• 31 Posts
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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: September 15th, 2023

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  • Going temporarily mute can be a really weird experience, and is something I imagine is very personal to the individual. When it happens to me, I usually end up wanting to be wrapped up in a blanket or thick hoodie in the dark in a soft, quiet place like my bed. Sometimes I’ll stim with a toy or something, and sometimes I’ll just kind of dissociate until I have the energy to speak again. If you haven’t already heard of it, Stim Punks Foundation has some amazing content: (this links to their situational mutism page). Here’s a great graphic from them that might help too. It’s cut off but the full thing is on that page I linked and includes sources with further reading.


  • Yep, allllll the time. I can’t sleep without white noise because I’ll fixate on things like cars passing or the a/c kicking on. I swear I can feel every hair on my head some nights and they’re somehow twisted the wrong direction. I have sensitive skin too, so I’ll randomly get hives/red itchy splotches that are maddening when trying to sleep. If I get actual bug bites I have to put bandaids over them so I don’t feel them rubbing against any fabric because I’ll scratch them bloody even when unconscious. Fun times.


  • I’ve had insomnia my entire life. Can’t sleep more than 4-5 hours at a time because of horrible/strange dreams/nightmares. Falling asleep is the worst of it, and the tiniest of disturbances (a noise, sensory issue like with the bedding) can dysregulate me to the point of distress making it hard to relax and pass out. I only slept well during times of heavy thc use, but those days are long gone. I need white noise, total darkness, and clean bedding to fall asleep these days and it’s never a guarantee.





  • If that part doesn’t bother you and never has, then that’s the end of that. I have excellent hearing on top of being unable to process and filter certain stimuli. Autism very much coincides with ADHD on a lot of criteria, so again, it can be very difficult to diagnose, but if you’re really determined to get a yes or no answer your best bet is with a doctor. Also, if you’ve been heavily masked all your life, trying to break through that mask for the first time can feel overwhelming and can bring old trauma to the surface. It’s common to feel like you’re regressing as you re-frame your thinking to include those neurospicy tendencies. This community doesn’t get a lot of attention, so if you’re looking for more shared experiences head over to the Neurodiverse comm on Hexbear. They helped me with so much when I was going through the diagnosis process and understanding the very personal, very human aspects of what it means to be Autistic. Hope you find whatever is you’re looking for out of this.


  • Keep in mind that modern medicine is still catching up to reality when it comes to actual lived experiences of Autistic people, and that ableism around this often invisible disability can be difficult to overcome.

    I’m linking the site that I got the most use out of when I was first looking into getting tested, but keep in mind that they are asking about your entire life, not just recent events. There’s over 20 tests on this one page, take breaks if you feel overwhelmed.

    Example: You mentioned hearing things others can’t. At any point in your life, going back to early childhood, could this apply to you?

    I have Autism and ADHD, and frequently I cannot tune out certain auditory stimuli no matter how hard I try, and it can affect my concentration and emotional regulation to the point of causing a breakdown. Common noises that affect me are electrical buzzing/higher frequencies that most people can just tune out without thought, or the low rumble of diesel engines. Most people can hear the truck idling outside only if they concentrate, but for me it’s impossible to ignore as soon as they’re on my street. To me, those noises are subtle torture.

    Try not to spend more than 3-4 minutes on these questions, and try not to put too much weight on them; they are self-reporting tools to give you a sense of how Autism may be/has previously impacting/ed your daily life. Remember that it is a spectrum; not every question will apply to you and scoring higher or lower on these just means there are INDICATORS, and different criteria will be used if you seek out an official diagnosis. The current testing criteria for licensed professionals is the DSM-5. Your lived experiences and feelings are valid. If you haven’t already, Unmasking Autism by Dr. Devon Price is an excellent book to start your diagnosis journey, and there’s exercises and resources within the book itself. Make sure to screenshot your results, too, so you don’t lose them.

    Good luck!



  • The viral genome sequence obtained from a tracheal-aspirate specimen collected on November 9 (8 days after the onset of symptoms) was reconstructed as described previously.3 The virus was typed as clade 2.3.4.4b, genotype D1.1,4 most closely related to viruses detected in wild birds in British Columbia around the same time (Fig. S2). Markers of adaptation to humans were detected in the tracheal-aspirate specimen collected on November 9: the E627K mutation was detected (52% allele frequency) in the polymerase basic 2 (PB2) gene product, and analysis of the H5 hemagglutinin (HA) gene yielded ambiguous calls in the codons for amino acid residues E186 (E190 according to H3 mature HA numbering) — 28% allele frequency for E186D — and Q222 (Q226 according to H3 mature HA numbering) — 35% allele frequency for Q222H. The mutations in the H5 HA gene have previously been shown to increase binding to α2-6–linked sialic acids, which act as receptors that facilitate viral entry into cells in the human respiratory tract and enable viral replication.5