please send my severely #disabled friend evel some love! xen's old #ServiceDog recently passed & xen caught an illness at the vet. evel & xen's family are trying to flee the USA. anything helps!

direct support:
-https://cash.app/$evelbrute
-https://venmo.com/u/evelbrute
-https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/beeees5
-https://liberapay.com/heckinTech

gift cards etc (send to evel at riseup.net)
-https://www.chewy.com/chewy-egift-card/dp/1502118
-https://albertsons.thegiftcardshop.com/alb-everyday-email
-https://promo.giftcards.delta.com/store/
-https://throne.com/evel

monthly support:
-https://www.patreon.com/aldercone
-https://ko-fi.com/aldercone
-https://buymeacoffee.com/aldercone/membership

you can get art, lit, or an email with storage space for donating to xen here:
- https://riveraerica.itch.io/pasadena
- https://social.acab.fans/@durian/statuses/01JRC6FX828WNS41BZR86CAWFX
- https://weirder.earth/@june/113889814363872521
- https://terror.black/@sayyid_qishta/113422065701306276
- https://flipping.rocks/@inherentlee/113947145294908139

@mutualaid #GTFOmyState #transCrowdfund #DisabledCrowdfund #mutualAid #MutualAidRequest #IndigenousMutualAid #CreativeNative #indieDev #nonBinary #transMutualAid #HelpFolksLive2025 #LGBTQIA #queer #trans #actuallyAutistic #autism #dog #dogsOfMastodon #dogs #queerMutualAid

Weekend away was going well. Then the heavy rain came, some tents leaked, & the least enthusiastic campers bailed. (We were comfy in our cabin.)

Unrecognised neurodivergence can be the cause of so much angst, because how can you accommodate stuff you don’t know needs accommodating? Let alone anyone else?

Oh well..

#actuallyautistic
@actuallyautistic

Have I talked about how for most of my adult live I described myself as being "wired differently" than everyone around me?

Then as I explored the things that made me so different, I discovered that my Myers-Briggs type (INFJ) is the rarest and often called "The Mystic."

Then, I discovered the idea of Highly Sensitive People (HSP) and had what I thought was an explanation for my sensory issues, too.

THEN I added Empath to the list and I thought I had myself pretty well figured out.

Yeah, turns out every single one of the things I was looking for an explanation for fall under the heading "undiscovered auDHD."

One explanation to rule them all, if you will.

I just read a book about INFJ writers (I'm one of those, too) and am almost through The Autistic Survival Guide to Therapy and have all kinds of thoughts swirling around.

Watch this space, as soon as I can wrangle those thoughts into holding still long enough to get them down in writing, I'll have a post for y'all.

Or, you know, several posts as this is a deep one.

@actuallyautistic
#ActuallyAutistic #ActuallyADHD #auDHD

So I've had this repeating number sequence in my head for weeks.

I'll space out and find myself tapping it out on my desk.

Or with my tongue on the roof of my mouth.

Or with my left foot on the dead pedal while driving.

I had a flash today and realized it was the opening guitar riff from the Green Day song "wake me up when September ends," which I probably haven't heard since it was new 20 years ago.

I don't even listen to Green Day. Didn't then, don't now.

How in the hell did my brain grab onto that riff of all things and decide to play it—not the riff itself, just the repeating pattern—on repeat since sometime in March?!?!

#ActuallyAutistic #ActuallyADHD #auDHD
@actuallyautistic

#AmericansHateAmericans #MassDehumanizationPopular
#TrendingTowardsDehuman #FWakeAutismA
#Autism #Autistic #ActuallyAutistic #AutismSpectrumDisorder
#MassDehumanizationAbounds in year 2025 #USASickNation "USA Sick Nation"
#RFKJr /\ #Aspergers #AspergersSyndrome /\

@actuallyautistic When Nazis come for you just show them this and go on with your day

@actuallyautistic @autistics #ActuallyAutistic been telling my therapist for awhile now that this is coming any time now…
https://mastodon.social/@filmfreakmafia/114400142424093425

Ok this is fekkin brilliant. A lil site that runs you through a self care check flow chart. Super helpful when you feel like hell and can't think straight.

https://philome.la/jace_harr/you-feel-like-shit-an-interactive-self-care-guide/play/index.html
#spoonies #brainFog #ADHD #auADHD #longCovid #ADD #actuallyAutistic #chronicIllness #mentalHealth #selfCare

This is definitely preaching to the choir for other #ActuallyAutistic people, who have been through all this many times before, but it's important to remember that RFK Jr's horrible assessment of autistic people is deeply damaging in more ways than one.

