Mental health club!

[GG0z He/Him]

Just now, Deception said:

Thanks! I'm still surprised too about how nice everyone is here. Haven't seen a single toxic post since I joined. 

Good enough community that I was able to put "autistic" in my signature and nobody laughed. Imagine trying to do that on ... well, literally anywhere else.

 

Yeah! As far as I know, I’m not neurodivergent in any way, and it feels really good to be able to vent out my emotions without anyone judging/laughing at me

[Verdance he/him]

3 minutes ago, Deception said:

Thanks! I'm still surprised too about how nice everyone is here. Haven't seen a single toxic post since I joined. 

Good enough community that I was able to put "autistic" in my signature and nobody laughed. Imagine trying to do that on ... well, literally anywhere else.

 

I mean

If your ASD is HF enough try not to internalize 

but yeah awesome community 

[GG0z He/Him]

2 minutes ago, Verdance said:

I mean

If your ASD is HF enough try not to internalize 

but yeah awesome community 

Internalize what?

[Verdance he/him]

1 minute ago, GG0z said:

Internalize what?

If your Autism Spectrum Disorder is High Functioning (aka you have minor autism like me), there’s no need to label yourself as autistic 

i prefer personally to distance myself from my diagnosis and use it more as a lens than a label or  status as i want to continue to improve my behavior and be a more socially adept person

[GG0z He/Him]

Just now, Verdance said:

If your Autism Spectrum Disorder is High Functioning (aka you have minor autism like me), there’s no need to label yourself as autistic 

i prefer personally to distance myself from my diagnosis and use it more as a lens than a label or  status as i want to continue to improve my behavior and be a more socially adept person

Not including perfectionism, I don’t think I am neurodivergent at all

Aphantasia doesn’t count either

Edited June 7 by GG0z

[Verdance he/him]

3 minutes ago, GG0z said:

Not including perfectionism, I don’t think I am neurodivergent at all

Aphantasia doesn’t count either

Oops

mixed you and Deception up

[GG0z He/Him]

1 minute ago, Verdance said:

Oops

mixed you and Deception up

Oh ok

[Deception He/Him]

4 minutes ago, Verdance said:

If your Autism Spectrum Disorder is High Functioning (aka you have minor autism like me), there’s no need to label yourself as autistic 

i prefer personally to distance myself from my diagnosis and use it more as a lens than a label or  status as i want to continue to improve my behavior and be a more socially adept person

I am high functioning... mostly. I don't see the need to avoid labeling myself as autistic. There are upsides as well. Okay, just one upside, but it's a good one. The flow state. I learned a programming language (Java) in only one day because of this flow state, and today I made a whole life simulator thing with plants that grow and multiply and animals that reproduce and eat plants in about an hour.

Also, it's unclear how bad my autism actually is, because of the twice exceptional problem (a twice exceptional, or 2e, person is a neurodivergent person with an IQ of 130+). An IQ of 130 can cover things up, and make level 2 autism look like level 1. Outwardly, I can fully mask without that much effort, except in more awkward situations like greetings, and I have plenty of neurotypical friends. But inwardly, I've scored 100%, which points to level 3 autism, on some self assessments. Again, twice exceptional. It's like running a video game on a PC with a crazy CPU but a terrible GPU - if the CPU is good enough, it can cover up the GPU's problems.

 

But at the end of the day, here is why I chose to identify as autistic:

If there was a cure, I would refuse it.

 

I think there are two ways to proceed when you have ADHD, Autism, Williams, or something like that. Ignore it, or embrace it. Both are healthy, and the only problems will come when you try to be in the middle.

 

[Verdance he/him]

2 minutes ago, Deception said:

I am high functioning... mostly. I don't see the need to avoid labeling myself as autistic. There are upsides as well. Okay, just one upside, but it's a good one. The flow state. I learned a programming language (Java) in only one day because of this flow state, and today I made a whole life simulator thing with plants that grow and multiply and animals that reproduce and eat plants in about an hour.

