Category: Masking / Passing

Children & Families, Masking / Passing, SubstackLeave a comment
A black and white photo of two disabled children in strait jackets, chained to a radiator in a room with dirty walls and floors.

No, there aren’t suddenly ‘more Autistic people’ or ADHDers. We’ve always been here.

Lyric Holmans

It never fails, multiple times a week, when I share my experience of being Autistic or ADHD, some ignorant waffle feels the need to pop into my comments section with some sort of nonsense such as (but in no way limited to) “You’re not Autistic“ (or ADHD), “Everyone’s Autistic/ADHD or Neurodivergent these days“, “It’s all the chemicals in the food/air/water or the vaccines“. There is also the classic “We didn’t have so many people who are Autistic or ADHD in my day…. and none of it is true.

Just because you didn’t, personally, know any Neurodivergent people when you were growing up, it doesn’t mean we didn’t exist. Continue reading No, there aren’t suddenly ‘more Autistic people’ or ADHDers. We’ve always been here.

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

LGBTQIA+, Masking / PassingLeave 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. Sticky post

New Book! NeuroDivergent Rebel’s The Weight of Normal – Preorder NOW (Available 12/16/25)

Lyric Holmans

The Weight of Normal is a raw and powerful memoir of survival and awakening. It is an unflinching indictment of the systems of forced assimilation—the NeuroDivergent and Queer conversion “therapies”—that teach self-abandonment as a virtue. Continue reading New Book! NeuroDivergent Rebel’s The Weight of Normal – Preorder NOW (Available 12/16/25)

Masking / Passing
Lyric Rivera, posing in their RV in a neon teal tank top that reads “refusing assimilation into neurotypical society - NeuroDivergent Rebel” and purple constellation shorts. They are smiling at the camera and a black dog is sleeping behind them on the sofa.

“Let Them Choke”: My Rejection of Other People’s Comfort. I Refuse to Be a Bite-Sized Identity. – My Identity Isn’t a Monolith. Stop Asking It to Be & Why I Won’t ‘Stick to Neurodiversity’

Lyric Holmans

The Impossible Weight of Assimilation for People Who Can’t Blend in – Assimilation Almost Killed Me. Authenticity Saved Me. – For Me Assimilation Was a Slow Death. This Is My Rebellion.
Continue reading “Let Them Choke”: My Rejection of Other People’s Comfort. I Refuse to Be a Bite-Sized Identity. – My Identity Isn’t a Monolith. Stop Asking It to Be & Why I Won’t ‘Stick to Neurodiversity’

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