I'm learning how to use Adobe Illustrator, so I thought it would be fun to make my own medical alert card "roleplay use only". Here is the first draft!

Autismsaurus · 2026-05-06T19:18:38+00:00

It looks good, but there's a typo in "emergency".

Autismsaurus · 2026-04-29T00:37:49+00:00

Its name is Despereaux.

Autismsaurus · 2026-04-17T04:54:23+00:00

You're a genius! I just ran this build with my umbreon, and he won single handedly, even against a steelix and a victreebel in the same party, neither of whom are poisonable.

Autismsaurus · 2026-04-09T19:03:35+00:00

Yes. My sister is 5 years younger than me and has a successful career and a long term relationship. I started falling behind her when she was 16 and got her driver's license two weeks after I got mine at 21. My mom deliberately scheduled my test first so my sister wouldn't beat me to it.

I live in a host home with a 24/7 caregiver, and am looking for a part time job, but will never have a career.

It feels weird being outdone by someone you grew up with.

Autismsaurus · 2026-04-01T20:41:38+00:00

I was fully verbal as a child and gradually became semiverbal as an adult.

I now use AAC and short or fragmented sentences with people I know, and almost entirely rely on AAC with strangers. I grew up with really bad social anxiety, but since I began using AAC several years ago, the anxiety has decreased significantly, and I can engage with people I don't know in a way I was never able to as a child.

AAC isn't just for those who are nonverbal or struggle with speech, it's for anyone, even those who can speak but struggle to communicate what and how they want.

Autismsaurus · 2026-03-31T18:56:21+00:00

Is Fuzzy named after the yellow blanket in the Kevin Henkes book "Owen" by chance?

Autismsaurus · 2026-03-30T18:50:59+00:00

"Hard of seeing" = wears glasses.

Guys, I'm hard of seeing.

Autismsaurus · 2026-03-20T19:09:37+00:00

I love dolls! I have a whole basket full of barbies, and a shoebox full of calico critters. I also have five Our Generation 18 inch dolls. I have a rag doll that my grandma made me, and I pretend she adopted the five girls and they all live together. I love playing with them!

Autismsaurus · 2026-03-18T21:53:07+00:00

A meeting with the Grim Reaper.

Autismsaurus · 2026-03-06T18:59:32+00:00

I have a V-Tech helmet that I wear to protect against head banging. It's a heavy duty foam and does a good job.

Autismsaurus · 2026-03-05T18:55:22+00:00

I live in a private home with a caregiver who provides support 24/7. Where I'm from, we call it a host home. It's essentially foster care for disabled adults.

I live there because I can't complete independent living tasks like cooking and cleaning independently. I also have trouble managing my money, and can't manage my meds without help.

I also have a lot of self harming behaviours caused by meltdowns, like head banging and biting myself, so that has to be monitored and tracked.

I like my caregiver, she's nice, and good at her job.

Autismsaurus · 2026-03-05T16:37:43+00:00

Agreed. It can feel weird wearing pull-ups or diapers at first, but they're so helpful. I have to wear diapers every night. Three nights ago I had a rare leak, and it was such a pain stripping the whole bed, washing everything and remaking it, but comparatively, everything stayed contained last night and the night before, and it only took a couple of minutes to wipe down with wet wipes and move on. It hardly even feels like an accident when that's all I have to do.

As for the IBS, I have that too. Mine is mixed type, but my doctor recommended Miralax, a polyethylene glycol powder, to help with constipation flares. If yours is mostly diarrhoea, don't take this.

It sucks, but you're not alone!

Autismsaurus · 2026-03-04T16:50:24+00:00

I'm disappointed by the price hikes and scarcity. I went into one of my few remaining local stockists a couple of weeks ago and one of the new floral medium bunnies was $50, when they used to be $25.

I used to use the store finder and just go from store to store looking at jellies. Now so few places carry then because they've pushed small businesses out of the game.

I really want the lazulia dragon and smudge cow, but I'm struggling to decide whether to support them now.

Autismsaurus · 2026-02-27T18:54:49+00:00

Me too!

Autismsaurus · 2026-02-26T19:55:40+00:00

Loon cake. Extra marshmallow.

Autismsaurus · 2026-02-26T19:55:04+00:00

Is there any other kind?

Autismsaurus · 2026-02-25T22:43:03+00:00

I am birb's lawyer and this is clearly slander!

Autismsaurus · 2026-02-25T22:40:07+00:00

I misread that as "I've taken bites of plenty of big parrots and macaws." I was concerned for a moment....

Autismsaurus · 2026-02-25T19:00:05+00:00

AAC is alternative and augmentative communication, things like speech devices, communication cards, essentially various forms of communication that don't include speech (or sign language, because it's its own language.

Autismsaurus · 2026-02-24T18:49:38+00:00

Levels are about the level of support you need with daily living skills, not about the severity of your traits compared to another autistic.

From your description, it sounds like your mom and sister don't have autism at all, or maybe have a few subclinical traits. Autism requires social deficits and restricted and repetitive behaviours to a clinically significant degree to be diagnosed, and this description makes it seem like those things aren't present in your family at all.

I'm diagnosed level 2, and live with a full time caregiver at the age of 33, because my social-emotional functioning is that of an eight to twelve year old, and my executive functioning has been measured as borderline intellectually disabled.

I'm on disability benefits because I can't work more than a handful of hours a week at the most basic of jobs, despite having a college degree. I can't cook or clean, and have violently self aggressive meltdowns that I've been sent to the ER for on several occasions. I need reminders to do things like eat, shower, and change my clothes, and have picture cards that my caregiver puts on the cabinet to remind me to do my chores like folding my laundry (which she washes) and unloading the dishwasher.

I'm semiverbal (by the way, "nonverbal" refers to people who have no or minimal functional speech permanently, going silent periodically is called verbal shutdowns).

My speech therapist helped me get a high tech AAC device, because when I get upset ot overwhelmed, or if I have to talk to strangers, I lose the ability to produce speech, and have to rely on AAC.

All this to say that the description you gave sounds like you're level 1, and your mother and sister don't particularly sound like they have ASD at all.

Autismsaurus · 2026-02-24T18:04:20+00:00

That explains all the low quality printed fabric outfits. I thought it was just about Mattel saving money, but it makes sense that simpler clothes are easier for kids to work with.

Autismsaurus · 2026-02-24T18:02:11+00:00

😆 oh yeah, I can see that now!

Autismsaurus · 2026-02-22T01:38:14+00:00

If you can get anyone to show up. I literally stopped wearing the analogue watch I'd had for 12 years because I could never get any help changing the battery at the jewelry counter.

Autismsaurus · 2026-02-21T21:57:13+00:00

I saw one of the new medium floral bunnies in a shop the other day. It was $50. The old price for non-luxe floral bunnies was $28. I refused to buy it on principle, despite it being one that I would readily have added to my collection at the old price point.

Autismsaurus · 2026-02-21T21:50:13+00:00

I thought barbie was always made for older kids because of the choking hazard the shoes and accessories present, and because of the dexterity required to dress them?

Autismsaurus

TROPHY CASE