I’m so, so, so, so, soooooooooooo sick of people and their BS. And how they think they aren’t doing anything. Holding up a bad system is doing something, my dears.
There. That’s done. I guess?
I’m updating my autistic related blog more, but will continue to post here at least twice a month for my “weekly” content (books, music, etc.). I would say weekly, but I know that won’t happen unless I make it a priority. Right now, I’m trying not to update the research blog daily. I just figured I love spreading info (but hate teaching), and I’m reading research, so why not do quick posts? Yes, it’s a hobby blog. Of course.
I read research on a lot of different topics, but right now, it’s 80% autism related, so an adult autism research blog now exists. Yes, I will probably delete the link to the research blog eventually, but I’ll keep it up for a few weeks.
I’m posting part II of my autistic burnout piece below. I now have zero desire to post this elsewhere but in 6 months, I might change my mind. It’s definitely not that good “as is”.
Part II of autistic safety and burnout:
Burnout makes sense. You can only spend so many years keeping every plate spinning and compensating for every little thing before the system just… stops. Or at least slows down to a crawl.
People look at an autistic adult and see someone who is “difficult,” “too sensitive,” or maybe just tired of trying. But it’s usually just the tax you pay for living too long without any real safety or real rest. Not the kind people talk about in brochures, but the kind where you can actually breathe.
It shouldn’t be something autistic people have to figure out entirely on their own. The right kind of help is usually hard to find, or just plain absent. But shaming someone into acting “fine” doesn’t actually make them fine. It just makes them better at hiding.
If you’ve spent years being targeted or even just misunderstood, you aren’t going to see the world as a casual, easy place. It’s just the logical response of being in a space that wasn’t built for you.
Autistic people do not need lectures about resilience. They need to be believed about how unsafe the world has often been, and how much energy it takes to keep going in it. It is not oversensitivity to be worn down by repeated humiliation, exclusion, noise, unpredictability, and threat.
I think, at the end of the day, it’s pretty simple. We aren’t feeling unsafe because we’re confused about how the world works. We feel that way because we’ve been paying attention. I wish more people would wake up, but why should they?
Back to work.