izzy @ijyx@sunbeam.city

It's been a while so I thought I'd do some editing on my intro.

When I have to use a name, I prefer Ijon or Izzy. Any gender neutral pronouns are fine. I'm GenZ but over 18, and currently studying social pedagogy. After that i might study "special education" (gosh i hate that wording) and possibly psychology

I'm a libertarian socialist and antifascist

I'm neurodivergent/ autistic/ an "immersive daydreamer" (also hate that wording)

I live in Germany and speak English, German, and *some* Italian. Also currently learning some basic arabic.

I'm also a white (probably) dyadic christian european and if I ever say some ignorant bullshit, pls call me out on it

FV - my brother. 11 y/o at the time of making this post. neurodivergent. technically my nephew/ foster brother but that's not important in most contexts

Lele - my niece. 13 y/o

Bee - my niece. 8 y/o

Dani - my sister. Lele's and Bee's mother

Mik - my older brother. FV's dad

Mom/Mama - my mother. i'm sure this one's a huge surprise

Oma - my grandmother, my mother's mother

Opa - my grandfather, my mother's father

Pronoun Check! Here's what I prefer you use for me:

Legend:
❎ No
✅ Yes
👥 If I know you (we've interacted before or I follow you)
👌 Generally OK, preferred in combination with its masc/fem counterpart

It/its - ❎
She/her - ❎
He/him - ❎
They/them - ✅
Neo-pronouns - ✅
Sir - ❎
Ma'am - ❎
Pal, buddy, friend, comrade, etc - ✅
Dude - ✅
Bro/bruh - ❎
Sis - ❎
Sib - 👥
Boy, Girl - Not when referring to gender, otherwise OK
Gurl - ❎
Guy - ✅
King - 👌
Queen - 👌
Prince - ✅
Princess - ❎
Lady - ❎
Feminine compliments (pretty, beautiful, etc) - 👌
Masculine comments (handsome, etc) - 👌
Honey, Sweety, etc - 👥

So it looks like SBC will stay up for now but to be sure I boosted half my posts to @ijyx@moon.holiday

(would that even save the posts if SBC got taken down?)

i need to be able to filter for the posts about my daycare kids, so im gonna be tagging them #todaywiththekids

"Sometimes I have to cover my ears to block out painful noises (like vacuum cleaners or people talking too much or too loudly)."

Nope. While I'm somewhat sensitive to the noise of vacuums, and nowadays tend to wear ear defenders for it, I don't think I've ever covered my ear bc of it. To me, loud noises are usually things that are very uncomfortable at worst, but not painful

y'all?

"When talking to someone, I have a hard time telling when it is my turn to talk or to listen."

Another definitive yes. This time, it's so specific that I don't really have anything to add right now

"How to make friends and socialize is a mystery to me."

Oh look, finally something I can give a definitive answer to: yes

It's so weird when I join some sort of group - most recently, a new class - and after a few weeks, I notice that friendships have developed between other people. I probably notice this much later than it actually happens though. I think of most people in that group equally (they're all my classmates) and am often oblivious to the idea that they might perceive me differently than they perceive others in that group. Like many things, friendships seem to happen too fast for me to keep track of (and so does the end of friendships).

There's a lot of other things that make socializing and making friends difficult. I could probably fill a book with that. But this is the first that came to mind

"When I feel overwhelmed by my senses, I have to isolate myself to shut them down."

This one is (once again) difficult for me to answer. This time, because it disguises two statements as one:

1. I feel overwhelmed by my senses
2. When that happens, I have to isolate myself to shut them down

Yes, I often get overwhelmed and then need to isolate myself. Is that overwhelm caused by my senses though? No idea. On one hand, I don't consider myself to be particularly sensory hyperreactive. Aside from tactile defensiveness and a little visual defensiveness, I think I'm more *underreactive*. I don't notice the difference between my weighted blanket and a normal one, and recently I didn't notice a frisbee until it almoat hit my face - even though I'd been staring right at it.
On the other hand, there are other signs that I might be more reactive to sensory input than I think, but overall, I find it very difficult to identify what triggers my overwhelm

#actuallyautistic

I'll do a few of these again (votes: autistic only please)

"I can chat and make small talk with people."