Also, it's unclear how bad my autism actually is, because of the twice exceptional problem (a twice exceptional, or 2e, person is a neurodivergent person with an IQ of 130+). An IQ of 130 can cover things up, and make level 2 autism look like level 1. Outwardly, I can fully mask without that much effort, except in more awkward situations like greetings, and I have plenty of neurotypical friends. But inwardly, I've scored 100%, which points to level 3 autism, on some self assessments. Again, twice exceptional. It's like running a video game on a PC with a crazy CPU but a terrible GPU - if the CPU is good enough, it can cover up the GPU's problems.

 

But at the end of the day, here is why I chose to identify as autistic:

If there was a cure, I would refuse it.

 

I think there are two ways to proceed when you have ADHD, Autism, Williams, or something like that. Ignore it, or embrace it. Both are healthy, and the only problems will come when you try to be in the middle.

 

There is no “cure”. I don’t see it as some mental sickness, the idea is incredibly rude to all people with autism

it’s a different type of behavioral process caused by slight neurological differences. It’s completely neutral and isn’t even a condition, it’s just a fact.

[GG0z He/Him]

Huh. What exactly is flow state?

[Verdance he/him]

4 minutes ago, GG0z said:

Huh. What exactly is flow state?

A superpower related to several forms of neurodivergence where the person hyperfocuses on one thing incredibly deeply, shutting out almost everything else and working with incredible efficiency 

so me listening to music playing videogames

[Deception He/Him]

11 minutes ago, Verdance said:

There is no “cure”. I don’t see it as some mental sickness, the idea is incredibly rude to all people with autism

it’s a different type of behavioral process caused by slight neurological differences. It’s completely neutral and isn’t even a condition, it’s just a fact.

If I called it a condition that's just because I don't feel like writing "different way of thinking" every time I post, and because many ways of putting it sound too much like the euphemisms we use to describe people with all sorts of disabilities these days.

Yes, I know there is no "cure". I mean, there might be something like that... it's called beer. Makes you very talkative, I've heard. But yes, that would be incredibly offensive.

8 minutes ago, GG0z said:

Huh. What exactly is flow state?

Flow state is a state of perfect challenge balance, where you can work up to 3x faster and everything is exact difficulty to be stimulating without being too hard. In the flow state, a person loses track of time and may end up doing the same task all day as 100% of their focus and brainpower is concentrated on the task at hand.

While in a flow state, a person's intellectual ability improves drastically. I don't like putting numbers on intelligence, but if I had to chose a number I would say if I took an IQ test while in a flow state vs not, I would score 20-30 points higher while in a flow state.

A neurotypical person can actually also achieve a flow state as well, but it takes a bit of luck and a lot of practice, whereas it's already the default mode for someone with autism.

There are drawbacks, though. Since an autistic person is always trying to be in a flow state, it means that task switching is extremely difficult for them. For example:

• Getting off the couch to go shower
• Pausing a hobby to eat dinner
• Basically starting any new activity
• Stopping a task to go to bed or other things

This is because a flow state is extremely rewarding while one is in it, so it is hard to stop. It is difficult to start because it is highly taxing for the brain to build a new attention tunnel to get into a flow.

[Usseewa]

So guys I just wanna say something

So a few months ago something hurtful happened to me related to my being trans and I blamed myself for it until today when someone said something that made me realize I actually was wronged and it's not my fault and yeah

so it was really

[GG0z He/Him]

1 minute ago, Deception said:

If I called it a condition that's just because I don't feel like writing "different way of thinking" every time I post, and because many ways of putting it sound too much like the euphemisms we use to describe people with all sorts of disabilities these days.

Yes, I know there is no "cure". I mean, there might be something like that... it's called beer. Makes you very talkative, I've heard. But yes, that would be incredibly offensive.

Flow state is a state of perfect challenge balance, where you can work up to 3x faster and everything is exact difficulty to be stimulating without being too hard. In the flow state, a person loses track of time and may end up doing the same task all day as 100% of their focus and brainpower is concentrated on the task at hand.

