What I Thought About Vortle As An Autistic Person. By Lydia Wilkins.

5 min readMar 2, 2022

Author: Lydia Wilkins — a journalist who covers disability and social justice issues for places such as The Independent, The Metro, The Daily Mail, Refinery 29, Business Insider, PosAbility Magazine, and other publications. Ambassador for AccessAble.

Can we just talk about this? When it comes to the sometimes controversial subject of mental health, not enough is being done.

In the UK for example, support services have been somewhat
decimated — and media reports often detail how individuals fall through the gap and/or other incidents.

We have all taken something of a hit owing to the pandemic when it comes to mental health — some more so than others — and we have all been collectively been somewhat let down since its inception.

If you are on the Autistic spectrum, you are also more likely to experience a mental health issue — although the statistics on that differ. Support, especially if you are in the UK, often does not cut it; there is also a lot of ‘backward’ attitudes in healthcare as well. We try our best to keep the gaps from opening too much.

Mental Health And Autism Needs To Be Talked About More — And We Need To Fill The Gaps

We very clearly need to be talking about Autism and mental health far more than we are already; arguably, the two should be taken into consideration simultaneously, such as if an Autistic person is going to be treated for a mental health issue. (Accommodations need to be made…)

Privately, friends have sporadically raised concerns to me — such as if I have been struggling — yet services are amiss where I live.

Vortle is in no way a substitute for any medical help, such as if you see a therapist — but if you need to quiet your mind or to just calm down and self-regulate, this is a brilliant app for that.

Be it the dreamy landscapes reminiscent of something you might find in VR, or a slow game of match-3, this is a tool — and one to make use of often.

Calm The Nervous System First Of All And Go From There

Speaking to a friend of mine recently, she had a really interesting take on the topic of Autism and self-regulation.

Rather than forcing people to comply with harmful practices, why not take a
different approach, such as in working to calm the nervous system through self-regulatory practices, in order to address what is seen as ‘problematic’ behaviours? She works with children — and the marked improvement in those she works with is substantial.

Calming the nervous system arguably ought to be taught to Autistic people — as it is effectively a self-regulation technique. Vortle arguably allows this to happen, and sometimes even quite quickly; it’s that itchy feeling, just under the skin, that makes you want to scratch. It’s the irritability, the on-edge feeling. Fiddling on-screen with the various figure-matching pieces and rotating them around was remarkably effective in bringing me back.

The colour scheme was also rather relaxing, just to look at — it was very, very satisfying.

Instructions?

As an Autistic person, I struggle a lot when it comes to instructions and information overload.

Unless the instructions are simple, clear, to the point, and relayed at a slightly slower speed than considered to be normal, chances are I haven’t a hope in hell of following through. (Or maybe half will be completed properly, total.)

I found the lack of instructions a little bit difficult to deal with at
first — practice does not always make perfect, despite what society has told me since a young age.
That imposed an impossible, Neurotypical standard I will never be able to reach — it’s in getting older that I have started to learn to let go of that idea and value. Vortle has been really useful for learning this.

At first, it was frustrating — but was also oddly cathartic
to try and learn how to operate particular levels and parts of the app.

The imposition of Neurotypical standards is difficult and arguably fruitless — it should not take an app to teach you this. We preach how we are all made perfect anyway — so be yourself, always — but platitudes like
that ought to be thrown out the window.

Thank you, Vortle, for reminding me of that.

Make Time And Incorporate This Into Self Care

Self-care is important. Beyond the Instagram platitudes we are all familiar with, thanks to a bygone era of influencers, we can all probably appreciate the sentiment — perhaps now more so than ever before.

However, this is perhaps easier said than done when you are on the Autistic spectrum; things such as executive functioning have to be taken into account, alongside routines, resources, and so much more.

I feel that Vortle perhaps represents an act of self-care — and one of the best on offer. It’s free, takes minimal time, is not at all disruptive at all, and offers something for a wide variety of Autistic individuals, across all parts of the spectrum. A pandemic has shone a spotlight on mental health, and how services, generally, are in a dire, terrible state; we have all felt the
effects.

Being kind to your mind needs an emphasis right now, and using this app is the way to go.

The Mind Needs Time To Quiet, To Self Regulate, At The End Of Each Day
The mind is a funny thing — and it needs to be taken care of.

Neurodiversity suggests that, fundamentally, we all have different brains — and that it is to our best advantage to treat each brain as it is and to use the assets and skills of that individual.

Make time for your mind, and set aside time to quieten down, wind down, if you can. This app is marvelous for that exact reason, especially after a packed and hectic day.

Self-regulation is perhaps my Kryptonite, having only just learned about what that meant in only the last 2 years, maybe.

The experiences of being in my shoes I always assumed to be normal — such as being wide awake, my thoughts not quieting down at all.
Maybe, now, there is at least a possible solution. All hail Vortle.

You can download Vortle now.