Category: mental health

Children & Families, LGBTQIA+, Masking / Passing, Relationships / Bullies / FriendshipsLeave a comment
NeuroDivergent Rebel's The Weight of Normal by Lyric Rivera - a teal book with purple text and a pink brain, there is also a person holding a heavy boulder on their shoulders - cover text reads: Assimilate or Be Punished: A NeuroDivergent, Queer Memoir of Survival and Awakening in a World That Demands Conformity A Look at the harms and traumas of NeuroDivergent Conversion "Therapy" and other methods of forced assimilation.

My New Book (‘The Weight of Normal’) Is Out NOW – And I’m Nervous…

Lyric Holmans

Why I Self-Published My Most Raw Book Yet – How Our Community Can Launch a Book: The Story Behind “The Weight of Normal”
Continue reading My New Book (‘The Weight of Normal’) Is Out NOW – And I’m Nervous…

Masking / PassingLeave a comment
Lyric Rivera poses in their RV, holding up their latest book, NeuroDivergent Rebel’s The Weight of Normal. Lyric is wearing a black tank too with the words “Refusing assimilation into NeuroTypical society” and blue jeans, and they are smiling at the camera.

“You’re Too Smart to Be Acting This Way” & The Lifelong Harm of Neuronormative Expectations: What My ‘Gifted’ Label Actually Cost Me – A Late-Diagnosed Autistic Perspective

Lyric Holmans

My life with late-identified autism, healing from masking and forced assimilation, and learning about the neurodiversity paradigm, after being diagnosed Autistic at the age of 29.
Continue reading “You’re Too Smart to Be Acting This Way” & The Lifelong Harm of Neuronormative Expectations: What My ‘Gifted’ Label Actually Cost Me – A Late-Diagnosed Autistic Perspective

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A happy Lyric, lounging in a pool on a pink pool float as the sun sets behind them.

Rest Is Not a Reward. It’s a Right. – We Are Not Burnt Out. We Are Being Burned. – On Being Fuel, Instead of Being Fed.

Lyric Holmans

Planting a Neurodivergent Mind in Neurotypical Soil. – I Wasn’t Lazy. I Was Autistic and Burnt Out. What My Autism Diagnosis Taught Me About Rest. We reside in a world that encourages self-neglect, where rest is viewed as a reward … Continue reading Rest Is Not a Reward. It’s a Right. – We Are Not Burnt Out. We Are Being Burned. – On Being Fuel, Instead of Being Fed.

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Lyric, in the door of the travel trailer they and their partner David live in. They’re wearing a black shirt with grey sleeves and maroon pants. In the background is tall pine trees.

Beyond the “Cause”: What the Autistic Community Actually Needs

Lyric Holmans

In recent months, the Trump Regime’s “Make America Healthy Again“ (MAHA) movement’s main conversation around Autism and Autistic People has been about finding what causes us to be Autistic and how to “cure Autism,” or how to “prevent“ future Autism (how to stop more Autistic People from being born). Continue reading Beyond the “Cause”: What the Autistic Community Actually Needs

Masking / Passing, Relationships / Bullies / Friendships, Updates
Lyric, last year, deep in depression, with green hair and a black leather jacket.

Invisible & Drowning: My Negativity Was a Cry for Help – Toxic Positivity Kills: My Year of Being Told to Smile While Drowning

Lyric Holmans

When Your Rock Bottom Goes Unseen – Why Expressing Pain and Discomfort is a Disruption to the Status Quo and What Happens When You Can’t Fake Being Fine
Continue reading Invisible & Drowning: My Negativity Was a Cry for Help – Toxic Positivity Kills: My Year of Being Told to Smile While Drowning

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.

Substack
A selfie Lyric took recently. They’re in a black and white outfit and sitting in their RV, with their long hair down and smiling.

Society Trained Me to Swallow My Rage. My Autistic Self Said “No More.” – “Repression = Strength” Was a Dangerous Lie I Believed (Until My Diagnosis).

Lyric Holmans

The Forbidden Feeling: Why My Anger Terrified Me (And How I Made Peace With It) – The Cost of Swallowing Coals: How I Stopped Digesting Anger & Started Living.
Continue reading Society Trained Me to Swallow My Rage. My Autistic Self Said “No More.” – “Repression = Strength” Was a Dangerous Lie I Believed (Until My Diagnosis).