I saw this on Facebook.

Are there other places you would like to see do this, and you may be more likely to go?

I'm lucky that lifting is one of my special interests because I genuinely enjoy the gym. I've made tons of progress in the last year but I'm starting to really struggle with consistency because I cannot STAND being watched/perceived at the gym (26M AuDHD)

It's gotten so bad that if I pull up to the gym and there's a bunch of cars in the parking lot I will literally turn that mf around and drive home.

It makes me feel so frustrated because I've actually made so much progress that people are noticing that I lift and am in decent shape. So it feels so petty and silly to fall off because there are "other people at the gym".

I got a new job recently and the only time I can realistically go is the "rush hour" after 5. Usually I'm so exhausted from masking at the office that the thought of being around MORE people fills me with dread.

It sucks bc most of the advice for this is "find another way to exercise" but unfortunately compound lifts with a barbell is what I genuinely enjoy. I just hate being stared at and having to have "shared space NT social time" when I'm just trying to engage in something I enjoy.

I realize I'm gonna have to just suck it up, but anyone have advice to make that easier?

My 11-year-old son is obsessed with the Titanic and all major boat disasters. He is recently found an interest in WW1 and WW2. He's also very much interested in the​ Hindenburg crash. This morning he walked out of his bedroom with a meticulously drawn swastika flag. I tried to explain to him that those are the bad guys, but he got extremely upset. How do I let him know that the Nazis are the bad guy? We are thinking about getting books that show the atrocities of the war, but is that too much for an 11-year-old kid?

I try to be as nice as possible but people still tell me that I act like I am angry lol

Any time I comment in this community I am mass downvoted for clarifying questions or differing opinions, and spammed with reddit cares or chat requests insulting me. I abandoned my original reddit account years ago for being told by someone here in a comment that I made autistics look like rude robots and I eventually have come back. I could simply ask "why is this not considered okay?" about a social norm and be met with negativity only rather than respectful communication.

Even in the autism subreddit we are expected to conform to rules thatare impossible to some of us. This was literally told to me yesterday that lower supp needs will still do that here. I find it a bit unfair to not step back and reevaluate when you find you are communicating with someone who struggles in that regard more than you might and try to see it from their perspective instead of reporting them or calling them an idiot or telling them they don't have autism but instead are antisocial etc.

This is one place we should all try to be there for each other. But the views and comfort of level 1s are much more prioritized and level 3s are often left floundering.

I am a 30 year old autistic guy and my hyperfixation movie is Top Gun: Maverick. I have watched it three or four times on Amazon Prime Video three or four times in the last week and a half. Does anyone else watch the same movie over and over and not get sick of it, or is it just me?

An autistic person is what led to me getting diagnosed, I also experience being able to commonly spot it in others, and I ended up leading to someone getting diagnosed. Of course if you suspect someone has autism you have to approach that respectfully or maybe not at all but it’s really frustrating that people with medical degrees struggle so heavily to spot it which leads to people struggling for decades without help.

I don't want people to use that information against me. I don't want children, and I don't want people to think that I am vulnerable. I don't want to be in a position where a man can come into my life and hurt me.

I realise that I do not need children; the women in my family are too proud to address their issues. The women in my family are all traumatised by their mothers. If the men want children, then they are not choosing me for me; they are choosing me for what they can gain from me. It is so hard when grandparents are involved, mothers are involved, cousins, nieces and nephews. It is so hard all of it.

I logged on to do my telehealth appt for my diagnostic test, but when I logged in it said it was cancelled. They didn't call or email or anything. I think my reaction (crying, yelling, hitting, rocking) might just means its positive.

I hate this so much but at least in a few hours I can laugh at the irony of suddenly changing the plans on an autistic person's autism assessment.

my boyfriend and i included LOL. so i want to open up a poll !! which do you prefer? cats or dogs?

Lately Instagram keeps recommending influencers who constantly introduce their child as "my autistic child." Why can't they just say "my child" or "my son/daughter"? Autism is part of who they are, but it doesn't need to be the first thing they're labelled by every single time.

One of the biggest offenders I've come across lately is @abbiratcliffe_x. Almost every video starts with "my autistic child," and what makes it even worse is that in so many videos she calls him names like "knobhead" or worse. It just doesn't sit right with me.

On another post a guy said that his father (Who also is autistic) went to school, then college and then straight to med school and thus turned into a doctor. When I read that, I felt inspired since I have some problems in my job due to the people being... Just below mediocre.

What they achieved, the setbacks they had, it does not matter if is a low paying job, a not paying-one, a stem one, an artist, maybe even challenging times at their lives before those accomplishments, awards won, recognizement won by a community (Altough it did not had a tangible prize or benefit).

Those stories will not invalidate that we have difficulties, my goal is not to be an ableist, rather just get some inspiration and also check the environment that led the people to those accomplishments. Personally I need quiet environments, where people respect norms and there are consequences that are proportional to the norms inflicted, also cooperation.

I recently got diagnosed with autism in December of 2025 and since then I have be researching different autistic traits we have. I came upon this video on tiktok that mentioned something along the lines of "cannon events for girls who grew up with autism" and the first thing it said was "having an attraction to older men." And I got me wondering- is this a really common thing with girls who have autism? And does anyone know why we might feel these attractions?
(Edit: to be specific I mean like 10-30 years older than me. And also I've literally only ever been attracted to these older men, i don't think I've ever liked someone my age.)

When I was a kid my doctors heavily suspected I had autism and wished for me to get tested. My parents never really went anywhere with it, they didn’t think I had it and just ignored the referrals for me to receive testing. Then we moved out of the country and it was never brought up again. I was also pretty little at the time so I didn’t remember any of this.

