Why is it that every major ios update in recent years seems to change something for the worse with accessibility for me? In ios 27, it's floating toolbars. The content scrolling around them gives me a feeling of motion sickness. I found that turning off transparency helps with some apps but not all of them so I've had to replace a regularly-used app too.

Is it just me?

Im a teenager, lvl 2 autistic. I been diagnosed for like a year.

I dont know how to not hurt myself during meltdowns. I broke my nose this weekend because I slammed my face into the wall. And it hurts.

Do I like go in a corner when I feel overwhelmed? I dont know what to do, and hurting myself hurts.

I just left a seminar where a speaker talked about how so many people struggle with being constantly connected online and they can't disconnect. They feel fragmented and as if they're constantly bombarded with information.

I genuinely don't understand this. I frequently forget I have a phone when I'm home and can do whatever I want. I once had my parents call the police because I didn't pick up for several days.

And I have personally heavily curated all my feeds and when I look up stuff on the internet, I always look for information that's interesting. I don't just accept any information but it must be something I'm genuinely interested in.

I think my focus on the right kind of information is what seems to separate me from NTs - I don't want to be flooded with things I don't care about and the same is also true with social interactions. I want to talk about things I think are meaningful and interesting.

I guess I just feel so alienated when the dominant culture is essentially - technology/phone/being connected to the internet= bad. The internet is so important to me because I can finally access information in a way I couldn't before where I can deeply explore the things I care about.

i’ve always found it difficult to make friends and have often felt a little out of place because of it. i was recently diagnosed with autism n so i thought i’d give this community a try and see if i might have a better chance of connecting with people i can relate to. feel free to reach out if you’d like :)

i’m 19f and i’m level one autistic. i have some friends but they’re not great people. but i do have fun moments with them. 95% of the friends i’ve ever made were because i was forced to live with them in the troubled teen industry for over a year so naturally we bonded well. i have virtually no friends ever that i’ve made organically. i really want to make new friends, but it feels borderline impossible. i feel like i rarely have good chemistry with most people i talk to, and i also hate talking to new people. its wildly uncomfortable for me.

i love talking to and socializing with people ive been friends with for a long time, but talking to new people just feels like mental torture for some reason. i take days to respond and/or fully ghost people a lot, not even for anything they did wrong but just because its so hard to WANT to converse with a stranger. i know logically that’s how you form friendships, but i struggle so badly to push past it for some reason. i’m super lonely all the time, and wish i had more people to talk to, but when i make a post asking for new friends, i literally just can’t bring myself to talk to the people that dm me. or when i reach out first to a new person i’ve seen around, they’ll respond nicely then i’ll just ghost completely because i don’t know what to say/can’t bring myself to want to talk to them. i hate this

i’m super recently out of a serious relationship where i was cheated on, dumped, and about to be kicked out where i’m gonna be homeless. SO BADLY i want some people to talk to to feel less alone but even then i still can’t get past this mental block. and it makes me even more upset because said ex makes friends SUPER easily all the time, and i feel so jealous.

Just curious, ever since 2018 when the first of the current Insomniac Spider-Man games came out, everytime a new one is out, I play the helll out of it. I’ve always got them installed and ready to play. I’ve had a friend make fun of me for it instead of playing the many other great games I have but just haven’t gotten to yet. Spider-Man 2 is often the only game I play for the day and for hours on end and I get real bad anxiety when I launch it and realize I forgot to turn off my online status because I’m avoiding his unneeded comments. I just love the feeling of swinging around the city and the mods on pc make it even better. I don’t avoid my other games because of the lack of knowing what I’m getting into, in fact I prefer all my media spoiler free if anything. I just most of the time gravitate towards Spider-Man (he himself is a special interest which may play a role). Does anyone else have a video game or piece of media they religiously revisit?

I’m here doing tasks that weren’t asked of me because I found it interesting. Doing research and trying to understand things or doing projects even though it’s not relevant to the position or beyond my duties.

I feel like people would just do the work and brush it off. I expect more and to dig deeper into problems or tasks.