It doesn't just set up not-so-veiled eugenics against autistic people. It sets it up for *everyone*:

- Both autistic and non-autistic people can be unable to work. In fact, if you're lucky, you'll get old enough for you to be unable to work most if not all typical jobs, and a functional society is ok with that.

- Both autistic and non-autistic people can require help with using the toilet or other basic activities of daily living. As with working for wages, this too is something that is likely to happen to you if you get old enough at some point.

But most importantly, both autistic and non-autistic people can fail *any* or *all* of RFK Jr's suggestions for what counts as "behavior or activities we should expect everyone to be able to do." Autism just makes it a bit easier for non-autistic people to say "eeew" and use autistic people as a starting point for terrible things.

Diary of an AuDHD Squirrel. Day 545 , Friday 25/04/2025

Friday started just before 7am & we followed the usual routine of making breakfast & doing chores.

Mrs S is off to a course so a peaceful day is on the cards.

10:45 just had a call from Mrs S. My MiL is very poorly & has been taken to hospital. Mrs S is en-route now.

13:25 MiL is in intensive care or whatever they call it these days. Not very well at all. It’s at times like these having 1 car is really not good.

I went across the road to our neighbour Bev to see if I could get a lift to the hospital, which was an hour away, she was super kind & drove me there!

My MiL looked very old & frail and so very poorly.
She was initially in the Resus unit but was moved to the Acute Frailty unit later this afternoon.

18:30 we’re back home now, went across to thank Bev again & then settled down to try & unwind.

19:30 we’ve had a doctor on from the hospital wanting to know some background information. From the questions she’s asking we’re not sure that my MiL will be leaving hospital.

Final Thoughts.

Well today has not been the day either me nor Mrs S expected when we got up this morning.

I suspect the next few days are going to be … challenging.

I’m not sure if I will sleep tonight.

Thank you to all those who are helping me on this journey, in a myriad different ways. I am thankful to each & every one of you!

@actuallyautistic
#TimsASDjourney #ActuallyAutistic #Neurospicy #TheMammutMoves

I would like people to think about the fact that I can only safely make this statement right now because I live outside the United States.

I am #ActuallyAutistic.

I have not been identified as such by a gatekeeper. I have been welcomed and recognised by my fellow ActuallyAutistic people, who showed me the ways in which "I'm just weird that way" turned out to be "I'm just autistic that way". I've taken the RAADS-R inventory, which showed me as "strong likelihood of autism" on three occasions.

And I get people who say, as I used to say to myself, "How is it you've been so successful in social situations in your life?"

I had to answer this to myself, to get over my ableist ideas, so I will speculate here.

I have a facility with language. I speak several languages with varying degrees of fluency, but all to a degree where I can make conversation.

I'm also a very good mimic. It's part of how i get good at languages - I'm good at making the right sounds, and copying what I hear.

To be a good mimic, you must also be a good observer. And so when I was young, I observed, consciously, a lot. I built what I came to know as my algorithms, the patterns I'd identified in how people interact, to guide me in appropriate interaction. I got good at it. I had a very good neurotypical mask.

So in a way, the fact that language and communication is a Special Interest for me is what let me develop such a good mask.

But it has always been a mask. And now I'm letting that down, and not trying to suppress my autistic tendencies.

And with autistic people under attack from eugenicists with great power in the US, I wanted to speak up in solidarity.

We are not diseased. We are different. Different isn't bad. It's just different.

We don't need to be studied to determine how to prevent us from occurring in the human population. We need to be studied to learn how best to accommodate the diversity we bring to human modes of thought.

