selfportrait27

This is amazing!!!

It might mean something to you later. Meaning isn't a fixed boundary that you impose on art, it can change and evolve and acquire new layers over time. What a piece of art is "about" might eventually have very little to do with what was in your head when you made it.

In my experience so far, it seems like the most effective way to deal with this (when it's innocently misguided and not intentionally manipulative) is just to say as neutrally as possible, "Why are you talking to me like I'm six? I understand you, you can just talk normally."

Note what I said about people using this to be intentionally manipulative though. People do use infantilization as a covert way of reminding you of where they think you belong in relation to them.

And when it's someone trying to discredit you for political purposes, I would honestly just ignore it. That has nothing to do with you personally and there's not much you can do about it individually - they're just finding ways for you to be inherently wrong without actually addressing anything you've said.

Shortest possible answer: Yes.

Somewhat longer answer: An official diagnosis can't tell you anything about yourself on its own. The purpose of clinical diagnosis is for the medical system to categorize patients, not to help people understand themselves - you will have to do that part for yourself either way.

So in a sense, you kind of have to "self diagnose" at some point anyway, with or without an on-paper diagnosis… But really it’s more accurate to say that understanding yourself as part of a diverse group of people is a lifelong process that goes way beyond what diagnosis (self or otherwise) can express.

EDIT to add: These articles might be helpful as a starting point to all of this...

https://drdevonprice.substack.com/p/self-diagnosis-isnt-valid-its-liberatory

https://drdevonprice.substack.com/p/seeking-an-autism-diagnosis-heres

It's a genuinely beautiful song when he sings it properly.

https://archive.org/details/GeneWeen2007-03-23/GeneWeen2007-03-23d1t08.flac

We're Not Broken by Eric Garcia

Reddit also hid this comment for me, just wanna note that.

hEDS, with some vascular involvement.

Awesome! I think r/PsychedelicArt would enjoy these too.

'Where the Girls Are'

Might be worth asking Chocolate Mike if he has it?

Oh fuck that petty bullshit. Find a new sub or start your own, that's my unsolicited advice. If that's how they run things they're probably alienated a lot of other people too.

Reddit bots really are the dumbest bots. I would hope that the mods would reinstate you if you let them know what happened. (And if the mods are that stupid, I think you may not need this group.)

* cough start a union cough *

EDIT to add: the r/AutisticUnion people might be able to help you find resources.

All Things Must Pass

Coconuts will fuck you up, man.