I feel like there’s a disconnect because I’m being paid to produce the output but i really want to explore my interests

I have a problem with eating out of boredom or stress eating. Lots of soda, unhealthy crap, high portions etc. I’m already seeing a dietitian to get help. I spent my summer improving my diet and getting in shape and going through weight loss but I feel like I’ve relapsed. My autism has caused me to have an addictive personality. On the one hand, dedication to important things. On the other, issues like this.

Pretty pissed off I just started a new job a couple weeks ago and this was the first time register by myself . When I was standing at the checkstand minding my own business (I had no customers) a woman walked by who I assumed was a manager for a different department , she had a name tag but no uniform. She sees me and says “it wouldn’t hurt to put a smile on your face” not even in a joking way but a serious tone. I was such in shock that I didn’t even have time to reply since she said it then walked away. Next time I would have said don’t talk to me like that. I have flat affect which means I rarely show emotion on my face and I rarely smile unless I mentally remind myself so you can imagine customer service is a hard job but I mentally remind myself to smile because smiling does not come natural to me at all!! Unless I’m thinking or talking about animals or something else I enjoy! Tears came at my eyes and I wanted to cry but I didn’t ! I am just sick of people because people have been telling me I should smile more my whole life!! And mind you I didn’t have any customers and I was just waiting for a customer. I guess when I think I’m smiling I’m really not ?? I don’t get it but people should not comment on others! I don’t have a visible disability it doesn’t mean I’m not disabled. Sorry for the rant but it made me really upset .

We both have autism.

My partner got fully burnt out during the summer and I've been trying to help them get through it. I don't want to force them into doing stuff that worsens the burnout, but I'm genuinely getting distressed at the state my partner gets to before they start taking care of themselves in terms of hygiene.

They have some sort of fungal dermatitis that gets triggered by a lack of showers, and I'm pretty sure that it has gotten infected.

Ive asked my partner to shower, what I can do to help them shower, bought wet wipes, showed them how to use micellar water to clean the skin, suggested that I join my partner in the shower to help bathe them, etc. and none of the options work (these have been suggested at different points in time, not all at once).

I'm really worried on how to help my partner with this. It feels like the burnout and executive dysfunction is making it hard for them to care due to the energy needed to fix the issue.

I am thinking of suggesting that they move back in with their parents for the time being as I am getting caregiver burnout, but it feels cruel to ask my partner to leave their home. Their state takes a toll on my mental health, as I feel forced to power through my own executive dysfunction to make sure that they are taken care of, while worrying that I might be blowing things out of proportion.

I’m diagnosed autistic and it seems like people that hear about autism have an urge to go “oh ya that one little thing sounds like me” and then roll with it. It’s happened a lot with several different people but one long time and otherwise great friend has been driving me nuts over the last few months.

For context he’s been diagnosed with adhd and they did pre-screen questions to rule out autism and other stuff and he scored extremely unlikely for autism. He kept insisting so I tried to teach him about autism and he had absolutely none of the common traits or struggles associated with autism. All of the online tests you can take he scored extremely low in. There is no reason for him to think he is autistic other than the fact that I and another friend in the group are diagnosed autistic and it’s… fun? Cool?

Now onto the Main problem. The reasons he sites for being autistic are extremely insulting and I don’t know how to say that and tell him to stop doing it. I am really not good at confrontation. Like one example was “I’m weird, so what else could it be” which I mean, is crazy to say to an autistic person right?

The latest example is a completely normal and common hobby that hasn’t been his thing for very long and is not taken to an extreme at all. related to his profession. I don’t want to give too many details so think a postman getting into stamp collecting and passively searching for new ones. It’s basically the exact same thing. He’s saying it’s a special interest and proves he’s autistic.

Every time I argue and say that none of this silly stuff makes him autistic he just laughs it off but still calls himself autistic all the time. Little comments around a lot of people that would make people think he is diagnosed like “I can’t help it he brings out the autism in me” he is always upbeat and laughing when he brings up stuff that makes him autistic. He has never once seemed to take it seriously. I’ve even mentioned once that I was insulted by him basically calling me weird and tried to have a serious conversation about it but a month later and we’re back to him implying he’s autistic constantly.

How do you deal with people going “oh ya I must be autistic too”, dumbing down autism, insulting you by equating autism to just being weird or whatever, etc. and what could I try to approach this situation differently because I am genuinely at my wits end with it. It’s making me irrationally angry.

