if you say you support autistic people, you need to take a step back and critically think about things you call “annoying” and eye roll at people for, because quite frankly a lot of those things are symptoms of autism.
talking too fast, too slow, too loudly, or too quietly (we literally cannot control the speed of which we speak or volume of how we speak without an intense conscious effort, and when we are happy or excited we especially talk faster or louder)
infodumping when a certain subject comes up (we are invested in our interests and especially our special interests and are rarely given the opportunity to talk about it, so when we get it we jump on it)
talking about their personal experience / their own story when someone else is talking about theirs (it’s one of the ways we try to engage in discussion and empathize, it is not an act of being self-centered or only caring about ourselves)
not being able to stay still or look directly at you (we stim, we fidget, we struggle with eye contact, etc. and sometimes it can be PAINFUL to force ourselves to stop)
panicking, speaking abruptly in a distressed manner / loudly, having a meltdown (everyone feels distress and experiences it in their own way, and many of us experience that distress amplified)
I am so sick of people saying they are allies and that they wouldn’t pick on autistic people or find autistic people annoying, but then judging and picking on people for symptoms of autism. you are not an ally if you think it’s okay to pick on people for having autistic traits if they don’t directly say “the reason I am this way is because I have autism.”