Fast forward, I had a few therapy sessions when I was a teen and, once again, my therapist believed I had some type of autism or adhd. She gave me these papers about it and information if I wanted to dig deeper into it. I admittedly felt embarrassed about it and hid the papers until my mom found them. She told me about how the doctors thought I was autistic when I was little, and when I asked why I never got tested she told me it was because it could affect my future employment if I really did get diagnosed with it. (Not sure if this is true but that was her why I guess.)

I’m an adult now and have been wondering if I should still get tested or something. I exude traits that could be attributed to autism that have been making my life pretty difficult, but I don’t want to blame these traits on something I might not even have. Would getting a diagnosis really even matter at this point other than closure?

Hi Im looking for resources about autism that would get my mom to realize the severity of it. I got diagnosed 3 years ago so its pretty new to her i guess, weve been arguing a lot about me being "lazy" but i just have severe executive dysfunction and difficulties with changing routine and socializing. I had to drop out of school and im struggling to find a job because of it, its hard doing very simple tasks like getting myself to sweep the floor. Ive found a therapist and other doctors that will help me but my mom believes that im faking it and that I'm pretending to be more autistic than i actually am because my iq is normal and things like that.

Not trying to vent here im just looking for something that could work with this specific situation to help her understand whats up with me.

This isn’t a “how do I get women to date me?” post, more a “how do I get women to treat me like a person?” post. I’m sorry if I come off as bitter, but I’m genuinely curious as to whether I’m doing something wrong or this is simply a part of life I must accept. As an adult I am mostly treated fine by other men, but it feels like women just cannot help themselves when it comes to keeping their repulsion towards autistic men to themselves. Like it’s not enough to silently and mentally acknowledge that I am unattractive/awkward, it is absolutely necessary for them to physically avoid me at all costs, make disgusted/suspicious glances at me, maintain a cold/annoyed tone and do everything in their power to make me uncomfortable in my own existence. I am extremely hygienic and have done everything to be as “normal" and unthreatening as possible, I only speak to them on a professional level (school/work related) and never express romantic/sexual interest in them. I was blatantly bullied by girls growing up and I get the impression that their distain towards me has not subsided, they have simply resorted to more subtle, socially acceptable means of expressing their feelings towards me in adulthood. I have long since given up on the prospect of dating and understand that “I am not entitled to a relationship”. I won’t pretend this fact doesn’t hurt at times, but I have mostly accepted my situation in that respect. Call me conceited, but the one thing l DO feel entitled to from women is basic respect and humanity.

How do you guys deal with that mentally? Honestly I can’t wait to finally move out next year and be able to just live as I personally see nothing else I could do to fix this at home. I’m already overstimulated when I’m here, and when I am as such I can’t mask nor do I even have the energy to even try. And on top of just that, I literally have nothing to laugh and smile at home about anyway, neither of my parents want to do anything together that I actually like and feel comfortable with, or if they do they always get frustrated somehow and make everything even worse, and just demand that I smile or make useless chit chat to fill the room, chit chat nobody deeply cares about and everyone knows it’s just for pretense.

My mom actually told me I look as if I’m possessed repeatedly since I was a kid due to not smiling and just staring or nodding idly if someone shows me something, and my aunt made a whole fuss during our trip to Italy last year due to the same reason, and ON TOP of that, again, my parents got mad because she’d send photos of us in the family group chat and they genuinely just said to stop because I looked sad and it ruined “the vacation they paid to sent me on” (which they didn’t, I literally paid with the money I had saved up for a rhinoplasty since they pushed me to go on that stupid trip and booked me a flight together with my aunt without even asking). Obviously I will look like so when I’m overstimulated from the heat, crowds, only eating one meal a day because I felt too awkward to say I was hungry unless she (my aunt) said she was first so that we’d go to a restaurant, even if I’m indiferent or actually enjoying the nice views in my own way.

I have a massive issue. I can't study alone because it results in meltdowns. I have really low motivation for anything I'm not hyperfixated on, so when I try to study alone I get really irritated and stressed out until the emotions overwhelm me and I experience a meltdown. I can't even type it without becoming extremely stressed out and crying. It's a massive issue I really need to overcome but genuinely I have no clue what to do

I've tried body doubling, but if someone is just present in the room and isn't involved with the studying their presence makes the irritation and stress so much worse, I'm not entirely sure how. I've gotten around this issue by studying with someone else but that is no longer an option in my current situation. I really NEED to study alone, I do courses from home where people can't be putting aside time from their day to study with me. I also have chronic illnesses that make it extremely exhausting to be around people for long, I do really need to be able to study alone. But literally just typing and thinking about it stresses me out to the point of tears.

I feel completely screwed. I have no idea what to do. I desperately need advice or tips, please

This is a conversation I had with a representative at Michigan Rehabilitative Services.

I was very on edge, as I am with most social interactions, and it was taking me a long time to figure out what was appropriate to ask/divulge and what wasn't. She gave me an ellipsis and I got defensive. I think I made her upset.

What could I have done differently, and what should I do now?

Hello, I'm autistic and I've worked three jobs now, twice at a grocery store and one as a door to door salesperson, and I'm always working at 1/3rd of the speed of others, and my co-workers get mad and start berating me. It sucks being so slow, what type of jobs do you guys do that's minimum wage or what job is good for someone with autism? Thank you.

For me it would be for example: going through my messages that I have to answer, tidying/organizing my desk or managing my money. What would it be for you?

Remember: "help you do it" not "do it for you"

This is a bit random. But when i am on a computer, I always get a strong urge to start highlighting any text over and over again.If someone is watching over my shoulder i feel embarrassed, but its very hard to stop

Hi! I’m currently doing my masters thesis based on autistic portrayal in media (shows/movies). Does anyone have good foundational resources such as academic articles or websites to help me get a good understanding of different levels of the spectrum? Thanks :)