Victoria Duncan

@victoriaduncan

Autistic woman writing about autism, neurodiversity and neuronormative culture. She/her. 🇨🇦

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Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· 7d

😭

It's an Instagram Threads post from @elcronk that reads: "You’re autistic. You grow up struggling to communicate. Life is hard. Human behaviour becomes a special interest. You start therapy. You learn about boundaries. You gain emotional intelligence. You grow. You overtake the neurotypicals around you. They are now threatened when you communicate your needs and boundaries calmly, openly and honestly. Most do not have the skills to reciprocate. You retreat from society and become a bog witch."

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· May 22

When people are trying to be subtly mean to you in your work emails but you're autistic and you don't do subtle

Alt: It's a hand-drawn illustration of what appears to be a pickle wearing knight's armour. We can see it's a pickle because it's wearing a helmet with the visor up. It has tall skinny legs and is holding a long sword that trails on the ground. The caption reads, "This email could have been a sword fight."

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Feb 23

Well this was loud

It's a screenshot of an Instagram post. There's text against a blurry image; the text reads, "What did joy feel like before someone told you, you were doing it wrong?"

There's a small caption at the bottom of the image: "Alice Bramhill / Nervous System Regulation and Joy. Reclaiming What Was Always Yours."

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Jan 29

I KNEW IT. WE WERE RIGHT TO HATE LEDS

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Jan 17

One thing that could have saved me some time is a visual like this. Credit to Dow Janes for this even though I wouldn't recommend paying them any money. IMO this graphic is the most valuable thing they have to offer & it's from their free webinar which is mostly a sales pitch.

Alt: It's a flowchart showing a series of steps to build financial health. It's arranged as a stack of 5 green blocks forming a pyramid. The bottom block, the first step, says "spend less money than you make." The next one up says "pay off high interest debt." The next one, in the middle of the pyramid, says "save an emergency fund". The next one says "save for retirement". The last one, at the top, says "invest".

There's a line weaving from the bottom of the pyramid to the top with an arrow, showing you should read the diagram from bottom to top.

The takeaway is that there is a foundation of financial steps to have in place before you start investing (or even saving significantly).

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Jan 7

Me, an autistic millennial, comforting my boomer mother because she works for a company that doesn't appreciate her experience & doesn't want her to have ideas or take initiative

It's the "first time?" meme. James Franco, wearing old timey clothes and a noise around his neck, is looking over at the camera and saying, "first time"? Standing next to him is an older man dressed similarly, also with a noose around his neck. They're standing on a gallows.

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Dec 30

Part 3!

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Dec 30

Part 2

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Dec 30

Made a video about autistic employees and whether we're "taking" accommodations away from those with high support needs. Sorry the video is terrible, I avoided this for years and this is my first time. It does have captions! Adding the video in 3 parts.

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Dec 27

I wonder if this is why I was such a quiet kid.

It's a screenshot of an Insta post from @hannahfrasermoore. The post is an illustration of a snowy field at night. In white text against the dark backdrop, it says: "Sometimes we stay quiet because the other person can't hear us." FYI there are a few more images in this post on Insta but I only screenshotted the first one.

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Dec 16

A month or two ago I learned that if I made a circular nest out of blankets on any surface (even an already pretty cozy bed!) Daisy would be like 30% more likely to settle down and take a nap. For a border collie, those are pretty great numbers, so now I'm making dog nests everywhere.

In a corner on the floor, a black and white border collie is curled up in a circle of blankets on top of a large dog bed. She is conspicuously resting her chin on the blankets.

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Dec 12

Currently re-reading

it's the cover of a novel by Lionel Shriver, "So Much For That".

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Oct 23

Here's the offending furniture (it doesn't look too bad in this light but it's very orng), here's a close up on what I think is damaged veneer, and here's the general concept of what I'd like to do with it - natural wood top & painted body or vice versa. Just weighing my options with the veneer!

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Oct 13

Oh boy oh boy it's time to repost the brassica chart This is the chart:

It's a diagram that shows many common cultivars of brassica oleracea (cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, kale, broccoli and cauliflower) with notes about the trait of the original plant that is exaggerated in each cultivar:"terminal buds" for cabbage, "lateral buds" for Brussels sprouts, "stem" for kohlrabi, "leaves" for kale, "stems and flowers" for broccoli, and "flower clusters" for cauliflower.

