Personal safety and self-advocacy
Isabella
Citizen
Statistics show that people on the spectrum are often vulnerable targets for others, who can mistreat them in a number of ways including but not limited to:
- invalidation of needs
- dismissal of opinions
- manipulation
- psychological abuse
- ableism
- cons and scams
- lies, deceit, and dishonesty
- cat-fishing
- gaslighting
- shaming and demeaning
- threats and blackmail
- breaches of trust, privacy, or confidence
- duplicity
- misrepresentation
- adultery and affairs
- violence and extortion
- sexual intimidation or assault
- sexual exploitation
- financial exploitation
- legal abuse
- theft of possessions
- illegal use / theft of intellectual property
- interpersonal coercion
- gang stalking
- exclusion
- mockery, public / private ridicule, and bullying
- name calling, verbal abuse, trolling, or baiting
- purposeful triggering of negative flashbacks or events
- condescension and patronising comments
- not being believed or validated
- burnout and exhaustion from others' demands
- draining of empathy, emotion, or coping skills
- sensory and verbal overload
- Stockholm Syndrome and emotional control
This abuse can be from any gender, any neurotype, or any person, but we do seem to be at risk.
These are just a few examples. As you may know the list could go on indefinitely.
I'm curious to know the self-advocacy skills you've learned to keep yourself safe emotionally, physically, and in all other ways.
I see this topic in three main areas:
1) Self-care:
In what ways do you protect yourself to avoid these forms of abuse?
How do you recover or cope when you've been targeted, conned, or hurt by others?
How do you form and maintain meaningful relationships, or trust others?
2) Self-advocacy:
It's often hard to speak up and seek help, without being judged, shamed, blamed, or invalidated.
This is especially difficult for people with limited verbal skills, or those dependent on their abusers.
This includes disclosing private information, dealing with authority, online moderators, police or courts.
Do people believe you? Do you feel heard? Are your experiences and feelings taken seriously?
Do people tell you to just get over it, or ignore it? How do you deal with that level of disrespect?
Who or what has helped you? (e.g., court services for disabilities, accommodations for self-expression).
3) Self-soothing:
In what ways do you forgive yourself to avoid feeling guilt or shame because of trauma?
How do you deal with people who perceive you as histrionic, or a snowflake, for speaking up?
Comments
Such wars are so impossible to win it's hardly worth trying,the world shall win and we shall loose,it's best just not to care,indifference is the best revenge.
If you feel you are being stalked/gang-stalked, you should obtain dashcam in your car and Bodycam on yourself.
Check with your local laws. I found Google helpful here.
Personally, I think something like this might be a good idea:
For years I was gang-stalked through my GPS function on my mobile phone, so I don't recommend getting a Bodycam with this function in it.
The above camera doesn't.
BTW, mobile phones can be used to track you, even if you turn them off.
You need to take the battery out.
If you have a phone with an internal battery, that you can't remove, you may be at risk even if you turn off GPS.
[youtube]
https://youtu.be/CNtxjP3yslI[/youtube]
Covert home invasions.
Part of the Gang-Stalking Modus Operandi is to covertly break and enter into your home, while you are away.
If you think this is being done to you, there is a simple and inexpensive solution to gain evidence of this happening.
Install multiple cheap wireless cameras, that are hidden, in various parts of the house when you are out.
Here is a cheap suggestion:
This is also a good way for you to verify that your fears are unfounded. 8)
I often spend a lot of time analyzing my experiences with people, and trying to see if there's any "red flags" that I've recognized in other people who haven't been nice to me/have actively tried to mess with me. I also try to deal with problems on my own so other people can't interfere or put me down because of how I'm dealing with something.
I'm actually still trying to learn how to cope with this, since I'm used to just kind of being able to ignore how these things make me feel. Now that I've worked on recognizing my emotions better I can't do that anymore and have to learn new ways to deal. For now I just try to distract myself most of the time, and if it upsets me enough I'll vent about it somewhere.
I try to be relatively reserved and mask a lot when I first start talking to people, and spend a lot of my initial time with them "testing the waters" by observing how they react to interacting with me and talking about certain topics.
With friends I've been able to make when I figure out that we have certain things in common and that we're both comfortable talking to each other, I reach out to that person more, and am a little more open and honest.
I don't think there's a lot of people I fully trust, since humans are so complex and situations have so many variables that I can never be sure if I can trust someone with certain information/assistance/etc.
Sometimes people believe me. A lot of people don't understand the issues I have, so even if they believe me they don't always take the extent seriously.
Yes, especially with sensory issues and things relating to how I adjust to change.
Shrug it off if I can't get them to listen to me and try to handle the problem I'm having by myself if I can.
Past friends and some family members have been very understanding and helpful.
I try to remind myself that every one has their own way of dealing with things and that you can't prevent bad things from happening to you.
People acting like that frustrates me, which sometimes makes me determined to not be silenced. That's why I usually try to handle things by myself, because if I'm handling it no one really has a say in what I do and can't silence or stop me.
Invalidation is very annoying.
Why do people feel a need to do this?
They have nothing better to do, apparently.
To quote my post diagnosis appointment report: > There are no current safety concerns.,but you tend to take things very literal and at face value and struggle to read other people's intentions and may be vulnerable to exploitation by others