Aspergers used to be what we called people with ‘high functioning’ autism. We now just use the term autism and we are slowly moving away functioning labels because our levels of functioning increases and decreases at different points a cross the life span. #ActuallyAutistic

If no one has said this today: Your reactions make sense.

Being told you’re “too sensitive” didn’t make you tougher. It made you quieter.

When you say “I’m overwhelmed,” it’s not a metaphor. It’s a full-body experience.

You feel things early, deeply, and all at once. Before your brain has words, your body already knows.

You’re not dramatic. Your nervous system just notices more. #actuallyautistic

What belief did you have to unlearn before your life began to feel more like your own?

Autism didn’t become the problem. The belief that I was broken did.

And slowly, my whole world changed. Not overnight. But in a way that felt honest. Sustainable. Kind.

I slowed my life down. Not because I was “failing”… But because my nervous system needed safety, not pressure.

I acknowledged which people and situations dysregulated my nervous system — without making myself wrong for it.

I started getting curious instead of judgmental. What do I actually need? What drains me? What helps me regulate? I began honouring my sensory differences instead of forcing myself to tolerate pain, noise, overwhelm, and exhaustion.

The shift didn’t happen when I learned more about autism. It happened when I stopped believing I needed to be fixed.

For a long time, that belief sat quietly in the background of my life. Every struggle became “proof.” Every difference felt like a failure.

I was devastated when I found out I was autistic. Not because of autism itself — but because I truly believed it meant something was wrong with me. #askingautistics

How do you learn or work best? #askingautistics

One thing that really helps me work is scrapbooking. It’s visual. It slows me down. It lets me collect thoughts, ideas, and moments and put them all in one place. It doesn’t look productive in a traditional way—but it works for me.

Honestly, the thing that helped me most was learning from other neurodivergent people. Seeing how they work gave me permission to stop forcing myself into systems that didn’t fit.

I’m also not like a lot of neurodivergent people in the way people expect. I don’t have an amazing memory for facts. But I am creative. And I remember tiny details about people—their tone, their stories, what matters to them.

Being different gives me a lot of anxiety, so experimenting with new approaches felt risky. I was always worried I was doing it “wrong” or that I should be able to do it the way other people do.

In my experience, I didn’t find strategies that worked for me by being taught them. I had to figure them out myself. And most of the time they didn’t look like the “normal” way of doing things. That was scary.