Tag: autistic pride

Children & Families, Family, Masking / PassingLeave a comment
Young Lyric, with long black hair and a blank expression, was wearing a paper hat they had made, with a stuffed bulldog beside them as they stood in front of a bookshelf in their grandparent’s home.

Reaching My Breaking Point – I Used to Think My Detachment Was a Superpower. It Was Actually a Survival Skill.

Lyric Holmans

For much of my life, I felt like a passenger in my own body, but a few years ago, after reaching my breaking point when my grandfather and then our oldest dog Rocky both passed away within a few short weeks of one another, something inside me started to change rapidly.

Before that point, I’d been managing. Yet, this moment, holding my grandfather’s hand as they pulled the plug, and then doing the same with Rocky, as his kidneys failed soon after (when we decided the kindest thing we could do for him was to let him go), ended up becoming a tipping point (one that sent all of my carefully balanced dominoes tumbling down). Continue reading Reaching My Breaking Point – I Used to Think My Detachment Was a Superpower. It Was Actually a Survival Skill.

Masking / Passing, SubstackLeave a comment

I Had to Unlearn Shame to Find My Autistic Pride – They Told Me My Autistic Traits Were Flaws. I Know Better Now.

Lyric Holmans

Before I knew it was Autism, I didn’t have Autistic pride – only shame for my Autistic traits. Autistic pride is something I had to grow into. Here’s what changed. Continue reading I Had to Unlearn Shame to Find My Autistic Pride – They Told Me My Autistic Traits Were Flaws. I Know Better Now.

Substack, UpdatesLeave a comment
Cover of the book 'Autism, Identity and Me: A Practical Workbook to Empower Adults' by Rebecca Duffus and Lyric Rivera, featuring a colorful floral design. The book is available for pre-order and will ship in November 2026.

Why I Dreaded This Task… and Why I’m Grateful I Did It – Over 13 Hours, 390 Pages, and One Very Stiff Back: A Copyediting Saga

Lyric Holmans

I really think we have something VERY special with the Autism, Identity and Me Adult Workbook (not that the children’s workbooks or my other projects weren’t also special), because I could only have dreamed of having a workbook LIKE THIS ten years ago (when I was newly diagnosed as Autistic). Continue reading Why I Dreaded This Task… and Why I’m Grateful I Did It – Over 13 Hours, 390 Pages, and One Very Stiff Back: A Copyediting Saga

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A video game character with cat ears and a health bar above them that is mostly full. To their side is a gold plaque that says ‘level up’.

The DSM-5 Has No Language for an Autistic Person at Peace – The Medical Model Only Shows You Our Worst Days

Lyric Holmans

I like to describe my experience using a video game ‘health bar’ metaphor.

The non-autistic people around me, especially those with more proximity to neuro-normativity, live in an environment that is tailored to charge up their ‘health bars’, or to take less life force away from them. Continue reading The DSM-5 Has No Language for an Autistic Person at Peace – The Medical Model Only Shows You Our Worst Days

SubstackLeave a comment
“Ask Me Anything” Sessions with Lyric Rivera. One-to-One Conversations: Meet and connect in real-time. $75.00 USD for a private one-hour video meeting. Ask me questions, info-dump about your interests, brainstorm a project you’re working on, or get feedback on something. *Subject to availability and scheduling.

1-hour Virtual One-to-One “Ask Me Anything” Sessions are BACK!!!

Lyric Holmans

As of today, I am releasing spots for 5 people to book one-to-one “ask me anything” sessions (limited to the first 5 people who book via the link below) as part of a fundraising strategy to try and keep the Neurodivergent Rebel blog (and all the free educational content I create) open and available to the public. Continue reading 1-hour Virtual One-to-One “Ask Me Anything” Sessions are BACK!!!

Collaborations, SubstackLeave a comment

Human Binaries: NeuroDivergent and Queer – Coloring Outside the Lines Will Be Punished – Intro to my latest book, Neurodivergent Rebel’s, The Weight of Normal

Lyric Holmans

Human minds crave simplicity and easy, quick categorizations; that’s why many stereotypes and false assumptions about those in marginalized groups run wild in our dominant culture (because it’s easier for people to oversimplify by thinking in black and white while ignoring nuance). This creates a failure to appreciate people as individual humans, and pressure on everyone to fit within narrow, unnatural, binary norms and categorizations. Continue reading Human Binaries: NeuroDivergent and Queer – Coloring Outside the Lines Will Be Punished – Intro to my latest book, Neurodivergent Rebel’s, The Weight of Normal

Coworkers, SubstackLeave a comment
Photo of Lyric, with a freshly shaved head, and the long middle part pulled back. They are posing for the camera, giving a shoulder and a closed-mouth smirk. They’re also wearing a black tank top and posing in their RV.

The Mystery Sickness That Almost Killed My Career (Before I Knew I Was Autistic): The 6-Year Burnout – What Corporate America Did to My AuDHD Brain

Lyric Holmans

To cope with my differences before AD (before Autism Diagnosis), I managed my life by leaning heavily into my skills, strengths, and abilities, while avoiding my weaknesses like they were a deadly sickness (because I would often become physically unwell whenever I put myself under too much stress). Continue reading The Mystery Sickness That Almost Killed My Career (Before I Knew I Was Autistic): The 6-Year Burnout – What Corporate America Did to My AuDHD Brain

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.