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This article can also be viewed at https://medium.com/non-monetized-together/not-all-autistic-students-hate-being-in-quiet-empty-rooms-e68b95a95f68.

I know that there may be some good intentions among some of the activists who are trying to ban quiet rooms in schools. Which is why I’m writing this article to let them know that some autistic people actually find these rooms helpful.

Quiet rooms are soundproof, empty rooms that are used to help calm autistic students when they have a meltdown. While this concept might sound anxiety-provoking to non-autistics and some autistic people, these rooms can be beneficial to people on the autism spectrum who have to deal with sensory overload.

What is sensory overload? This is a term used to describe when someone receives more sensory information than their mind can process, sending their mind into a panic mode. The autistic population are much more likely to experience this than other people.

Because of this, quiet rooms are sometimes used whenever an autistic student experiences a meltdown. Sensory overload is a specifically neurodivergent experience, so I am worried that it’s being left out of the autism rights narrative for not being relatable enough to neurotypicals.

Not all autistic students find these rooms useful. Some even find it traumatic, as seen in the news article link above. But they work for some of us. I was reminded of this when reading Jim Irion’s article “A Conflict of Sensory Overload Proportions,” where he explains how quiet rooms could help him deal with his sensory overload. Reading this reminded me of when I was in school. These rooms successfully calmed me down too. Both Jim and I are autistic.

I’m not angry at the people who campaign against these rooms. Some of them may have been misled by sources that shut out the voices of people who enjoy the rooms.

Others may know about students who had positive experiences in these rooms but don’t mention them to preserve their political interests. This isn’t their fault, but rather the result of a broken political system motivated by competition, greed, feeling superior, and a lack of empathy. While I understand that this system is a natural consequence of democracy, I designed Nonmonetized Together to be a place where people of all political orientations can avoid those parts of the system.

Now, you finally get the opportunity to have online discussions that focus on understanding each other and creating a better world. This is because Nonmonetized Together functions as a publicly accessible “backstage” to the current political landscape. Here, people can remove themselves from their roles as political figures and critically discuss the world as it really is, instead of following their stage directions.

If you try to use Nonmonetized Together to gain power or bring your political opponents down (like in mainstream “competitive politics”), your efforts WILL be thwarted and you WILL make a fool of yourself. I will redirect your discussion to make it more appropriate for Nonmonetized Together. I know I can push Nonmonetized Together to achieve this goal because I devote myself to religion, not politicians, so I’m not politically motivated the same way others are.

#Autism #MentalHealth #ActuallyAutistic #Psychology #Neurology

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Medium comments:

Reading this reminded me of when I was in school.

Wait till you see my latest finished project, “A Letter From the Future.” No date set yet but it should be either August, September, or October.

A veritable trip down public schooling lane, as the title suggests.

Jim Irion

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these rooms can be beneficial to people on the autism spectrum who have to deal with sensory overload.

Shared on Twitter.

Jim Irion

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I was reminded of this when reading Jim Irion’s article “A Conflict of Sensory Overload Proportions,” where he explains how quiet rooms could help him deal with his sensory overload.

👀

How did you do that? I wasn’t aware that, like Facebook, writers on here could, essentially, tag another writer to which they would receive a notification…

… which, in my case, is a good thing. I was able to see this article. Allow me to go back and read it.

Jim Irion

Start typing @ followed by the person's name. You will see a list of names appear and you click on the name of the person you want to tag.

Kevin the Nonmonetized

If you can gather attention of parents with schoolchildren ages 8-18, on Monday, August 5th, I’ll be having my first test for boost nomination here on Medium.

“A Letter From the Future”

Jim Irion

What do you mean?

Kevin the Nonmonetized

Can you be more specific, please?

Jim Irion

I'm not sure what you're talking about

Kevin the Nonmonetized

I'll be having an article published on August 5th that will be nominated for boosting. I wanted to let you know beforehand in case you wanted to highlight it in some way or somewhere.

“A Letter From the Future”

Jim Irion

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Is that a picture of you?

Jim Irion

Sure is.

Kevin the Nonmonetized

Almost didn’t recognize you.

Jim Irion

Image created by AI tool DALL-E 2, the author has the provenance and copyright.

You can also view this article at https://medium.com/non-monetized-together/i-may-be-a-bluepiller-but-im-not-evil-b752f3acbfe0?source=friends_link&sk=eecc74a1e70351205a8466649fca0ccd.

It’s sickening that there are people who tell complete strangers online that their most painful struggles are imaginary and that if they just ignore the pain, things will get better.

For example, I’ve seen this attitude expressed towards one of the most depressed and isolated communities on the Internet — the “blackpill.” This term refers to an incel group founded on the belief that no matter what they do, they are predetermined to never find someone who will fall in love with them. They’re also extremely isolated due to the blackpill philosophy being at odds with mainstream society’s understanding of relationships, which the blackpillers refer to as the bluepill. So, on top of feeling lonely, they also feel that no one outside of the blackpill understands them.