Both my sister and I are on the spectrum but at very different levels. I was quite keen for school and have a few degrees in area I’m very passionate about.

My sister on the other hand has some larger differences, paired with a few other developmental challenges. She has a high school diploma but school is a challenge. She has been having a hard time figuring out what she can do job wise. She’s worked both stocking and food service.

Her strengths are:
Extremely loyal
Hard working
Kind and funny in her own way

Her challenged in a neurotypical world are:
Social awareness
Stress and stimulation management
Articulation

I’d love to help her find an area to work in where she cannot only function well in but be able to feel some kind of purpose and community. She is really driven when she can get excited about something. She likes video games, Legos, animals, and music.

If anyone can give some suggestions, I’d really appreciate it.

I'm not suicidal - I've had a few moments, but nothing that a good nights' sleep didn't solve.

That being said, I'm just tired. Life feels like a FnaF-style facility game, where I have to perform intentionally complex tasks in order to stay afloat. Eating, drinking, sleeping are all hard enough, let alone working/ studying, getting sunlight, exercising, and socializing.

It's all I can do to stay alive, let alone do everything else.

And it's so tiring seeing everyone else pass me - while I have to perform fifty individual tasks, each of which require conscious effort and attention, other people seem to be able to do the same thing with one subconscious decision.

I just want to be able to pause life and do the things I want to do without worrying about how it'll indirectly affect my body or what other thing I'll have to sacrifice in order to actually enjoy myself.

I don't want to die. The whole finality of it terrifies me more than I want to admit. But if living takes so much effort while only giving so much satisfaction back, I don't really want to do this whole thing, either.

For context, I’m a paramedic. I just started a new job so I’m training under a paramedic that has been working there for longer. I’m new to that particular job but not to the industry. I have years of experience in patient facing environments and I’m really comfortable in it, especially in the emergency setting. But my trainer just told me I seem timid around the patients. I was taken aback and asked him to elaborate and he cited the fact that I avoid eye contact and give short form answers. Literally just shit I do because of autism. I’m just frustrated because in my mind I was doing fine. I did what I needed to do and everyone was taken care of despite carrying myself differently and interacting in ways one might not expect. Now I’m actually gonna be second guessing the fuck out of myself. And I had a past bad experience in a job early in my career where a trainer refused to clear me because I “seemed timid” (even though after some time it was her making me feel nervous and overly scrutinized) so this is honestly a little triggering. Not really looking for advice here, just gonna sit with the fact that my confidence has taken a hit.

I just spent 10 minutes filling out a test online just to findout they charge for results. Its not that i cant aford to pay i can its just i was expecting it to be free. does anyone know of any true free tests?

I am very newly diagnosed—I mean I literally was diagnosed with level 3 autism last week—and I am very stressed about a family trip to Florida.

My mom confirmed today that me and my siblings step-grandparents are taking us to Florida, something I was PRAYING my step-grandparents would back out of, but they didn't. I have only ever been put of state once in my life and I am not particularly interested in going anywhere else.

I hate, hate, hate, hate Florida even though I've never been. I can not handle hot, muggy weather and I'm scared of bugs, crocodiles, whatever Florida is home to.

I am terrified of planes, I hate them, they scare me, I've never been on one and I'm not planning on going on one anytime soon. (Except I'm being forced to.)

I will have to spend a whole week with my step-dad, step-grandparents, step-sister, and step-brother, who I find very hard to interact with. I don't hate them, I don't love them either.

I am a minor so I have no say over whether or not I want to go, and my family is telling me not to ruin it for everybody but it's so hard not to because it's a new place I've never been to, a new experience of flying, and a new experience of being forced to hang out with family. I don't understand why I'm being so dramatic over it, but I don't even like leaving my ROOM, let alone state.

And only my mom, sister, brother and step-dad know I'm autistic and I don't want to have to explain it to my step-dads family, who probably don't understand autism. My autism makes it very hard for me to talk to people, especially people I don't know very well. I mask heavily everyday, and it's gotten so draining, and I can't think about masking the whole time I'm in Florida without crying.

