callmemanatee

[callmemanatee]

I am tired of being adhd I’m tired being bullied

Bullying really sucks. I wish I knew more to say, but I'll send you a big virtual manatee hug.💙

[callmemanatee]

this painting is maybe very big

[callmemanatee]

Breathe in Love - Don't Smoke Cigarettes by Peter Max, 1970s.

American cancer society

[callmemanatee]

tv shows with time travel organizations/bureaus/police/agencies/whatever should have a department with instead of a tech genius eating candy, it’s a harried seamstress or fashion designer who is like

“1450 italy? does it look like I have the time to dye you wool? nO. YOU’RE GOING TO THE 1980s”

and throws shoulder pads at the hapless time agent

[callmemanatee]

Can relate (although I'm an only child). I haven't yet figured out what words best describe my gender feelings, but I hate being ma'amed.

And being in a public-facing job in the South means getting ma'amed All. The. Time.

being a genderqueer & growing up in a “yes ma’am/sir” household as an older sibling and just wanting to be told “aye captain” or “yes/oui chef” instead

[callmemanatee]

I know Gwen! And more people should. Seriously, if you like comedic fairy tales with a message of self-acceptance, go read Cursed Princess Club.

DO YOU KNOW THIS CHARACTER?

[callmemanatee]

[callmemanatee]

All the time. I'd feel a lot more "me" if I looked more androgynous.

Do you ever forget that you have a gender to most people….. meaning that random people at the grocery store see me as a woman and not just a little internet guy

[callmemanatee]

It's a pity that "autism center" is currently synonymous with ABA clinic.

Let's make a future where an autism center is a hub for autistics. A place where you can access (or be referred to) affirming therapies and supports as-needed, or play on an adult-sized sensory gym, or just drop in, hang out, and maybe meet other autistic people.

#autism #actually autistic #autism thoughts

[callmemanatee]

[callmemanatee]

disabled people who are lifelong, permanent dependents, i love you. you are my friends and my lovers and my siblings and you are me and i am you and i love you.

i'm really despondent sometimes over the ways society sees us. how conservatives see us as burdens and drains on society, yes, and also how liberals mock our lives, how the idea of being an adult dependent is seen solely as the result of poor life choices, how everyone all across the political spectrum sees things like "getting an allowance from your spouse" and "relying on one person for housing" as cause for mockery, jokes to make, nothing but a conceptual stick with which to beat people into performing well in work and school. still others see us as childish, as pitiable, perhaps not as worthy of mockery but definitely not as worthy of being treated as a social equal, never someone you could invite into your social spheres and make an effort to include--they're just not independent, no offense to them, it just makes them so childish, i can't have an adult friendship with them.

but we persist anyway. we're here. i'm lucky to love the people i'm dependent on, i'm lucky that they respect me as a person and would never leverage their power over me, i'm lucky that they're willing to constantly self-check to make sure they're not accidentally using that power. i hope to g-d you're lucky in the same ways, because i love you. and if you're not, i love you. i'm holding your hand and i'm standing with you and i'm going to try to make a better world for both of us.

[callmemanatee]

Here’s a weird autism thing that I realized this morning—

-If a choir director tells my section to sing louder, I will do so, even if I am already at fortissimo.

-If a teacher criticizes my class for failing to take their work seriously, I will feel guilty, even if I’ve been turning every single assignment in on time.

-If a post calls people in general out for not doing a particular thing and says it’s their fault if a tragedy happens, I will feel stressed, even if I was already relentlessly doing the thing.

I need to be told separately about my personal progress, otherwise I will overcompensate and eventually end up burning myself out. As someone who puts conscious effort in trying to understand social cues, this really messes me up for some reason.

[callmemanatee]

This this this.

Growing up autistic, I always connected with the archetype of the eccentric, kindly mad scientist, but characters who fit that archetype were nearly always male. And eccentric female characters were often either pathologized, sexualized, forced into makeovers and dresses, or reduced to manic pixie dream girls.

But Thirteen's just Thirteen. The Doctor's just the Doctor.

And as Yaz says in "Power of the Doctor", she is loved.

Not "I love her but I wish she'd (insert gender normative or neuronormative thing here)".

Just "She is loved."

No caveats. She is herself, she isn't bound by human notions of gender, and she is loved.

Kid Me needed to see that. Adult Me finally gets to see that.

no i take it for granted at this point but it genuinely is so nice that 13 was the way that she was. just the exact same non binary freak as before. i remember in 2017 even seeing queer people on here being like ‘aw omg she’s gonna do xyz traditionally feminine thing for the first time!!!1!’ no she’s not she’s going to eat soil. genuinely quite impressive that chibnall/the beeb got that right

[callmemanatee]

Recently I was asked questions from the ADOS-2 as part of an eligibility screening for an autism research study (that I quickly withdrew from because the screening itself was so poorly designed that I doubted the study would be any better).

One question asked if I thought I was annoying to other people.

We need to talk about how NOT trauma informed that is.

Autistic people receive messages about how annoying and unwanted we are, over and over and over, throughout our lives.

To include such a question in a diagnostic assessment for adults, without any prior warning, isn't okay.

We deserve better than the ADOS. It's an outdated and bad assessment for many reasons, but the disrespectful wording of the interview is absolutely one of them.

#actually autistic #autism thoughts #autism #autism diagnosis

[callmemanatee]

you cant ever let yourself forget what it felt like to be 15. how adults treated you. being treated without a shred of respect because people think youre too young to have thoughts and feelings of your own. the lack of autonomy. you cant ever forget that because if you do you might become the kind of adult who treats kids like theyre not people

[callmemanatee]

Me when watching Doctor Who: "Can we have one good Dalek that doesn't turn bad again or die? Please? Just one?"

creature in fiction: *is portrayed as bad and mean*

8 year old me: but what if there was a good and nice one :0

[callmemanatee]

I've had stretch marks since I was eight, just from growing really fast. And at the time, I was made to feel like it was really abnormal.

People are so strange about human bodies like... they will try to Sherlock their way into making assumptions about things that ain't no one's business. Like someone once told me that skin tags, cellulite, and 'hip dips' were indications that someone has been pregnant and I, an 11-year-old at the time with skin tags, cellulite, and hip dips was trying to figure out if I'd had a child at some point and forgot.