difficult.

That said, im curious of your experience when it comes to reading and specifically - listening to audiobooks?

Do you have similar delays there or the hyperfocus kicks in making you glued to the topic?

I have some go-to songs that feel addictive because they flood me with dopamine I guess. Recently, I started learning music and playing an instrument. Similarly, it seems to be quite soothing and has become a part of my daily regulation. Is this a common experience for Aspies?