The blame game when it comes to emotional reactions in autistic individuals often stems from a classic misunderstanding - or let's face it, a complete lack of understanding - of how autism shapes one's perception and interaction with the world. Autistic people might process emotions and social cues differently, leading to reactions that are misinterpreted by those who don't share the same neural playlist. When an autistic person reacts due to sensory overload, emotional confusion, or simply because they're dealing with a situation in an atypical way, the observer often defaults to thinking, "Well, that's not how I would react, so it must be wrong." This is less about the "Mental Illness" label and more about human nature's love for categorizing things that don't fit into neat little boxes. In a world where everyone is wearing social masks, an autistic person's tendency to be more direct or less filtered can be disarmingly honest. It's like you're a truth-telling robot in a room full of diplomats - suddenly, the game of pretense feels very naked. People aren't used to being seen without their masks, and when you do, their first instinct isn't to applaud your perceptiveness but to blame you for making them uncomfortable. While there are indeed empathetic souls out there, many people find it easier to blame than to understand, especially when it requires them to learn something new or to challenge their own views. What do you all think?

Learn practical strategies to help build communication skills, from Maurya Farah, a speech therapist.

People on the spectrum are not disabled as they are usually classified... they have a gift! According to this article ..participants in a study with higher autistic traits performed better in challenging learning tasks. https://neurosciencenews.com/asd-exploration-learning-27955/

Meltdown => External Fight Response Shutdown => Internal Freeze Response

My wife and I recently watched a movie called, "Please Stand By". It's a movie about a young woman with Autism who loves the Star Trek tv series and wants to participate in a script writing competition for the tv show. The movie shows the risky journey she goes on to submit her script in on time. My wife (who is also Autistic) felt that the representation of an autistic person was mostly accurate, however as every autist is different in many ways, the character in this movie should not be taken as a typical example of ASD. Have you watched any movie(s) with Autistic characters? And what are some of your favourite movies with believable representation of individuals on the autism spectrum?