After which he went to hell and began a sexual relationship with Satan.

Long story short, he eventually got sent to heaven to be tortured by Mormons.

Yeah, this massive rock itself will survive, so all the animals and plants in ecosystems that can’t adjust to climate change can suffer and it’s fine. /s

Two related things: people commenting on my tone of voice, and people assuming my emotions (usually because of my tone of voice.)

I’ve got a lot of trauma related to my tone. I’ve been punished so many times for it without having any clue what people were talking about, and now whenever someone brings up that word, all the deep-seated pain immediately rises to the surface. The only way I’ve found to get by is to heavily mask - if I’m clearly cheery, nobody can accuse me of having the wrong tone or attitude. Problem is, masking takes effort. When my energy is low, I can’t self-monitor the way I’d like to, and people start to think I’m upset because my tone reverts to the way I naturally talk. I’ll be happy, just a bit stressed or tired, and people will start saying shit like, “Calm down,” or “Do you need a break? You’re upset, go take a break.”

Then when that happens, it’s like my battery goes from 20% to zero. It’s so hard to self-advocate when others think they know what you’re feeling better than you do. When you can’t control your vocal tone, people will assume any response is proof that you were upset in the first place (instead of a sign that their assumptions just sapped the last bit of energy out of you.) It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, upsetting me when I wasn’t upset before, even if I was feeling great beforehand.

I wish neurotypical people could understand that not everyone expresses their emotions through tone, that sometimes it’s a matter of energy being diverted from masking and into more crucial, pertinent tasks. Honestly, I wish I didn’t have to mask at all, but I know that if I didn’t I’d get a lot more comments and assumptions thrown at me. In the end, letting the mask slip results in punishment. Talking the way I naturally talk is punishment-worthy. That’s a lesson that keeps getting reinforced every time I dare not put effort into masking and tone-modulation first and foremost.

It’s interesting how even as a kid, I had limits for socialization that I couldn’t verbalize. I remember on the rare occasion a friend would come over, getting this growing tension inside, a sensation of “I want them to leave” that would build up until after they’d gone. Then the sense of relief when they left, oh that relief was so sweet.

Sleepovers were tough. Sure, they were fun, but by the time morning came around I just wanted everyone to GTFO and leave me be. I wasn’t taught how to communicate that need (saying something would be “rude” and that’s all I was taught), so I’d just feel increasingly stressed until everyone went home.

It sounds to me like past events with shitty people built up your loneliness though. It sounds like that because I’m the same way. I used to want to socialize, but couldn’t get it when I was young because bullies made me feel like every time I talked, I was bothering someone. I remember in fifth grade doing an exercise that was supposed to build up our self-esteem. We were given a paper and told to go around the room and get compliments from everyone. I got two: 1) You have nice hair, and 2) You’re good at annoying people. Needless to say, that exercise backfired on me, because the fact that that’s all I could get out of a room of 30 people solidified the idea that every time I talk to someone, I must be bothering them.

As an adult I know intellectually that that’s not true - plenty of people love what I add, lots of people think I’m funny, and say they learn new things every time they talk to me. But deep down, I’m still that little girl who thinks they’re all just humoring me to be polite. Along the path to adulthood, I stopped trying to make friends - the people who get me usually click with me immediately, while those that don’t click probably never will. So why put out the effort?

Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve had similar experiences. Autism is tough, without guidance for socialization and with a lower desire for it than neurotypicals have, it’s easy to miss out on key moments in social development. Now we’re loner adults, so used to doing things for ourselves, that the idea of involving others might not even enter our minds. That’s my case, at least. I always think I need to have some big thing planned if I’m to invite someone to do something with me, even though most people just think, “I’m bored, I should invite so-and-so over.” Meanwhile the idea of inviting someone over usually doesn’t cross my mind, and on the rare occasion it does I think, “I don’t want to bore others, so I won’t waste someone else’s time by inviting them when I don’t know what we should do.”

