I’m looking for online programs that help us navigate the world as autistic people. It could be anything, such as learning about autism, neurotypicals, social settings, identifying your emotions, self-care for autistic people, common terms related to autism, autistic love languages, etc…anything that helps autistic people live life.
If you have completed any programs related to being autistic, what were they and what did you think about them? Were they helpful?
I hope you find what you’re looking for bud.
The closest I’ve ever found to anything like that is just… hanging out in queer spaces. Online or in person. My experience is that they tend to be welcoming, and accepting of our difficulties and more willing to help explain things that don’t make sense. I think there’s also a reasonable amount of overlap between how to cope with being queer in generally bigoted areas and how to cope with being neurodivergent but surrounded by NT people who display varying levels of acceptance.
I bring that up because like… a lot of what I used to think was difficulty understanding myself was mostly caused by internalized ideas that I was lazy or useless or w/e other nonsense I’ve been called by people with no understanding of or sympathy for situations I find abnormally difficult. I assumed the way I am was wrong and i couldnt understand why i was more comfortable being wrong. Material in queer spaces isn’t coded exactly for the negative ideas that are usually associated with ASD people, but the self affirmation messages are there
It’s neat that you say that about queer spaces! When I was in high school in the late 90s, I was in the LGBTQ club, tho I’ve never identified as LGBTQ. I found myself there because I was part of the outcasts and fell into since they were accepting. It’s like we all accepted and looked after each other.
I appreciate that you pointed out internalizing our difficulties as character deficiencies. I’ve definitely been affected by that and have been working to get rid those beliefs in the past year. I can see the overlap with LGBTQ. Pretty interesting. Thank you very much!
I’d like to do this actually. But I also feel like I would make them feel uncomfortable being a straight white dude. I would love to have more queer friends though.