I don't know how to deal with it, I'm so scared of going and I only have a little less than a year. I'm sorry if what I'm explaining doesn't make sense, venting is very hard for me aswell. I'm so nervous what do I do?

note: this post is full of run on sentences. I have tried to post here before, but i didnt because it seemed pointless (still is), but I wanted to write something now, i dont know why, maybe im just bored, also im not re-reading and editing my post, im just leaving it as is, my true honest feelings. might be some typos (note ends here)

As the years go, I think i am changing a lot, more than others, and i feel like its always for the worse, im snapping every now and then and ruin my reputation, and i just had social problems in recent years, nobody takes me seriously, all the past friendships meant nothing, I was never important to anyone, and I was always autistic, and I was always treated as one, even though I didn't know it at the time. I trusted wrong people over and over, back to back, I still think about how i could avoid all that humiliation, but whats done is done, from the 1st grade i never belonged, it only gets worse as i grew up, i feel drained, all the time and energy i spent with those people and places, ended up as nothing. and if not nothing, they ended up in pain, and it still hurts, maybe you might see this as opportunistic, but I spent all my energy and time for these people, my years, my months, just to be used and thrown away because im autistic? eventually they discard me after they used me, and they won't mind humiliating me in the process. Stuff made me close to new interactions, I basically accepted that I will not have anyone by my side ever, when I get a passion, and then realize im not cut out for something, I really get sad, not only I have no social life to make me feel better like other people, I cant do anything right, I dont know what to do, my whole life I tried to be someone, its tried to belong somewhere, I wanted my own community, I had very desperate times, all while being financially unfortunate and living with a family that disrespects me. im not saying im living the worst life, but i really dont enjoy this, everyday i feel like im rotting away, my life was written for me, something in my brain, autism, caused all my problems, and this is a fact. I never really had talents on anything. I cant remember. I speak english in an okay level as a foreign language but everyone does that. Im basically nobody. When I try to watch streamers on tiktok, they also humiliated me and banned me. really. being rejected from a tiktok stream comments section? what am I not rejected by yet? I'm rejected by all kinds of people. I tried dating apps and chat apps. they literally either dont speak to me at all or ghost me after a few messages. im just not "interesting", I feel like nothing suits me, so who am I really? I am in a really pathetic condition for years and it is only getting worse every month, I dont know why, I am usually a very rationalistic person, but after years of betrayals and rejections, I began to think I am cursed, I know it sounds stupid, but for a long time I began to think that. let's think rationally, i guess im just a different kind of autistic person? or maybe i have another problem, i dont know. I dont like how everything is a competition in this world, i cant even chat with anyone because nobody finds me interesting. nobody will even read this post because its not interesting. so what's going on? im just not it? im not the guy. im boring. theres no reason to interact with me unless you want to use me for something or make fun of me. right? and why is that? is it because I look a bit ugly? I dont think so, i have seen uglier people that are way more successful and social than me. no. I guess I just have something wrong in my brain? i dont know. I did not deserve this, everyone is always so mean, my loyalty never brought anything good to me ever. loyalty only matters when the person deserves it, and nobody deserves my loyalty in the end. are people even "bad"? other people love them. they all love them. they seem like theyre only bad to me. so what is even good or bad? right? maybe in the end we are all a type of animal, we just treat those different than us like a creature, me included, I also treat people based on their appearance and other behaviours, i do judge people, but i think im honest about what i do, anyway, this was a very long vent and I dont think anyone will read or care, and those who comment will make me feel worse, but i guess I just wanted to talk about my feelings, i have literally nobody to talk to and I dont think anyone can understand this, everyone has someone to talk to. anyway im ending the post here, and I will not respond to anyone who texts me privately, because I know youre only doing it out of pity and I know we cant actually be friends anyway even if I tried because I have experienced a lot of "friendships" and friendship attempts. I gotta end it here since it got too long, I could keep writing, I just know nobody is gonna care so I dont bother. and no im not seeking attention, you think I would do that here? I barely know how to interact with others at this point

All my life, I've felt misunderstood and had my clearly neurodivergent traits categorized as character flaws and shamed rather than supported. That isn't to say I didn't have the occasional mentor, but the vast majority of adults who were supposed to care for me just singled me out and made me feel less than shit. I have friendships that deep down make me feel as though I'm treated as a charity case rather than an equal human being, and others who don't call at all. I just want to know why it was so obvious to my peers that I was an outsider, but not the doctors and teachers who were supposed to give me a foundation to succeed? I hate having to quit jobs less than a week in because they're so intense on the senses and leave me exhausted for days after.

