Unmasking…

Hi everyone. I’ve been struggling intensely for a while now. The aggressive meltdown that caused me to land with my head on the floor (as I mentioned in the comments on that post, I wasn’t actually thrown) was only the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. I’ve been having chronic headaches and nausea that the doctor says aren’t due to the fall. Last Wednesday, I had a fever just when the doctor took my temp, so she concluded I must have the flu or something. I doubt it, as I didn’t have a fever any other time my temp was taken and I’m not having any other flu symptoms. I’m more sensitive to stimuli, mostly sounds and scents, than I used to be. Unfortunately, my ability to argue hasn’t gone, so the staff believe I’m “oppressing” them when I refuse them access to my room when wearing strong perfumes. This morning, my support coordinator told me to stop pacing my room, saying it’s compulsive and that compulsive behavior only worsens over time. She may be right about that, but it’s not like I’m doing anyone any harm by pacing and it’s not like the staff deal with the reason for my being more compulsive. I’m pretty sure I’m in significant burnout and the obvious solution to my staff seems to be to repress my behaviors that indicate I’m in distress.

I’m trying to read up and listen to podcasts on autistic self-discovery and unmasking. Not that I have the attention span to read for longer than about fifteen minutes at a time. Or that I think any of the recommendations I find, are useful to me, simply because I have an institution and rather behaviorist staff to deal with. I’m also unsure where to draw the line between valid unmasking and infringing upon other people’s rights. For example, apparently I’m not allowed to ask staff to wear less perfume because that’s “oppressive” and I don’t know where it’ll end when I keep “choosing” to be by myself rather than accepting staff who are essentially presenting in a willfully overloading manner.