I haven't listened to this podcast yet, but I did already read Autism Is Not a Disease: The Politics of Neurodiversity and found it enlightening. Knowing how long it takes for anything to be written and published, the timing of this book is serendipitous. It's a fairly short, readable book, not a heavy lift. Highly recommend!

https://lithub.com/jodie-hare-on-the-politics-of-neurodiversity/

@actuallyautistic

Hopefully to help all those currently fearing what is to come in the US and perhaps to help to clarify things. I would like to throw this into the ring. If you put a load of snake-oil salesmen in charge of your health service. Expect snake-oil.

I hopefully believe, and not entirely unrealistically, that the list they are going to try and make, given that they can even get it off the ground, will be far more about that.

That it will be used somehow to justify the oil and its effectiveness and by extension their removal of the pesky modern day alternatives, that otherwise have this unfortunate tendency to be proven.

That it will be far more about identifying those who they can force the oil upon. Than, the fear of boots in the night, that is far too easy to imagine. But, in America isn't really necessary, not when being deprived of support and thrown out onto the streets is so acceptable. (Although, obviously just as bad and lethal.)

None of which, of course, is in any way good. But, seeing the shape of things to come, the ways it may take form, is half the battle to fighting it.

#Autism
#ActuallyAutistic

This week, I have discovered something important about myself: I am AuDhd — autistic and ADHD.

A few years ago, close family suggested that I might be autistic. I started to wonder too, but life kept moving and I pushed it aside. Recently, my psychologist recommended a full assessment. I decided it was time to find out.

Now it’s confirmed. I’m officially diagnosed.

It’s life-changing.
It’s a revelation.
It explains so much about who I am and how my brain works.

I finally have answers to the questions I’ve carried for years. Why I think the way I do. Why I experience the world so intensely. Why things that seem “easy” for others cost me so much energy.

I’ve already spent time grieving the parts of my life shaped by misunderstanding — both from others and from myself. This diagnosis doesn’t change who I am. It simply gives me language for it. It makes sense of a lifetime of being “too much,” “too sensitive,” “too intense.”

I’m not broken.
I’m not a failed version of normal.
I’m neurodivergent — and there is strength in that.

I'm still learning what Unmasking for me means, but here are a few things i plan to start doing:

• Asking for clarity instead of masking confusion
• Setting up my life around my brain’s natural rhythms
• Refusing to apologise for my sensory needs
• Speaking plainly about how I experience the world

Getting this diagnosis is not an end. It’s a beginning.

If you’re walking this path too — late-diagnosed, learning who you really are underneath the masks — you are not alone.

We are allowed to exist as we are.

I’m AuDHD.
I’m proud.
I’m building a life that finally makes sense.

I cancelled my trip to Ross tomorrow. It was a fantasy faire. I can’t face the crowds of enthusiastic cosplayers. I feel a measure of autistic burnout lately, this is the best thing for me. Although I will miss hanging out with my friends #ActuallyAutistic

URGENT please help Dej! they are a queer, disabled artist on the way to self-employment. they need rent support while they work on covering back payments. they are at increased risk due to US fascism. anything helps!

$280/630 DUE IN 4 DAYS

GFM: https://gofund.me/a49fe7ce
request commissions here: https://mspsocial.net/@svnynne/113584256375614555

you can get handmade #art, a short story collection or an email with file storage space for donating to them here:
- https://riveraerica.itch.io/pasadena
- https://social.acab.fans/@durian/statuses/01JRC6FX828WNS41BZR86CAWFX
- https://weirder.earth/@june/113889814363872521
- https://terror.black/@sayyid_qishta/113422065701306276
- https://flipping.rocks/@inherentlee/113947145294908139

@mutualaid @blackfedi #aro #aromantic #ace #asexual #genderqueer #ActuallyAutistic #trans #transgender #LGBT #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #MutualAid #MutualAidRequest #disability #transMutualAid #DisabilityMutualAid #transCrowdfund #punk #minnesota #minneapolis #BlackMutualAid #fascism #queerMutualAid #QueerCrowdfund #queer #neuroDivergent #handmade #smallBusiness #fediArt #creativeToots #FediGiftShop #mastoArt #OriginalArt #cute #furry #furryArt #wolf #zombie

@actuallyautistic @autistics #ActuallyAutistic i get every possible defense but this is not the time for this sort of thing https://apnews.com/article/idaho-students-murder-kohberger-death-penalty-6b0a6aa075dcd8da401c43fd17b43a75