🧵 Ok so I’m just starting a thread of autism research/thoughts so that it can be muted if you want/need that:
“Many autistic people report not being able to enjoy humour if it’s at somebody else’s expense.”
This is the kind of thing that makes me worried about people as a whole, I always figured this was true for everyone and the only reason people laughed at “punching down” jokes was because they didn’t properly understand what the joke was about. I don’t know how to feel about a world where people really do understand and just, find it funny anyway…
As an example, when I was little my dad got me some books of anti-Irish jokes and at the time I loved them. I could read them out and everyone laughed, but then I grew up and realised wow, Irish people are actually people! That kind of thing just isn’t funny to me at all anymore. So I always assume laughing at someone’s expense is a result of immaturity or being ill informed? Can people learn and then still be assholes? This can’t be right, right?
Part of what I’m doing is listening to a lot of autistic people to hear about their internal experiences and see what resonates, and in the process I’m finding people I wish I knew about on YouTube much sooner. Eg, this is a great video worth watching outside the context of this thread
Okay, yeah, I’m autistic.
In the end I couldn’t really find anything that could disagree with that conclusion, I even went to research melt/shutdowns and that only triggered some stuff I didn’t need to remember. It all just makes so much sense, it’s so relatable, I’m autistic. Feels like it’s heavy and a relief at the same time somehow.
So yeah, expect toots from me on this topic as I figure things out personally. Like I’ve had a lot of thoughts on where stims and tics meet/overlap and I expect it’s going to take me a while longer to know what the fuck is up with that, especially since I’ve heard personal descriptions of both that are fucking IDENTICAL.
Also given I’ll be tooting about the topic, I feel I better add a disclaimer to my bio that the puzzle piece in my username is unrelated…
… I mean, it’s completely related since it’s my current special interest, but it’s not related in THAT way.
So I saw a couple of things about how autistic folk who have been masking without realising for a very long time tend to dissociate a lot from their bodies to cope with overwhelming sensory information, and that it can be beneficial to consciously try to listen to your body more, a little at a time.
Anyway I’m rediscovering all kinds of sensations and it’s A LOT. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised but yeah, it’s no wonder I had to switch off to cope. A middle ground would be nice.
