The idea of being around a group of fellow autists just… Sounds nice you know?
Probably down to that thing us humans do where likes attract. You see this phenomenon especially with trans women.
You sit a trans woman down in an empty room, check back an hour later, and you’ll find three extra trans women who somehow popped into existence. They just congregate you know? Spontaneous generation!
Silly metaphor aside, interacting with fellow autists just… Feels nice!
This was my entire bloody childhood in “special needs” programs. Undiagnosed autism caused violent meltdowns early in schooling, then I spent years trapped in truly horrible fit programs that put academics far below often pointless and patronizing “life skills” training, and the staff spent all their energy containing meltdowns and violent outbursts, leaving nothing left to do anything more than pass out busywork, because the other kids would set me off and make me seem less suited to more academically focused and lighter support settings (where there might actually be some support resources left by “my turn”, since I wouldn’t be the least explosive/least dangerous to ignore person in the program) than I probably actually was. And I only eventually got a midway point setting for my final school years because my mum fought like hell. I wonder how many low support needs autistic folks end up in even worse warehousing and glorified babysitting “classrooms”, fall into this trigger cycle, and never get out, ending up with worthless qualifications and no path to higher ed or decent work, because they don’t have a mama bear like mine.
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