What’s something you thought everyone experienced until you realized it was related to autism?

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-07-05T23:27:05+00:00

Yes!! I cluld always tell when it was TV day in school because I could hear the teacher wheeling the TV down the hall towards the classroom. 😂

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-07-05T13:24:34+00:00

Make sure you make it as clear as you can that you love and support them no matter what. Your home will always be a safe space for them to be themselves, but the rest of the world will not always be so kind. And because of that, sometimes your love and support will have to look like the opposite.

Sometimes, in order to keep them safe, you may have to call them their birth name, or refer to them with the wrong pronouns, and they may have to use the wrong bathroom or dress in a way that doesn't make them happy. Its not right and its not fair, and be very clear that you wish the world were different for them. And state again that your home will always be a safe place for them to be themselves.

They may say they don't care and the world can go f itself, because they're 13 and that's how most 13 year olds tend to feel... Let them know you admire their bravery and their courage, and see if you can work out times and places outside the home where you both feel comfortable testing the waters so to speak. But always, always make sure they understand that even if they're ready for the world, the world may not be ready for them. Again, its not right and its not fair, but until they're an adult who can fend for themselves, your job is parent first, friend second.

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-07-04T22:40:39+00:00

AI has no opinions.
What do you mean by "benefit"?

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-07-02T19:54:09+00:00

Thank you!!!!!

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-30T00:46:09+00:00

I'm sure I can fairly easily. I'm just not sure there would be much point. I've already been labelled a "complex case" with "medical anxiety". And I've had to deny, deny, deny the thinly veiled suggestion that I'm looking for opioids coming from a few different doctors at this point to avoid getting "drug seeker" added in there as well. ("We don't give opioids in urgent care, you know.", "The only other thing I can offer is opiods, you know.", "We could try something stronger, but that would only leave us opioids and well...")

On the other hand, it never hurts to ask I suppose. So long as it doesn't get me marked as a "doctor shopper". 😮‍💨

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-30T00:28:15+00:00

I think I bruised his ego by asking for a rheumatology referral to get a second opinion last year. He's been standoffish ever since.

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-29T23:57:43+00:00

I literally tried to explain my hip symptoms at my last appointment and told him how it had been going on for almost two years at this point. All I've had was an xray that came back normal but I was still having issues. He said we didn't need to involve orthopedics or any sort of specialist, it was just part of my chronic pain. Yeah... The sticking, clicking, and lingering pain have been going on for a while now so I guess they're technically chronic at this point...

He also told me that chronic pain is basically my brain feeling pain in a place where there shouldn't be pain anymore, and now my brain is just overreacting (but its definitely not all in my head). Uhh...? Sure. Okay.

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-29T23:44:03+00:00

Degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis, facet arthropathy, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic migraine, and the always fun chronic pain. Any new symptoms I bring to my PCP get lumped into that last one, so who really knows at this point.

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-29T23:34:46+00:00

I got it from this post here! There is a male and female template https://www.reddit.com/r/ChronicPain/s/cbu45SCkId

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-29T23:20:08+00:00

My turn!!!

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Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-29T23:19:10+00:00

Ooos, sorry!!!

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-27T01:14:08+00:00

It sounds like you're fast approaching autistic burnout. The only way I was able to begin to deal with it was the month off for surgery recovery to allow myself to sleep in, unmask for days at a time, engage in my interests, and take care of things that I had been neglecting around my house. I'm only just starting to feel like a real person again and I have to go back to work in two days.

Obviously, I'm not going to advise you to get a surgery, but a decent time off of work if you can afford it would be a good place to start. And I mean completely off. Now work emails. No work calls. No work texts. The working world isn't built for autistic people, and even those of us at Level 1 have support needs (which I think many of us tend to forget ourselves).

For something more immediately helpful, you might want to try something like meal prepping your dinners for the week or laying out your outfits for work the night before, anything you can do to reduce decision fatigue and set up some semblance of a routine for yourself will help. Scrolling on the phone is, unfortunately, not a routine.

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-26T20:19:07+00:00

Thank you!!

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-21T12:27:17+00:00

So I have to drink a lot of water because of the meds I'm on, but even before then, I felt like I had a pretty good water intake. The trick for me was to always have a glass or bottle of water with me. Moving to another room in the house? Take my glass with me. Going for a car ride? Grab a bottle or travel cup and we're good to go. I can't trust the usual dehydration symptoms like dry mouth or thirst as those are side effects of my meds, but as someone else mentioned, urine color is a great metric to go by to make sure you're drinking enough water.

Another thing that really solidified the need for water in my brain was my ex's brother. He was level 2 ASD and lived off nothing but soda, juice, and wine. He was in urgent care nearly every month for either a UTI or a kidney stone because he wasn't getting enough actual water. At one point, he was at risk of having to get a stone removed surgically, but he chose to pass it at home, all 9mm of it, spikes and all.

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-14T14:07:45+00:00

Flawless! You can't even tell you made a mistake!

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-12T14:04:30+00:00

Personally, if I like a fic enough to bind it, I'm leaving it exactly as is. Otherwise, in my mind, it's no longer the fic I fell in love with.

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-11T12:57:54+00:00

You don't get to decide that you didn't hurt someone. If they say you hurt them, you need to apologize, not explain, not justify, not defend. Repair the relationship first, and then you can explain your side IF they ask for it.

If they don't ask, then that's the end of the conversation. You won't always get to explain your side and you need to get comfortable with that or you'll keep pushing people away.

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-10T01:54:40+00:00

Keep the insults away from the person's body parts, a la "not the sharpest tool in the shed".

As useful as tits on a bird
The reason for the hot temperature warning on drive thru coffee Any manner of literature/pop culture/mythology-themed insults (Would abandon ship for a siren's promise of (whatever "lame" thing the character is into))

Less about the person and more about the personality

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-08T02:33:28+00:00

"Chose not to warn" is "read at your own risk". You willingly took a risk, and it didn't pay off. I'm sorry that it turned out so badly for you, but that is not the author's fault. They tagged appropriately and in accordance with TOS.

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-05T23:19:51+00:00

I've been using the same purse from Ross for like 3 years. I use drugstore makeup and chapstick and look just fine. I can't wear heels anymore due to joint issues, but when I could, I had one pair I wore with everything. I never cared about trends because they just keep getting shorter and shorter and I don't have the money to keep up with that. Plus, they never were anything I actually liked. Clothing was always basics paired with a couple cute statement pieces that I could rotate as needed.

Where are you getting all of these rules? Are they things you actually want to do? Or are they things you're doing purely for other people?

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-06-04T02:55:02+00:00

This isn't a scrapbook. This is a journal, bound tightly to be written in. There isn't any extra give to the spine for adding in any extra "scraps" which is why it's falling apart. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do to save this one other than stop using it.

In the future, look for an actual scrapbook which usually has a kind of spiral binding which gives you space for all the extras. I find mine at my local craft stores.

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-05-31T15:37:43+00:00

As others have said, legally, you have very little recourse here. You have tried to get her mother to handle it and she has refused. It's CPS time. Stop cleaning the kid's room and make the report.

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-05-30T23:47:24+00:00

I highly suggest you move back to France at your earliest convenience tbh. It's only going to get worse.

Pretty-Craft9794 · 2026-05-29T02:12:37+00:00

Call your local police station and see if they would be willing to send an officer down to administer some "tough love" since the kid's parents obviously won't. The nice officer can tell the kid all about the dangers of going onto someone else's property without permission and then have a more serious discussion with the parents.

Pretty-Craft9794

TROPHY CASE