Community connection and support looks different in the #ActuallyAutistic Community and having access to our community and friends on social media can be a matter of life and death.  

***Mention of suicide statistics in the autistic community

To some reading, this may seem dramatic or extreme, you most likely aren’t autistic, but you 100 percent are exactly who I would like to share the importance of access to online platforms and social media with today.

I am Carole Jean Whittington and I am late identified Autistic ADHD (identified at age 39-that was over 8 years ago)  I share this because for those of us in the late identified segment of the autistic world, community connection is even more life affirming and necessary to us.

We have gone for decades being on the outside, struggling to “fit in” and to just survive.  Many of us have endured horrific bullying and being ostracized for our differences and the healing and sense of finally belonging to a group of people who accept us for who we are is life changing and often life saving.

Having access to our online autistic community via social media platforms is critical.  When that access is denied, threatened or altered it can be a matter of life and death.

I don’t say this to be extreme, I share this insight today because it is true for the majority of us in the autistic community.  We don’t connect and socialize like the neuromajority, we are very social and very connected one to another and that happens most often online and on social media.  When that access to our community is denied or altered by external forces like group admins, platform “police” or the groups of hackers and trolls who target our population our mental, emotional and psychological well being is threatened and very often our lives.

I have seen this first hand too many times in the past 3 years, an autistic person is misunderstood by someone who happens upon a comment or post and the autistic person is then “reported” for a whole host of reasons that make no sense to us or our connections and friends because we are having a conversation in our language and within our cultural norms, not that of the neuromajority.  

This results in a shadow ban, a temporary suspension of the account or worse total deletion.  That is where the greatest harm is caused to the autistic person.  They have just lost access to their friends, connections, community, and support.  When isolation is imposed on someone in real life the results have been studied in psychology for decades and they range from impaired executive function, depression, disruption in sleep patterns, decreased immunity and more.

The impact in the autistic community for online social isolation is much greater.  Autistic men are at a three times rate for suicide, autistic women are at a four times rate of suicide and I can only speculate because there was not autistic data on suicide rates of autistic people of color or lgbtqia, but the data for non-autistic specific multiracial, transgender people is thirty three percent higher than the general population for suicide risk.

Please remember this the next time you come across a post, a comment or a discussion that is happening within an autistic community or involving autistic people.  

Thank you for reading, sharing, getting curious, seeking to understand a different experience and perspective and for being open to things you may not have realized today.

If you are  #ActuallyAutistic, please share in the comments what online community means to you so that we can #ShineALight on the importance of this vital part of our social connection.

To join the Mind Your Autistic Brain Community go to www.socialautie.com and become a fan today.  You will never be disconnected from your people when you are connected in MYAB.

Don't miss the May Newsletter publishing tomorrow and our Autistic Advocate Spotlight #ShineALight article by Dr. Scott Frasard.

Article references:

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/05/ce-corner-isolation#:~:text=Hawkley%20points%20to%20evidence%20linking,at%20every%20stage%20of%20life.  

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13623613221077721 

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/rate-of-suicide-3-times-higher-for-autistic-people#Autistic-people-have-different-risk-factors-for-suicide 

https://www.thetaskforce.org/attempted-suicide-rate-for-multiracial-transgender-people-thirty-three-times-higher-than-general-population/