Know autism better. 1

There are more autistic people around You than You may think.
And even if person is not autistic, why not to try to understand them instead of calling a creep for simply acting differently?
Here You can find my another post about autism "I'm not the one who needs to be fixed, it's You who is wrong".

World loves to tell me what to do. And even more particularly what not to do. Do not speak, it says to me. You talk too fast. You talk too much. You talk about wrong things. And when I stay still, it asks to me to speak. It blames me for not interacting with everyone around. World just loves to tell me how I should live. And many people require me not just to live, but behave the way they want me to.

So, my part one of problems autistic people face or more particularly I face, later maybe there will be some more.

I do not own any rights to those pictures, they all are from Autistic Problems Tumblr. Going through all those pictures made me to think, wow people actually have the same problems like I do. I'm not the only one.
The chances that someone You know is autistic are pretty big, so accept them as they are and do not try to change.

Physical contact.

This is very simply: do not touch other people without their permission.
Do You feel like giving a hug? That's fine - just ask before and be prepared that sometimes You will hear no. And NO always means NO.
I like hugging and other physical contact only because of the social message behind it. I feel happy when members of my favourite band hugs me - not because I would enjoy the actual act of hugging, but because I know the social meaning behind and this social meaning means a lot to me.
But would not like a stranger hugging me into the street. Anyone I do not know touching me is a nightmare. I do not go to hairdressers because of that, I ask people I know and trust to cut my hair (with demo against fur trade as an exception).  Being in the place surrounded by a lot of people is a disaster for me.
So yes, please, do not touch other people without their permission.

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Obsessions.

Sadly that's so true. People are interested (sometimes) to hear about my special interest for the first time, maybe for the second, but after hearing about the same thing again and again, they are literally asking me to speak about something else. The thing is that sometimes it's not up to me to stop before it's finished. . .
One person said that I'm like a train (and I like trains!) when I speak about things I like. I cannot stop.

And even worse is to fake that You are interested: like to ask for my second favourite number and after explaining which number it is and why it's my second favourite number forget about that in a couple of minutes. That shows that You do not listen and do not care what I have to say. Well, why bother to speak then?
But I still think that things I like are so awesome! And if someone is up to speak about perfect numbers - oh well, I love to speak about perfect numbers, especially about the first perfect number.

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Food issues.

A lot of autistic people have food issues.

For example I cannot stand some kind of food touching each other. I don't eat spicy food or put sauce on it. Also I would never eat something that looks or smells differently than I expected. I am surprisingly picky about vegetables, particularly for a vegan, I cannot stand the texture of most of them.
Sometimes I feel that the list of things I eat is shorter than a list of things I don't.
People are so obsessed with food that it makes very hard to be around them while they are eating. Most of them try to make others to eat something they do not like or comment on their eating behaviour. If You know someone who is autistic, please, do not do this mistake and respect their choice. 

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How You can help person who has similar issues with food:

• don't assume that You know better what person likes and dislikes, if You like pasta with sauce it does not mean that others will. I do not put sauce on my food and it's perfectly fine for me.

• don't try to make person to try things they do not want to. I'm scared to death to try unknown food most of the time. It takes abnormally amount of energy to eat something I'm not prepared to.

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• don't assume others want to eat something different. I love to eat the same things all the time, when I still was in school there was a time I was eating pasta every day for years. And it felt good and safe.

• choices. Sometimes for autistic people it's very difficult to make choices. For me it's particularly difficult when it comes to food. I'm panicking to decide what to eat in restaurants, public places or at other people's houses. The best person can do to help in this situation is to suggest what to order, ask to separate food, ask to remove something from the meal or to add something. And the best to order the meal, because some people like me are really scared to order things for themselves.
  

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Knowing everything about autism.

Or rain man.
Or any other film with character who has autistic traits.
First at all, it's not possible to know EVERYTHING about something, and also comedy shows are not reliable way to learn about autistic people and their experiences.

So, please, even if You watch almost all films with characters who have some autistic traits, don't assume that everyone is like them. I love to finding those traits in characters, but no, not every autistic person is like that.

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Ignorant people are the biggest problem. People who try to make others to be like them. Think and act the way they call "normal". People who judge others for being different or liking strange things. Why is it socially expectable to be mad about football, but not about number 6?

Maybe You will think after and will be able to understand and accept others as they are.
Thanks for reading.

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