This really needs a "sometimes" option for me. It depends on how well prepared I am. It depends on the topic. It depends on my mood and energy

Are we talking about shared experiences? Like "what do you think about what just happened"? I can do those

Chats about "what did you do on the weekend?", on the other hand... Leave me out of those

Then of course it depends on what it means to "be able to" do this. I can listen and show you through my body language and sounds that I'm listening (sometimes even when I'm not actually listening... oops) but may fail to respond. In other cases, I might be able to respond *in detail*, but then forget to ask your question back at you, or to react to things I later recognize as "prompts" to ask you about something.

Does that mean I can't "chat"?

Another autism poll!

#actuallyautistic people, do you struggle with alexithymia or low interoception?

Alexithymia - not being able to recognize or name your emotions, like happiness or anxiety

low interoception - not being able to recognize or name your bodily sensations, like hunger or needing to pee. Or problems with interoceptive discrimination, like not being able to distinguish between different sensations

does anyone know a good shared minimalist privacy-friendly grocery list app?

"I often don’t know how to act in social situations."

This is also vague, but I think I can answer this with a yes, because there aren't many exceptions to this. I mean, I can do well in social situations that are predictable to me, like casual and "superficial" conversations, because those often occur *and* can be overheard when other people have them. But conversations I'm unprepared for? Small talk? Emotional conversations? Anything requiring me to show enthusiasm? Count me out.

Even when I do have an idea of how to act, I'm usually too slow to catch up

Anyone else?

"It is difficult to figure out what other people expect of me."

This is sooo vague. Ahh. Dies this refer to situations when people talk about how I was supposed to do xyz, but they never told me? Because that would be a yes. But was that true when I was a kid too? Who knows. I can barely answer this for today

Y'all?

"It is very difficult for me to work and function in groups."

I think I'm able to do it, generally, but it's definitely difficult. At school, I often did the entire work alone and let others copy the answers rather than doing it together; the first was less work. When I do work in a team, I like to split tasks so that I can work on it on my own, and then the others can use what I did.

"Some ordinary textures that do not bother others feel very offensive when they touch my skin."

This one is a clear yes to me. I refused to wear jeans since I was six. There's other textures that just *hurt*. Clothes other people consider "comfortable" are usually just "okay" for me.

You? (Only answer the poll if autistic, anyone can reply of course!)

" It is difficult for me to understand how other people are feeling when we are talking."

What do you think? I find this one very difficult to answer, because I don't think I pay attention to that. In a conversation, I have to process a lot of information while simultaneously coming up with something to say. I think I'd be able to understand how other people are feeling though. I'm quite sure I can when I overhear conversations *other* people have

Autistic people: What about you? (I'll include a poll out of curiosity, but i think it's very black-and-white. I'm more interested in written answers, if you wanna make one)

#actuallyautistic

i'll do a poll series of the RAADS-14 items. Don't wanna spam the tag with it, so you can find them in this thread

feel free to discuss items as well!! What do you think is too vague? What do you think about how it's worded? How does or doesn't it apply to you?

Back again with the polls

#Actuallyautistic people: Did you ever have a special interest in Harry Potter?

"Unsure/ kinda" can include having a special interest in a related subject that included Harry Potter (e.g. a SpIn in witchcraft, or MG/YA fiction, and it included harry potter for you), or having had a strong interest in it but not remembering/ knowing if it was a SpIn

I created an alphabet sentence while half-asleep

A bee certainly died elegantly for green hornets in jail, kissing lion's mouth - not on purpose, quite right - so teasingly until vet won xylophone-yielding zebra.

And they say you can't be productive when youre tired /s