I’m looking for online programs that help us navigate the world as autistic people. It could be anything, such as learning about autism, neurotypicals, social settings, identifying your emotions, self-care for autistic people, common terms related to autism, autistic love languages, etc…anything that helps autistic people live life.
If you have completed any programs related to being autistic, what were they and what did you think about them? Were they helpful?
I hope you find what you’re looking for bud.
The closest I’ve ever found to anything like that is just… hanging out in queer spaces. Online or in person. My experience is that they tend to be welcoming, and accepting of our difficulties and more willing to help explain things that don’t make sense. I think there’s also a reasonable amount of overlap between how to cope with being queer in generally bigoted areas and how to cope with being neurodivergent but surrounded by NT people who display varying levels of acceptance.
I bring that up because like… a lot of what I used to think was difficulty understanding myself was mostly caused by internalized ideas that I was lazy or useless or w/e other nonsense I’ve been called by people with no understanding of or sympathy for situations I find abnormally difficult. I assumed the way I am was wrong and i couldnt understand why i was more comfortable being wrong. Material in queer spaces isn’t coded exactly for the negative ideas that are usually associated with ASD people, but the self affirmation messages are there
It’s neat that you say that about queer spaces! When I was in high school in the late 90s, I was in the LGBTQ club, tho I’ve never identified as LGBTQ. I found myself there because I was part of the outcasts and fell into since they were accepting. It’s like we all accepted and looked after each other.
I appreciate that you pointed out internalizing our difficulties as character deficiencies. I’ve definitely been affected by that and have been working to get rid those beliefs in the past year. I can see the overlap with LGBTQ. Pretty interesting. Thank you very much!
I uh. Have no idea if this fulfills what you need, exactly, it’s about a very specific facet of autism, but I’ve read this book and found it helpful for grounding how to navigate, self-care especially:
Unmasking Autism by Devon PriceI knew a lot of the information already, having built a lot of similar systems myself, but I feel it helped me feel less completely free-floating, based entirely in my own life theory with no contemporaries. I did learn some new things, as well, especially about wider context, safety, and how the stereotypes don’t serve any of us all that well.
It is… a bit of a narrow focus, I don’t know that it would give much information to those who aren’t high-masking, I don’t know that it would do much for someone who absolutely has to mask for safety. But if you struggle with high-masking and think there are probably at least some areas one could learn to let go, it is a decent reference. (Such as the case of me, who struggles with masking even in spaces I am completely alone, and suffering greatly because I have a lot of trouble letting go of what I “should be doing,” and ending up perpetuating unwitting and unwilling violence against myself. Still working on that.)
I hope this might be helpful information, even if it was not precisely what you were looking for.
Thank you.
Not an online program but the book Self Care for Autistic People by Dr Neff is pretty accessible and has some useful practical information, imo
Added it to my wish list!