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Oct 1

Everyone knows if you're using a photo for an article on autistic people it's gotta be this happy fellow from the Wikipedia page

It's a photo of a toddler with light brown hair, wearing a red sweater and white/beige pants, stacking soup cans from an open cupboard in front of them. The stack of cans is almost as tall as they are.

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Sep 13

I NEED THESE

Alt: It's a screenshot of an Insta post from @.heysarahcarter. The post is a photo of a blue vintage car dash with beads hanging from the rearview mirror, and in the centre of the photo is a screenshot of a post from @.topaz_kell: "Transition lenses that keep getting darker the longer someone is talking to you."

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Aug 2

Are you an "out of sight, out of mind" ADHDer? Ikea has a desk with a drawer window so you can see what's in there without having to open it 😭

It's a product photo from the IKEA product page for the RIDSPO oak desk, showing a desk with a side drawer and a window in the top of the desk revealing the contents of the drawer.

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Jun 10

Wishlisting the "not to be removed from the library" t-shirt. Also eyeing the "I'm number 1" but the 1 is a D20 shirt.

It's a screenshot of a product page from OP's store, showing a white t-shirt with red text designed like a stamp that says "NOT TO BE REMOVED FROM THE LIBRARY"

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· May 29

Canadian media isn't perfect but that subhead is the first place I've seen anywhere in print definitively state the current status of the tariffs 🙌

It's a screenshot of a CBC article with the headline "Carney welcomes U.S. court decision striking down parts of Trump's tariffs agenda" and the subheader "White House appealing ruling, tariffs remain in effect for now" which perfectly answers my "now what??" questions

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· May 26

Ok! Diagram slide. I've been through a few different versions over the years. Onion diagrams are my favourite way to show the difference between root causes and appearances. Alt text added.

It's a slide depicting the onion diagram described above. The core of the onion is "Natural Autistic Differences: I was born highly sensitive to my environment, given to periods of deep focus, and with challenges prioritizing non-verbal communication and social subtext." There's a middle layer labeled "Trauma & Stressors: When I reacted or behaved naturally, or if I tried to communicate my needs, I was disbelieved or not understood." The outermost layer of the onion is "Masking: I made sense of the trauma by blaming myself, and I fixed myself by dissociating from my body and emotions to allow new, artificial behaviours." The slide header is "The Autistic Onion" and it also has some text that says: ""Is this because you're autistic?" Yes and no. Autism shaped my earliest experiences and is a foundational difference in my life. But there's to "this" than that."

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· May 18

Happy May long!

A cherry tree in full bloom, in a backyard with green grass and a wooden fence in the background. In the left side of the shot, you can see a black and white border collie standing on a deck above a set of stairs, looking above the camera with her mouth open in a doggy smile.

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Apr 18

TFW it's a holiday but no one sent your anxious dog the memo & she gets very upset when routines are not upheld so here we sit at our desk while she dozes peacefully

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Apr 7

I give you: www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1...

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Feb 27

Ontario is mostly bagged milk, Alberta is just cartons. It's wild to me too, you used to have to have a special milk bag holder. You'd drop a bag in and snip the top corner to pour. But I'm in Alberta now and I never see bagged milk.

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Feb 22

Behold! It's a small shelf from Amazon on a placemat, with a water glass, shaker cup and long scoop (it's a teaspoon/tablespoon scoop). The glass is sitting on a small plate, like for a teabag, that I drop my pills onto when taking multiple so they don't roll around. Cheap & fun to put together 😊

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Feb 7

When you say something totally normal & unremarkable and everyone laughs 👀

It's a .gif of the moment Beyonce won a Grammy. She's seated and looks around, startled, as the rest of the room applauds.

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Feb 2

Best maple syrup:

It's an Instacart screenshot showing a can of maple syrup illustrated with a rural-looking house and forest. It's labeled "Decacer Pure Maple Syrup" and priced at $11.96 (for now!!)

Victoria Duncan@victoriaduncan· Jan 22