@barefootrambling@autistics.life

Barefoot Rambling @barefootrambling@autistics.life

· 2mo ago

Question for my fellow autistics of the fediverse. Do you see EVERYTHING when you walk into a room for the first time? The painting, and the crack in the wall next to it. The plaid chair in the corner, and the dog hair behind the left front leg. The vase and the faces. (in the figure-ground, or Rubin, vase picture) I'm reading Leidy Klotz's new book, In A Good Place and he's saying things like, "we all miss most of the details when we enter a space. We see one thing then everything else dissolves into the background." and I just want to scream at the page. Or this one: "Our bodies keep responding to sensory inputs even when our minds have gotten in the habit of ignoring them." Is it just me, or do our (autistic) minds NEVER get in the habit of ignoring sensory inputs?! @autistics@fedigroups.social #ActuallyAutistic #auDHD

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Barefoot Rambling @barefootrambling@autistics.life

· 5mo ago

Reading about liminality for my current WIP novel and the deeper I go, the more convinced I am that #autistic folx are liminal beings.

For some context: I've referred to myself as marginalia for 20+ years. In high school I wasn't IN any clique, but I had 'contacts' in most of them so I knew what was going on everywhere.

Later, I started adding that I was "just wired" different (only to find out I was right. Literally.) and that explained things like why folks have always found me a receptive ear and said that talking with me was relaxing and they left the chat feeling better.

Now, as a writer, I feel like this status as consummate outsider is a huge benefit. I can travel between groups, gleaning what I need to know for a piece, often just by observing for a while. Then I go back to my dark basement and write it up.

I'm nowhere near the bottom of this rabbit hole, so my thoughts are still a bit hazy, but I expect I'll have a lot more to say in the near future. In the meantime, anyone have thoughts on this they'd be OK sharing? I'm all ears...

@autistics@fedigroups.social

#ActuallyAutistic #ActuallyADHD #auDHD

autistics.life

Autistics Life Community

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Barefoot Rambling @barefootrambling@autistics.life

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@atarifrosch@fedifreu.de @autistics@fedigroups.social Yes! My sister always accuses me of 'claiming to see details' but missing something she finds obvious. I've grown tired already of telling her that I missed that one thing BECAUSE I was processing 3,647 other things she didn't notice. What my brain finds important differs from what her brain finds important. Imagine that. And YES! on the sensory input being different from person to person. It can be different for me from day to day, too.

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Barefoot Rambling @barefootrambling@autistics.life

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@RobotDiver @autistics Pattern recognition is WILD in my brain. Where's Waldo? HA! I had a teacher "accuse" me of having my mom buy the say book so I could "show off" by finding that little bugger every time in 2 seconds flat. Now it mostly manifests as seeing every. single. continuity error in every. single. show/movie I watch. I can't NOT see it.

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Barefoot Rambling @barefootrambling@autistics.life

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@pathfinder@beige.party @autistics@fedigroups.social Exactly. It clicked for my last therapist when I said that it's not that I ever wanted to fit in, I just didn't want to stand out.

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Barefoot Rambling @barefootrambling@autistics.life

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@minego@pdx.social :bear_hugs:

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Barefoot Rambling @barefootrambling@autistics.life

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@adhdeanasl@beige.party He's not. He's a hybrid, a cross between an octopus and a metronome.

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Barefoot Rambling @barefootrambling@autistics.life

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@soren@kolektiva.social @autistics@fedigroups.social You're the facilitator, and that's an awesome way to use your strengths in a setting that could easily lead to overwhelm. Nice! 😎 (Just thinking about being that dot in the center of the circle makes me twitchy)

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Barefoot Rambling @barefootrambling@autistics.life

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Shanmonster Ow, damn! I mean, I've thrown a rib out sneezing, but...damn.

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Barefoot Rambling @barefootrambling@autistics.life

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Shanmonster As someone who often trips over his own toes (no, seriously. So annoying.) and regularly walks into the door frame (you know, the one that's been there as long as I've lived here and has not, to my knowledge, moved)—I feel this one deeply. I literally choked on my own spit this morning. No reason. Wasn't doing anything in particular. Just. Choked. Who did we piss off in a past life?!

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Barefoot Rambling @barefootrambling@autistics.life

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@TonyaMarie Every day for...two years (?!) now. Given that I thought it was depression until discovering my status as auDHD, at least I've been better able to address it for ~18 months of that time. :bear_hugs:

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Barefoot Rambling @barefootrambling@autistics.life

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Shanmonster Wow. Respect.

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Barefoot Rambling @barefootrambling@autistics.life

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@atarifrosch@fedifreu.de @eoinmorris@mastodon.ie @autistics@fedigroups.social I think the difference might be that with sounds like a neighbor or flatmate, you can learn to expect certain noises at certain times and be ready for them. Whereas with a neighboring fire station, there's no warning, or pattern, to when the sirens will start to wail. (and for what it's worth, your English is better than many native speakers I encounter every day!)

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Barefoot Rambling @barefootrambling@autistics.life

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@theautisticcoach@neurodifferent.me @autistics@fedigroups.social "It's not what you say, it's how you say it." Turns out, I only have one way of saying anything, flat and to the point. I've never used subtext (in speaking, I use it in writing all the damn time. Because. NT audiences). Others have already mentioned the eye contact...thing. "You need to speak up, otherwise you won't get noticed/credit." That one tears me up, as it followed me from high school group projects through to running my own team of IT techs. There are more, but I'm tired. 🫠

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