I try not to beat myself up about it. Yes, ultimately we are all responsible for ourselves and our loneliness, but I can’t control the anxiety I get at the thought of socialization. Though I’ve made massive strides since the foundation was laid, there’s a limit to what I can do. I can’t afford therapy, the co-pays alone are out of my budget. Stuck in this situation, I’ve come to accept it. On the plus side, there’s no rule saying we can’t go out and do things, attend public events and such, by ourselves. Maybe that’s weird to other people, but a lot of things about me are weird to other people, so I’m not going to let their opinions ruin my day.

I already commented, but after going through the other comments I realized nobody’s brought up one of the worst offenders - the sounds of eating. The squishing, chewing noises, the lips smacking, even the “ahhh” that soda commercials include whenever somebody takes a drink. It makes my skin crawl and can even make me irrationally angry.

A lot of ASMR also triggers me. It’s creepy and unsettling to hear a close up recording of someone whispering. I can’t explain it, I know it’s not rational, but there’s something about it that makes me deeply uncomfortable. I simply can’t wrap my head around how people can find that sort of sound pleasant.

It’s almost like people on the autism spectrum have different sensory experiences or something.

Also applies to the automated phone trees that make you speak words instead of hitting buttons. It’s like you have to be in a perfectly silent room, because the slightest breeze will make the thing stop its spiel and go, “I’m sorry, I didn’t get that,” and repeat everything from the very start. I usually end up swearing at them, or spamming the buttons until it transfers me to a human, or both.

I have zero patience for ignorant robots.

It: “This call may be recorded for quality purposes.”
Me: “Good, I hope somebody hears how shitty this whole design is.”

I wish that stuff could be disabled, even if temporarily. Trying to clean a fridge that won’t stop beeping is annoying as hell.

I don’t understand the loud music. Nobody needs a radio so loud that it booms across the neighborhood even when your vehicle’s windows are closed. If you think you do, it might be time to get your hearing checked. Just don’t be surprised to learn you’ve got self-induced damage.

One of the kids at my job managed to tune his whine into a fucking siren. Seriously. He’d ramp up the volume and pitch, ramp back down, and repeat, just like an ambulance.

I can see why he did - it’s very good at getting someone’s attention. Our practice is to ignore it and prompt functional communication instead, and thankfully it’s working as I haven’t heard the “ambulance whine” in a while. But wow, it was a truly awful sound. I’ll take straight screaming over that noise any day.

I read the article for the information, but the thing I really want to comment on is this box on the page:

I have ads blocked, but this is in the middle of the article, so I don’t know if it’s affiliated with the site or if it’s an ad that slipped through the cracks. Either way, wtf?

Yeah, sure anonymous box, I totally trust you! Here, take all my passwords!

The title is such nonsensical slop in itself. Wtf about hanging out in a litter box would make a cat “king”?

It says “chess enthusiast” on the left, but shows a chessboard on the right. Sounds like these two have more in common than they see.

Whoa, that’s so mean. I’m glad it was finally realized, did he ever discover who did that? I hope he’s doing okay now.

I’m so glad to not be on other social media anymore. Posting on Facebook and having no engagement from the people you actually know and care about hurt a lot more than having a comment on Lemmy get ignored.

Then one of the commenters gets reported, and now half the comments are “Removed by Mod”

As a huge fan of hair, all I can say is that if their god makes it a rule not to cut it, that’s a god I can agree with. Long hair for everyone!

Don’t worry, some of us are keeping the astronomy spirit alive in the younger generation. There’s a 5 year old kid I work with who can name tons of celestial objects that my coworkers have never heard of. It makes for fun inside jokes/references. Sometimes when we’re with another person, he’ll compare our distances to each other and say, “You’re Alpha Centauri A, I’m Alpha Centauri B, and he/she’s Proxima Centauri.”

One doesn’t have to be internationally important to not want their audio recorded in their own private space.