Hey Shameless Plug For Hozier's 2014 Album. On Its Resume Is Having Helped Dozens Of Anxiety Attacks,

and the right videos

Bliss is weighted blanket and cookies

Thank fuck

Hozier on Instagram, when asked about his opinions on bones.

Some of my fave Prompto photos

look what you can buy

Obviously I want you to take care of your pets and make sure they get food and fresh water on a regular basis, but cats being huge drama queens and screaming hysterically at you and acting like they’re tragic famine victims who haven’t eaten in weeks and are about to drop dead from starvation right mcfuckin now, because you’re 10 minutes late feeding them is always going to be one of the funniest things to me

congrats! you made it through another day!! shits hard!! like, being alive is fucking hard work!!  but you did it! !! good job

MEEEEEE

autistic culture is having your hands or pockets full of small found objects every time you go anywhere.

Punishment for stimming is BAD.

I don't care if my blog's not popular, if this post reaches one person it'll be one more person helped. I just had a college class in abnormal psychology where the professor taught us that punishment is a workable and useful therapy to "treat" autistic symptoms such as head-banging, biting etc. What he neglected to tell the class is that those behaviors are forms of self-stimulation (aka stimming) which is necessary for most people with autism to regulate their sensory systems. Specifically the above destructive behaviors are forms of overload stimming, in which the person will turn to types of self-stimulation that blocks out whatever is causing them distress in their environment. For example, head-banging and biting cause pain and so the body is forced to process that instead of what's outside, temporarily interfering with their perception of the world to give them a reprieve. To clarify: this behavior isn't good, it's dangerous. The solution is to replace the overload stims with healthier ones, let them remove themself from the situation, and give them coping mechanisms and plans so that next time they don't have to get to overload levels of upset.

The solution is NOT to punish them for overload stimming. They are not exhibiting bad behavior, they are trying desperately to do what their body needs them to do. If you punish them and they stop overload stimming in response, it's not successful learning: it's abuse. They are not stopping because they 'see the error in their ways,' they are stopping because they are afraid of what you will do to them. All punishment works like that, but it is called for when the person does something wrong, not when they are working to do what their body needs because there is nothing wrong with that.

By the way, this is true for non-destructive types of stimming as well. Preventing any kind of stimming is abuse because it prevents people with autism's bodies from working as they should. Instead stimming needs to be accommodated and respected or, if it absolutely must be stopped, immediately replaced with an equally effective option.

To recap: punishment is designed to stop bad behavior. Stimming is not bad behavior because it is an action that people with autism need to do to regulate their sensory systems. It is abuse to punish someone without cause. Therefore it is abuse to punish someone for stimming. Instead find non-destructive stims and solutions that solve the problem without the damaging consequences.

*p.s. if someone is overload stimming they're already really upset. don't make it worse. it's common sense and so easy to do if you care about that person.*