Two different research groups have now found a relationship between early childhood penile circumcision and autism spectrum disorder. The two different studies had different goals, different recruitment approaches, different study variables, and yet the relationship between ASD and circumcision remains striking!
For boys undegoing penile genital cutting before age five, the risk of ASD is even higher.
Autistic and non-autistic transgender youth are similar in gender development and sexuality phenotypes
Fischbach et al. Br J Dev Psychol. 2024.
"Neither autism diagnostic status nor continuous autistic traits were significantly related to any gender or sexuality phenotypes. These findings suggest that the developmental and experiential features of gender diversity are very similar between autistic and non-autistic transgender adolescents."
I'm setting up a weekly conference call for #neurodivergent#ADHD#AuDHD#autism people. What weekday and hour is best for you? Please include your timezone.
Gran: “He’s never done any of it in a malicious way. Why didn’t the school system put in more filters, or firewalls, to prevent children from getting into that?”
County Spokesperson: "Threats to over 100,000 students’ safety, including hacking, will be met with the full force of the law and applicable District policy."
I'm trying to arrange a $93 loan for myself to be paid off Wednesday. It would need to be etransfer so if any Canadians can, help a home out and shoot me a dm!
I’ve realized it’s physically impossible to demonstrate how to ride a bike when the only bike available is one for 8 year olds. So anyway, he took to it quite well. Sat on it, wore the helmet with no sensory issues, even peddled forward-ish some of the time and steered. Balancing is going to be hard to teach. He’s sort of kind of got the concept of “brakes” but I wouldn’t trust him to use them. #autism
I am constantly feeling overwhelmed. I can't believe there are people who struggle the same as I do in situations like floods and wildfires, or trying to stay alive in places like Yemen or Syria or Gaza.
Much to my shock I realised that I could be autistic when I was 53, roughly 7 years ago. And it was a shock, even though I suspect a very small, well hidden and very much ignored part of me, might have suspected. No one told me about it, or suggested that it might be the case. I did not see myself in relatives, the way so many of us do. I just happened to come across an autism test online and for no particular reason, took it.
It was that, that started me on my path to realising and finally accepting the truth that I was autistic. But, looking back, I sometimes find it hard to understand how I didn't know earlier. So much of my life now, just screams autism at me. But even ignoring the horribly ableist and medieval view I had of what autism was, the main reason why I didn't was probably because I could mask, both from myself and others, so well.
It was, I realise now, a life lived in denial. A denial of how much things bothered me, how much effort I had to put into things. Even a denial of the things I knew I couldn't do. Because this is the thing about appearing to mask so well, for so long. It is, in a sense, a lie. I couldn't mask well, if at all. Not all the time. Not in all situations or circumstances. There were things I just couldn't cope with, or even begin to deal with. But the trick was, that I either knew about them, or learnt the hard way about them and then I could manage my life to avoid them. Because they were things I could live without, without affecting how I appeared to be coping. Things that didn't affect the way I lived, even if they did affect my sense of worth. Because, how broken did you have to be, not to be able to go to crowded events, like a sports match, or a concert? Or to be able to deal with the socialising of a large gathering, or a family event, without having to hide in the kitchen, or forever outside, or break down in a toilet?
It was all part of how I masked myself from myself. The internal masking, as I like to call it. If I couldn't cope, then I was broken. If I couldn't stand something, then I was too picky, or sensitive, or I simply needed to learn to ignore it. And somehow I did learn. I learnt how to cope with noise and smell and visual overwhelm. I learnt to not let things bother me. To a point at least. There was always a step too far, when I couldn't, or didn't have the energy any more to maintain it. And this did take energy, a lot of it. Something I've only realising now that I don't have the energy to spare to even try it. Or the ability to, in many respects now that I know what I was trying so desperately to hide from.
Because when the truth is known, it's far harder to deny it. It's far harder to live the life where appearing to cope, is as good as coping. Where blaming yourself, is easier than seeing others faults. Where ignoring the pain, makes the pain go away. It's hard to see the mask as a benefit and always a good thing, rather than the shield and tool it always was.
"The real understanding for me, years now in the making, is that a tree in blossom is more than the fruit it yields, more than its own fleeting beauty. It is a network, a living system of relationships."
Something very interesting I accidentally came across while investigating what neurotransmitters are involved in an orgasm (turns out to be basically all of them, but oxytocin and vasopressin are specific to sex, love and friendship):
I have just watched the 1st episode of A Kind of Spark thanks to @PetitPas
It’s a Irish British American Canadian series. In Canada I’m watching it on CBC Gem, in the UK it seems to be on the CBBC channel, for the others countries I don’t know.
I like it because the 3 autistic sisters are played by autistic actors, use of the words autistic, masking, meltdown. etc. Shows sensory overload, etc., ignorance and bias.
If you have an autistic loved one, please watch the show mentioned in the first toot if you can.
If you are autistic, please tell me what you think of it. I know that it won’t talk to all of us, but I’m seeing so much of myself in the series even I have learned only at 49 that I was autistic.
I know that the show is not perfect but for me it’s the first time that I’ve seen such an accurate representation of our experiences and suffering.