The missing generation is Autistic/NeuroDivergent adults, typically growing up in the 1990’s (or earlier) who were missed, not discovered to be NeuroDivergent as children. Continue reading The Missing Generations of Autistic People
Unfortunately, though I was excited to share this new, life-affirming information with others, MOST of the people in my life were NOT as enthusiastic, as my friend had been, when I attempted to share my Autism diagnosis with them. Continue reading Autism, Understanding, Rebirth, Disclosures, Loss, & Love
Something that we tend to agree upon, when talking about Autistic burnout, is that it is the result from having to force ourselves into a society that wasn’t designed to take our needs and considerations into account, whether that is our sensory processing differences, our differences in the ways our bodies move and the ways we communicate. Continue reading Autism and Burnout – My Experience With Autistic Burnout
I feel my emotions very intensely, and because of that intense internal emotional experience, sometimes that results in me having a very intense outward emotional expression, that can be seen by other people around me. Continue reading NeuroDivergent Emotional Differences – My AutDHD (Autistic ADHD) Perspective
As I’ve said, I’m openly Autistic, and I’ve been openly Autistic since I started this blog, almost six years ago now. At this point I can’t “put the cat back in the bag”, so to speak. It’s now forever out on the internet. If you Google my name, you will find out that I am Autistic, ADHD, trans, and all of these other details, that I can no longer hide from people.
That’s a real thing to consider, about being openly Autistic: how open do you really want to be?
While this has worked out well, for me, being openly Autistic does not come without some risks. Continue reading The Dangers and Risks of being Openly Autistic
I’m covering a reader question: “wondering if you could cover the topic of connecting with other people, and building friendships while on the spectrum.”
Something else that’s incredibly important, for me, as an Autistic Person, and my relationships with other people, is:
I need people in my life to be willing to accept me for the whole person, my strengths, my weaknesses, all of my identities, my Autistic traits, my me being a Queer Person. All of these things have to be okay.
The people in my life can’t be people who need for me to put parts of myself away, when I’m around them.
Continue reading Autism & Developing Authentic Relationships – My Autistic Experience
There are a lot of NeuroDivergent People who are discovering that they have brains that work very differently than many other people in adulthood, and late in life. This week I wanted to talk about why.
I was not labeled Autistic or ADHD, however, I was labeled stubborn, difficult, sensitive, rebellious, fussy. The list really goes on and on. I could do an entire video, just listing off horrible things I was called, because I didn’t know I was NeuroDivergent growing up. Continue reading Why are there SO MANY Late Diagnosed or Discovered Autistic and NeuroDivergent People???
NeuroDivergent masking is when a NeuroDivergent Person, either consciously or subconsciously, camouflages, or masks, their divergent traits in order to blend in or to appear NeuroTypical.
Now, when we talk about masking for NeuroDivergent People, whether that’s Autistic People, ADHD, Dyslexia, any other neurodevelopmental difference, it’s important to understand that this camouflaging, this blending in, this masking, is something that many of us do in self-defense. It can be a subconscious thing. Some of us are not even aware we are doing it.
It’s something we do for safety and self-preservation. It’s a survival skill that can be harmful to those of us who adapt this survival skill. However, being able to blend in, and being able to be invisible, in a society that can be unfriendly, and even hostile, to those whose minds work differently, is something that we do to be safe. It’s not intended to be a manipulative or deceptive bait and switch.
The thing about masking, as a NeuroDivergent Person is: I learned to mask, even though I didn’t know, I was NeuroDivergent. I learned to mask, even though I wasn’t in any formal NeuroDivergent Conversion Therapy type of a program. I learned to mask, because not having an autism diagnosis and a label growing up, meant a lot of the Autistic struggles I had were labeled as behavioral problems and punished. Continue reading Autistic and NeuroDivergent Masking, Unmasking, and Burnout
I’m an Autistic adult, and that means sometimes life, and the world around me, can be overwhelming. When I am overwhelmed, I may meltdown, or shut down.
People talk a lot about Autistic meltdowns, I think, because they are noticeable and can be more of an air quotes, “inconvenience on other people”.
A lot of people, who are not Autistic, might not understand what it’s like to shut down, as an Autistic Person, so I wanted to share that with you today. Continue reading Autism and Shutting Down – My Experience with Shutdowns as an Autistic Adult
Something else that’s really important, that I want everyone to understand about stimming, that I think is confusing to some people, who don’t have stimmy brains, is: how important stimming is, and how there are different types of stimming. NeuroTypicals all lump it in under one thing, in one definition. Continue reading Autistic and NeuroDivergent Stimming, Fidgeting, and Sensory Seeking