Category: Children & Families

Children & Families, Substack
Young Lyric, who believed they were doomed to hell, dressed as a black cat.

Religious Indoctrination of Children Is Child Abuse: Here’s Why I Won’t Apologize for Calling Religious Indoctrination Child Abuse.

Lyric Holmans

As a child, who was indoctrinated into the Christian faith, but struggled to believe what I was told “was the unquestionable truth,” I spent the first 11 years of my life terrified that I was going to hell (and was convinced that I was a bad person) because I couldn’t force myself to believe in Jesus and the Christian God (who I was told was the ONLY path to salvation and everyone who wasn’t a believer would go to hell). Continue reading Religious Indoctrination of Children Is Child Abuse: Here’s Why I Won’t Apologize for Calling Religious Indoctrination Child Abuse.

Coworkers, Family, Masking / Passing, Relationships / Bullies / Friendships, Substack2 Comments
A person wearing a box on their head that has a frown drawn on it.

Shutdowns and Unspoken Pain: The Weight of Repressed Emotions and Unmet Needs

Lyric Holmans

Isolated. Hurting… Ashamed. I’ve spoken about the reasons I feel that Autistic overloads are not that different from overloads in non-autistics in the past (on multiple occasions). Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about how much more I’ve been asked to “put away” … Continue reading Shutdowns and Unspoken Pain: The Weight of Repressed Emotions and Unmet Needs

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20-something Lyric, in a hot pink wig and patching hot pink outfit, hooping with a pink and purple hoop on their knee at one of the indoor Electro Circus events.

Leaving No Trace – Better Than I Found It: A Guiding Principle for Life – My Journey Toward Leaving the World a Better Place

Lyric Holmans

Leaving things (places, situations, people, the world) better than you found them and the personal growth and community involvement that comes with it.
Continue reading Leaving No Trace – Better Than I Found It: A Guiding Principle for Life – My Journey Toward Leaving the World a Better Place

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Breaking Free from the Critic: Learning to Love Myself and Others More Completely I realized many of the traits I'd "filed away" and deemed as "bad," "shameful," and to "never see the light of day" could be attributed to being Autistic (or other forms of NeuroDivergence I embody).

Breaking Free from the Critic: Learning to Love Myself and Others More Completely

Lyric Holmans

I realized many of the traits I’d “filed away” and deemed as “bad,” “shameful,” and to “never see the light of day” could be attributed to being Autistic (or other forms of NeuroDivergence I embody).
Continue reading Breaking Free from the Critic: Learning to Love Myself and Others More Completely

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My Autistic Experience With Eye Contact and Having My AuDHD Traits Treated Behaviorally In School

Lyric Holmans

My Autistic Experience With Eye-Contact: I don’t need to look at you to speak to you (or hear you) Growing up, especially in school, I was often scolded for “not paying attention” (regardless of whether I was actually paying attention … Continue reading My Autistic Experience With Eye Contact and Having My AuDHD Traits Treated Behaviorally In School

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Baby Lyric is obsessed with the buttons on the phone. They want to know HOW the phone works because it seems magical.

Autism and “Social Difficulties” – How Sensory and Motor Control Differences Can Make Socializing Difficult for Me as an Autistic Person

Lyric Holmans

Sensory obstacles are one of the biggest hindrances to my ability to communicate and socialize with others. There are a few reasons for this.

One way sensory things create an obstacle for me is that most social events are sensory nightmares by design.

Put a bunch of people in one indoor space, and it is almost always going to be more than my brain can handle (or if I survive it, I will then be exhausted and hung over – without touching alcohol).

If I turn down an invitation, people often take it personally, thinking I don’t want to spend time with them. Continue reading Autism and “Social Difficulties” – How Sensory and Motor Control Differences Can Make Socializing Difficult for Me as an Autistic Person

Masking / Passing, Mindfulness & Meditation, Relationships / Bullies / Friendships, SubstackLeave a comment
Lyric, standing on one of their favorite mountains, looking at other mountains. They’re wearing black and white shorts, and their bare back faces the camera s they face away. The RV they live in is on their right. In the foreground is white text that reads: I'm Polyamorous but I'm Also Afraid of Starting New Personal Relationships I'm on pause as I get to know my Self better - because that's a relationship I almost lost.

I’m Polyamorous but I’m Also Afraid of Starting New Personal Relationships

Lyric Holmans

I’ve made no attempts to keep the fact that I am Polyamorous to myself.  This particular facet of my identity is one that I’ve known about since middle school (when I first found myself attracted to multiple people at the … Continue reading I’m Polyamorous but I’m Also Afraid of Starting New Personal Relationships