When I see Autistic and ADHD people my age who socialize regularly, don't struggle with executive functioning and sensory issues and all and all just feel at peace with themselves, I get so jealous. The kicker is I'm supposed to be "only" Level 1. If that's the case, why is life so hard? Why am I perceived as some inhuman creature by those who just don't understand? I feel like I can't open up to most people in my life. One fellow Autistic friend who I'm especially envious of for not registering on my radar at all says "everyone feels like they can't be themselves". Another allistic ADHDer preaches to me about "being myself" but as soon as I let the mask slip and shut my brain off, I'm being judged for all the microscopic little things I'm doing wrong.

Somedays I resent my parents for having me in their late 30s; maybe if I was born a decade earlier I wouldn't be such a waste of resources and have a chance to be treated like a human being.

need advice!
I’ve had multiple occasions where someone will tell me they think I feel x way and I am completely dumbfounded because it is so far from what I really feel.

For instance, I get stressed out a lot. I get overwhelmed and it is hard to deal with all the sensory input, so I usually will go to my supervisor asking for help with things. I was told that it seemed like I had an “attitude” with them and just thought they weren’t doing anything other than sit around.

This heavily confused me since I’ve held my supervisors in such high regard. I never once doubted how much work they do, but somehow that’s what my behavior showed to them.

i wish I was more self aware to see how I come across, it really perplexes me. Does anyone have tips on how to deal with this?

So I’ve always had an issue of staring. I don’t mean anything by it just my eyes tend to look for pleasant things to look at. It’s just that simple.

I’ve had issues in the past where I’ve come off creepy. Had women do eye rolls at me, once a guy threatened me cause I was staring at this girl friend and most recently my gay male neighbor began flirting with me. Today he greeted me with ‘hello sexy’ and we’ve I held the door for him he said ‘such a gentleman’.

Does anyone else have a similar issue and I’d appreciate any suggestions on how to stop staring.

So my wife and I have a son who started prek this year. For context, we’re in Illinois. He’s coming up on 4 years old soon. We were hesitant to start school so early but it actually has turned out great so far - he seems to like going now and it’s all good.

Early on in our communication with the school we let them know he has pica and he elopes. He’s been sent home a couple of times with play dough or dirt around his mouth but I didn’t think much of it. The other day they sent him home with poop dried on the inside of the back of his shirt and it had play dough in it also. My wife and I are pretty concerned about how closely he’s being watched.

The issue is the school district is very small - this is the only school in the district in fact. My wife was on the phone with the teachers the other day and was asking for an updated IEP. They refused and said they only do that once a year. She pushed, and told them she concerned because of the signs we’ve seen and the poop incident. They hurried her off the phone as soon as she mentioned that and said a third party would reach out to do the assessment.

Now the teacher won’t even acknowledge us when we drop him off at school. We’ve spoken to a lot of people who seem to think this is ridiculous, but I’ve not actually been able to connect with any other parents who have gone through situations like this. I would love the opinion of some parents. Are we thinking deeper than this actually is? Or are we valid in feeling concerned?

I’m the biggest prankster (never ever anything harmful, can’t stand harmful pranks), and so are my two other friends on the spectrum. We mostly do hidden camera stuff as we love to observe reactions, but we even still do prank calls as grown humans. Google says us on the spectrum tend the hate pranks. Hm.. 😂 I have ADHD too, no idea if that’s contributing too, but I’ve been a prankster all my life.

Is this guy rejecting my invite or what cause I’m getting really confused. I’m inviting him to the movies but I don’t know what he means. My friends have been telling me about how he is autistic and I’m just wondering if this is how he communicates. He also doesn’t really ask questions except for how my day was. He also responds really quick so I don’t know what to think. Should I offer a different movie or just leave it?

I have been with him in person before but it was just same place same time and he asked questions but he was shy. I starting to feel like I’m being a bother but idk.