While in a flow state, a person's intellectual ability improves drastically. I don't like putting numbers on intelligence, but if I had to chose a number I would say if I took an IQ test while in a flow state vs not, I would score 20-30 points higher while in a flow state.

A neurotypical person can actually also achieve a flow state as well, but it takes a bit of luck and a lot of practice, whereas it's already the default mode for someone with autism.

There are drawbacks, though. Since an autistic person is always trying to be in a flow state, it means that task switching is extremely difficult for them. For example:

• Getting off the couch to go shower
• Pausing a hobby to eat dinner
• Basically starting any new activity
• Stopping a task to go to bed or other things

This is because a flow state is extremely rewarding while one is in it, so it is hard to stop. It is difficult to start because it is highly taxing for the brain to build a new attention tunnel to get into a flow.

Ig that I achieved flow state once or twice. Once while writing a crap piece of fantasy, and once when I memorised two violing concertos in a day

[Verdance he/him]

Just now, Usseewa said:

So guys I just wanna say something

So a few months ago something hurtful happened to me related to my being trans and I blamed myself for it until today when someone said something that made me realize I actually was wronged and it's not my fault and yeah

so it was really

Yeah i never understood why people blame themselves for other people’s hate

good for you standing up for yourself 

again everyone deserves to be happy

Spoiler

Except serial killers

 

[Usseewa]

5 minutes ago, Verdance said:

Yeah i never understood why people blame themselves for other people’s hate

good for you standing up for yourself 

again everyone deserves to be happy

  Hide contents

Except serial killers

 

well i was like... "maybe I didn't say something I should've," "maybe they didn't mean it/understand," "maybe I should've said something" like idk...

 

[Verdance he/him]

Just now, Usseewa said:

well i was like... "maybe I didn't say something I should've," "maybe they didn't mean it/understand," "maybe I should've said something" like idk...

 

Girl, stand up for yourself, but never blame yourself for being hurt

the only thing you should ever feel guilt for is hurting others

[Deception He/Him]

27 minutes ago, Verdance said:

the only thing you should ever feel guilt for is hurting others

Yay! I can go cheat on my homework now, knowing it is perfectly okay!

Spoiler

jk

[Verdance he/him]

Just now, Deception said:

Yay! I can go cheat on my homework now, knowing it is perfectly okay!

  Hide contents

jk

I acknowledge there is a fallacy in my logic somewhere but-

hurting the teacher for trying to teach you and you just cheat 

[Deception He/Him]

1 minute ago, Verdance said:

hurting the teacher for trying to teach you and you just cheat 

Aww, dang it!

[Usseewa]

Just now, Deception said:

Aww, dang it!

LET'S GO GAMBLING!!!

AWDANGIT

AWDANGIT

AWDANGIT

[GG0z He/Him]

1 minute ago, Usseewa said:

LET'S GO GAMBLING!!!

AWDANGIT

AWDANGIT

AWDANGIT

I get it! That haunted my life for a few months

[Deception He/Him]

2 hours ago, Usseewa said:

LET'S GO GAMBLING!!!

AWDANGIT

AWDANGIT

AWDANGIT

oof

I mean "AWDANGIT"

luckily that hasn't happened to me

[Verdance he/him]

1 minute ago, Deception said:

oof

I mean "AWDANGIT"

luckily that hasn't happened to me

Gambling sucks

video game addition, though…

thats where its at

[Deception He/Him]

1 hour ago, Verdance said:

Gambling sucks

video game addition, though…

thats where its at

AHH NOOOOO HEEEEEELP

Luckily for me, autism makes it hard for me to switch tasks, so if I'm enjoying myself and not currently playing video games, sometimes I don't even want to start.

But...

Autism also makes it harder to stop, so once I start playing, I play all day. I can solve this by just starting an hour before dinner time, though, so I have to get off for dinner.

Doesn't help that I really like coding... which can only be done on an unrestricted computer... does this happen to anyone else here, where you are doing something good and having lots of fun, then you hit some sort of problem, then instead of fixing the problem you start doing something stupid like video games?