Link to an Instagram reel Audio “I will grow under any conditions” Text “Me before I unmasked, working myself to what looks like irreversible ASD burnout”

Audio “I’m allergic to tap water” Text “Me after unmasking and learning how real skill regression is”

  • MadgePickles@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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    1 year ago

    Since realizing I’m autistic I have had a few big areas of skill regression that have really concerned me. Mainly sensory sensitivity leading to overstimulation, and just total exhaustion after any kind of social activity leading to a deep sense of need to be alone for a long time, like many many days in order to recover.

    I think about this a lot about what it means because I used to mask everything so much that I could go all school semester passing as a normal human, just quirky. Then during break I would get sick and fall apart like my body was just waiting for permission to take a break.

    Summers were always a time of much deeper depression and I think about it now as burnout. But I always pulled myself back together to perform the requisite behaviors.

    Now I have given myself permission to give myself accommodations with regards to sensory overload and recovery after socializing, I recognize it better and understand more what I’m feeling. But that makes it seem like it’s there * more *