Some may notice the unbearable mix of anguish and hopelessness on blackpill forums and wonder why anyone would choose to be a blackpiller, but you have to remember that people don’t choose philosophies, they adopt them based on their experiences and the evidence presented to them. Hence, some bluepillers have suggested that even though blackpillers show a lot of hate towards women, they may just be lost souls and that they deserve mental health support from bluepillers.

While I am not opposed to this suggestion in theory, I keep seeing bluepillers use this as an excuse to message blackpillers they don’t even know, insisting that the bluepill is the way to go and that they can find love if they just adhere to a predetermined handful of bluepilled strategies. This would be tone-deaf even if they were just messaging other bluepillers who struggle to find love, because these are complete strangers and because things can be more complicated than that. But considering they are talking to people who are convinced that a) blackpill philosophy is real, b) that it is taking away their reason to live, and c) that the bluepill ignores these issues? Unbelievable. I can only envision this isolating blackpillers even more and worsening their mental health.

The first rule of making someone feel understood is to take their current situation into account. Based on what I’ve seen in my life, the bluepill is accurate, not the blackpill, but I need to remember that this does not reflect the blackpillers’ experiences. What do you do when talking to someone who already believes there’s no solution to their loneliness?

Why not just tell them: “I can understand that you are going through mental agony, and I’m sad that you feel this way.” End of story! Then you might make them feel more understood without advocating for the blackpill.

I hope that if any blackpillers are reading this, that I’ve shown them that bluepillers don’t necessarily have to be blind towards blackpill struggles. They may never take the blue pill again, but at least they don’t have to feel so hateful towards mainstream society after all.

#MentalHealth #Isolation #Society #Culture #Loneliness

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Medium comments:

Maybe no matter what color pill someone identifies with, self-obsession is the culprit of their flaws. For instance, self-loathing and self-exaltation are two sides of the same coin. The key may be to stop thinking about yourself to feel better about life.

Robbie Newport

Interesting point. Yeah, it would be great if people cared more about people they talk with online and what they're going through. Think of it this way. The Internet allows you to communicate with people you would have never been able to talk to in person. If people embrace the Internet from this perspective, instead of using it to reinforce the type of bonds they make in real life, then maybe that will help them use the Internet to be less self-obsessed and more understanding of others.

Kevin the Nonmonetized

Ava Sol/Unsplash

If someone on Nonmonetized Together dismisses someone else by calling them mentally ill, I will ask them what mental illness they were referring to and why it is relevant. If they do not have an answer, then that shows that they did not mean “mentally ill.” They meant another adjective, but they used “mentally ill” as a way to give their statement more weight. So in this case, I will ask them what they meant to say when they called the other person mentally ill.

My intent is not to argue with them, attack them, or act offended, and I will make sure they know about that. I also don’t want to act like they should have known already. Instead, my goal is to tell people to express themselves more clearly in the hopes of resolving conflict and having a productive discussion. If people are willing to open up and talk about things, then we can weaken the stigma of mental illness.

I will make it clear that in the Nonmonetized Together dialect, “mental illness” means nothing but “mental illness” and any attempts to make it mean anything else will simply not register. They could keep on using it and be as edgy as they want about it but it just won’t mean a thing, but only on Nonmonetized Together, as its goal is to be a fantasyland free from the social diseases that persist in the rest of society.

So, if I catch you using the term “mental illness” to mean something else, there is no need to run and hide or fight back. I’m not trying to silence others. I will forgive you.

I am just trying to help you communicate more clearly so the discussion goes better. If you run off or fight back, that will raise some questions. So don’t do that.

If not enough readers commit to using language this way, my attempts to neutralize the language of mental illness may not succeed, not even shaping how language is used in this tiny corner of the Internet, but I hope that you use the words “mental illness” in the same way when you’re on Nonmonetized Together, and I will link this article in the comments whenever the topic comes back so more people can understand.

If you don’t use language the way I do when you’re on here, I suppose nothing’s stopping you. I try to avoid censorship on here because this is a place to solve problems, not pretend that they don’t exist. I will still give this a try though. I hope this works.

Do you have any other ideas for how you will fight stigma on Nonmonetized Together? This can be stigma of any sort. Make sure to let everybody know by sharing your ideas in the comment section.

This article is also available at https://medium.com/non-monetized-together/how-this-online-community-fights-against-the-stigma-of-mental-illness-39e1b528821f?source=friends_link&sk=3378f022ee2d95dbedd5670626e360ef.

#MentalHealth #OnlineCommunity #Language #Communication #Stigma

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