NeurobeautifulWhat does it mean to “fit in”?
It means your appearance and behaviors match the mold of a given social circle.
Why would anyone want that?
Because sameness leads to acceptance, which leads to connection, which leads to belonging.
Why aren’t differences accepted too?
They are, just not by everyone. If you’re brave enough to …
In elementary school, I got A’s in most classes. I sometimes turned assignments in late, before finally learning to use a planner in middle school, but my “creativity” earned me bonus points that made up for it.
The one exception was gym class, where I got C’s. For everyone else, it was the easiest class …
Autistics never “overreact.” If you see us react strongly to something, it usually means that we do feel that strongly about it.
A child who sounds like they’re plummeting to the depths of despair? They may literally feel that way.
A teenager who won’t budge when ordered to do something? They may literally be paralyzed …
It can be hard to recognize something as a “special interest” – a passion so strong that it counts as an autistic symptom – if the interest itself doesn’t have a precise label, or if you’ve never learned the label.
Two of my special interests are like that: Phenomenology and storybookishness.
I was surprised when …
Someone who knows me very well says that he imagines the inside of my brain like the interior of a castle.
Stained glass windows stretch all the way up the walls of its grandest room, spilling colorful light onto rows of desks where scribes sit typing. What they write gets sent up pneumatic tubes, to …