Autistic romantic relationships, just like with neurotypical relationships, are diverse and fluid ❤️

Fascinating. New research suggests that people who prefer reading right-wing news tend to have more negative views and more inaccurate views about Autism.

Interesting study looking into how stable or changing camouflaging behaviours are over a 2 year period. It would be interesting to extend this for a longer period of time!

Incorporating neurodivergent co-production in designing training materials for educators is one of the most effective ways of increasing educator's understanding of neurodiversity.

As someone diagnosed at 30, these found themes definitely illustrate the range of emotions experienced at a later diagnosis.

A qualitative analysis by @kanabaletti.bsky.social et al found that autistic adults face a conflict between balancing their desire for social connection with their limited energy for engaging in social experiences. FREE until 25th November www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1177/...

I am reading Dr Devon Price's book "Unmasking for Life" and this sentence stuck with me. This is a good overview of how autistic people who engage in deeper or more ingrained masking might struggle to live authentic lives or form any real relationships. It is therefore important to learn unmasking.

New research into how autistic masking can be detrimental to mental health and lead to more identity confusion.

New BMJ Research: Existing evidence does not clearly link paracetamol (acetaminophen) use during pregnancy with autism or ADHD in children, finds an in-depth evidence review www.bmj.com/content/391/...

Interesting new research on how cultural influences such as gender roles can have an influence on autistic camouflaging

Happy to announce that I will be starting my PhD in psychology (specifically in autistic camouflaging in educational settings) at the University of Birmingham later this year 🤗

Anyway here's my dog with her big beautiful brown eyes that I love staring into while I avoid the eye contact of everyone else around me 🙃

A new but harmful paper on trying different methods to force eye contact in autistic people by encouraging them to engage with a dog. They found that the autistic kids had increased eye contact with the dogs but not with the human therapist. I mean, duh! 😂 www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...

If you are not letting your autistic child be themselves and only see them as a problem or 'challenging' then you are forcing them to mask. That mask will burn them out one day. We instead need to accommodate to THEIR needs. Not make them accommodate to yours.

I did not question that I could be Autistic until I learnt what masking/camouflaging was. This is such a big part of autism and should be taken into consideration when undertaking an Autism assessment

I'm coming up on 1 year since my autism diagnosis 🤗 If you received your diagnosis quite recently like me, how do you feel about your autism now? What point are you at?

So much of this resonated with me. The last 6 months, I've decided to stop drinking at social events because I realised I was using it to mask my autism and cope. But drinking actually had the opposite effect when the next day I get anxiety about how I acted. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Any other autistic folk experiencing difficulties during this period between christmas and new year and being out of normal routine? How are you managing?

As an autistic person, what factors help most with maintaining your friendships? #ActuallyAutistic

Research discusses the social benefits of tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons in autistic adults. My overview of the research + a link to the original paper is below: www.simplypsychology.org/tabletop-rol...

My new article on autistic rumination and exploring the reasons why we may get stuck in unhelpful thoughts. www.simplypsychology.org/autistic-rum...

Important new paper. #AutismResearch that focuses on brain scans raises questions for me, mostly: how is this going to benefit autistic people? www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/...

Do any other #ActuallyAutistic folk struggle with rumination/getting stuck in negative thought loops? This is something I find myself in and I assumed it was not related to autism but an anxiety disorder. But if "repetitive behaviours" are autistic then it makes sense repetitive thoughts are too?

As an #ActuallyAutistic person, eye contact is too uncomfortable and often forced when deemed necessary. My article discusses some of the reasons why many autistic people dislike eye contact and why we shouldn't force this behaviour in people. www.simplypsychology.org/autism-eye-c...

Due to significantly more people being diagnosed as autistic, it raises the question of: Are more people autistic these days? My article explores some of the possible reasons why autism appears to be 'increasing.' www.simplypsychology.org/why-is-autis... #ActuallyAutistic #Autism #Neurodiversity

My 1st post on Blue Sky 🦋 Below is an article I wrote outlining 13 myths and misconceptions about autism. www.simplypsychology.org/autism-myths...