Published on 12, July, 2020
Have you ever had to interact with a certain type of autistic person who believes that their autism gives them a right to your silence? As an autistic person myself I find it incredibly irritating.
like many autistic people i’m used to getting comments about ‘you’re shouting’ when I’m not shouting but I’m talking more loudly than people expect. For me Stimming can be something as simple as humming a musical under my breath. Something that is likely to indicate that I’m stressed out. In fact I’m more stressed out I am the more likely I am to be making some kind of ‘noise.’ Humming, tapping, singing etc. and of course what stresses me out more is being told I’m making ‘noise’ and I need to stop or else.
absolutely one of the most offensive things you can possibly do is to tell me I am ‘laughing too loud.’ because to enjoy humour and comedy you have to have a lack of self consciousness and it’s absolutely impossible to have a lack of self consciousness if you are worrying about ‘laughing too loud.’
so to those people who think autism gives them a right to demand quietness, to turn the whole world into a library (and I say it as someone who likes libraries) I have to say to you respectfully no it doesn’t. Here’s a set of earplugs, deal with it.
but in truth what offends me the most is them speaking on my behalf. equating autism with this supersensitivity to sound. A lot of us do not get this. A lot of us struggle with social issues; it is after all one of the defining aspects of autism, and it’s really unhelpful when Neurotypicals get the wrong end of the stick and think that autism is just somehow some sort of super sensitive hearing / touch thing. Because from my point of view the thing Neurotypicals really need to understand is how autism affects social interaction.
that is one of the two major things all autistic people share, issues with social interaction. it’s the aspect Neurotypicals tend to really struggle to get their heads around. It’s really un helpful when people paint this inaccurate picture of the autistic presentation. You know the stereotype. If you’re autistic you’ve got to be really quiet and painfully polite and a real indoors introvert that would rather deal with animals than people. Someone who can’t stand noise and hates a party and is really adverse to confrontation. A completely rubbish stereotype that is completely the opposite of people like me.
The person in the room laughing the loudest at the most inappropriate joke. The person who is always trying to stave off boredom and likes a good party and dancing to loud music. The guy looking to turn the conversation to something interesting and weird because every day life is so banal. It would be nice for me personally if we could have a bit of representation among the autistic community that represents me. It’s bad enough that the media gets it wrong, it’s intolerable when other autistic people present the quiet stereotypes as being authentic.
I prefer quiet. Quiet is friendly whereas loud quickly leads me to sensory overload. I prefer quiet people, quiet places and a quiet world. One of my favourite things to do is to be awake at night, just so I can bask in the silence. It's the one time where I don't get sensory overload from sound. Bliss.
Sen said:One of my favourite things to do is to be awake at night, just so I can bask in the silence. It's the one time where I don't get sensory overload from sound. Bliss.
I get this. Years ago when I was studying for exams this was the only time I was able to study. If there was any background noise nothing would go in and learning was impossible. This was long before the days of noise cancelling headphones.
Even now I find my most productive hours are during the night when the world is blissfully quiet. Those silent hours are far too precious to waste sleeping!
It's a difficult balance. I love being awake all night but I find that when I am, I sleep in too late. Being asleep in the days does not help solve my issues with not being in the world as much as I would like. Again, I think it's just about accepting who you are as an Autist. Life will always be different for us.
It won't i'm afraid. As I have a life long incurable disease. It's not fatal though. Interoceptive is a new word on me. So, thanks for that.
Sleep allows the body to heal and repair itself and I'm a great believer that you need to listen to what your body is telling you. However that's not always easy for autists due to interoceptive differences.
I hope your health situation improves for you.
I've always felt very under the weather if I only have 6 hours. I don't even feel that great off 8 hours. Especially now I am in ill health.
Yes balance is key, trying to completely move to nocturnal living causes as many problems as it solves.
All humans need sleep and when I was working my body would force me to catch up on it during the weekends. Now I tend to stay up until 3am and then sleep for around 6 hours. That works for me and allows me to still make the most of daylight hours. If I do stay up all night I will suffer for it afterwards.