We can't accept autistic people while allowing systemic factors to make the lives of autistic people measurably worse.

Acceptance requires providing affirming, consensual support to prevent negative health, social, and life outcomes

Me: Argh! How did my phone die again!?

Me, earlier after every single notification: I should plug in my phone as soon as I finish reading this...

There are serious barriers that prevent autistic people from accessing healthcare, and this can lead to large negative health disparities.

These barriers include autistic traits, like social communication differences, but also systemic issues like un(der)employment and poverty

Even completely normal, everyday noises can be dysregulating when you have sensory sensitivities.

It takes such a hidden toll to be constantly on edge, dysregulated, or upset by noises you 100% understand are completely reasonable

Being accepting of autistic people isn't going to magically fix all of the very real barriers we face in social, emotional, or sensory aspects of our lives.

But, accepting autistic people would mean that these struggles aren't layered with trauma from just existing

Being autistic means our natural way of being in the world is treated as wrong, weird, or bad often enough that we often feel like outsiders or aliens.

This can lead us to internalize this feedback which can have serious impacts on our self-esteem, self-worth, and self-concept

If autism awareness has taught me anything, it is that one day, without warning, I will shatter into a pile of puzzle pieces

Being autistic impacts our self-esteem and self-concept.

Part of this is related to the very real trauma of being autistic in an allistic society, but autistic self-regulation issues can also have a huge impact on our relationship with ourselves

Me: huh. That's weird.

me, internally: Did I notice that due to sensory issues or hypervigilance? How much do they play into the other? Is it a causal relationship or just an association...?

me, externally: *standing in bathroom holding a kitchen scale, oblivious to doing so*

Emotional regulation is an executive function.

Like others, it becomes harder to use this skill when we're using our energy to navigate other executive function demands, such as regulating our attention, planning, or making decisions

Emotions can be particularly overwhelming for autistic people because they're often intense sensations, or have a major impact on our sensations, and being highly responsive to sensations is already one of the most common autistic experiences

For a lot of autistic people, emotional regulation is difficult, in part, due to struggles identifying the emotion we're feeling (alexithymia) and noticing we're feeling it in the first place (interoception).

Without this information it's harder to direct our emotional response

I think that ADHD'ers should be more supportive of autistic people during Autism Acceptance Month.

There are a lot of shared battles between communities, and building community and supporting each other is incredibly valuable even if there weren't

I'm in the process of prepping my tweets for Autism Acceptance Month and I'm ngl, I'm pretty excited :)