Late NeuroDivergent Diagnosis – Diagnosed Autistic at 29 – Reading my Autism Diagnostic Report

It was August 23rd, 2016, when I went in for the first part of my autism assessment, an in-person interview with myself and the person who would be reviewing my childhood history and medical records.

By the end of August, all of the interviews would be concluded, and by early September 2016, at the age of 29, I would be diagnosed Autistic.

At that point in my life, being almost 30 and having such a bombshell of a piece of information dropped upon me, I skimmed a 13 page (actually 14 page) diagnostic report, but was very overwhelmed, and couldn’t process the report in front of me. In fact, I threw the report into a paper shredder, and destroyed the report.

However, recently, more than five years later, I’m feeling more ready to face the information that was in front of me all of those years ago. Continue reading Late NeuroDivergent Diagnosis – Diagnosed Autistic at 29 – Reading my Autism Diagnostic Report

Things I Got in Trouble for Growing up as an Undiagnosed Autistic ADHDer

I didn’t find out I was Autistic until I was 29, and my ADHD wasn’t diagnosed until several years later, however, autism and ADHD are both lifelong neurodevelopmental differences.
This means I was Autistic and ADHD my entire life, growing up, as a child, and I will be Autistic ADHD, my brain will be the same, the day I die.
There were obvious manifestations of my brain difference as a child growing up, many of which were labeled as “behavioral problems” and dismissed, or I was constantly scolded for acting in a very Autistic ADHD way.
Continue reading Things I Got in Trouble for Growing up as an Undiagnosed Autistic ADHDer

LGBTQIA+ & Autism Medicalization Timeline – A NeuroQueer Conversion Therapy History Lesson

Up until 1973, psychologists and psychiatrists will still consider homosexuality to be a form of illness. It will be 1987, the year I’m born, before homosexuality will be completely removed from the DSM. Continue reading LGBTQIA+ & Autism Medicalization Timeline – A NeuroQueer Conversion Therapy History Lesson

Autism & Gender 101 – My Trans Nonbinary Autistic Experience with Autigender

Gender is a social construct and a social identity. Someone’s gender is determined by how they feel. An individual can feel more like a man, more like a woman, they can also feel like both, neither, or something in between.

According to one study that included 641,860 people: “people who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth are three to six times more likely to be autistic as cis-gender people.” Continue reading Autism & Gender 101 – My Trans Nonbinary Autistic Experience with Autigender

The Challenges of being Autistic in a NonAutistic World

Learning I’m Autistic has helped with some things, and made them easier. I am studying facial expressions and body language, to learn what some of that stuff means. I’m learning it in a very unnatural way, and I hear some people picked up on that naturally in life, which is hard for me to fathom… but I’m learning it.
I’m capable of understanding these things, it’s just like learning a foreign language to me. Some things, however, haven’t gotten any easier, because some things might be more difficult for some of us.
Continue reading The Challenges of being Autistic in a NonAutistic World

My Autistic Experience of the Human Communication Spectrum

Not knowing that I was Autistic for the first 29 years of my life, meant that I had a lot of miscommunications with other people, because I did not understand the differences in Autistic and non-Autistic communication, or the differences in human communication, and how my communications were often being misinterpreted by the people around me; and also how I was constantly misinterpreting what other people were trying to communicate with me, because I didn’t understand communication differences, and I assumed that everyone communicated like me. When you do this, it’s really hard to decode other people’s intentions. Continue reading My Autistic Experience of the Human Communication Spectrum

Autistic & NeuroDivergent Academic Exclusion & Oppression

For Autistic People, many of us are excluded from the right to having a proper education, whether that is because we are put into these “special autism schools” that keep us out of general education, or we are excluded from education in other ways.

I spent time in general education, special education, and even gifted and talented educator. None of my needs were accommodated in these classes, they were not tailored to my individual learning needs, and the school system was very traumatizing for me. I feel lucky I survived it.

Continue reading Autistic & NeuroDivergent Academic Exclusion & Oppression

We Don’t Have a Definition for Autistic Success Because We Only Talk About Autistic Struggles & Pain

Autistic people are so defined, especially by the medical industry, by our struggles, pains, deficits, and the hard parts in life. Often the joys, positive experiences, in our skills are completely ignored.

We don’t even, really, have a good understanding of what Autistic success looks like, because, by definition, Autistic People are often described by our failures. Continue reading We Don’t Have a Definition for Autistic Success Because We Only Talk About Autistic Struggles & Pain